Mount Billy Mitchell

Mount Billy Mitchell, a 6,919-foot peak in Alaska’s Chugach Mountains near the Richardson Highway, is both a prominent landmark and a link to the territory’s early military communications history. It was named for William “Billy” Mitchell, then a lieutenant in the U.S. Army Signal Corps, who helped oversee construction of the Washington-Alaska Military Cable and Telegraph System after Congress funded it in 1900. By 1904, that vast network connected Alaska outposts including Valdez, Eagle, and Nome with each other and with Washington, D.C. The mountain’s glaciers, built by heavy snowfall over thousands of years, have retreated in recent decades despite the region’s continued wet, stormy climate.

Tonsina, Alaska · United States