Andrew Holman was its first resident, establishing a temporary roadhouse near the site in July 1898 to provide shelter for prospectors on their way to the Klondike.

He initially erected two tents: one served as Hotel Holman and the other as a makeshift post office.

Leaving Dick Worthman to run the roadhouse, Holman pioneered the first mail route from Valdez to Eagle.

The area got a boost as a goldfield service center in June 1898, when B. F. Millard brushed a trail from there to the mouth of the Slana River via the foothills of Mt.

The east bank site of Old Copper Center apparently was settled in 1901 1902 by prospectors intent on investigating mineral prospects on that side of the river.

Its days as a mining center were short lived, but it did draw a Native population and existed for many years as a village.

A telegraph station and the trail's first official post office opened in 1901, with Ringwald Blix serving as the community's first postmaster.

The next year, John McCrary staked a homestead about a mile north of the Klutina River crossing.

Florence "Ma" Barnes acquired Hotel Holman in 1922, and renamed it the Copper Center Roadhouse and Trading Post.

According to the United States Census Bureau, the CDP has a total area of 13.7 square miles (35 km2), all of it land.

Proximity to the ocean allows moderated temperatures enough that record lows aren't all that extreme, save for December, January, and February.