Edge of McCarthy

Hidden deep in the wilderness of eastern Alaska is the toughest town in America: McCarthy. Once considered to be the state's very own "Sin City," McCarthy is now an isolated town - a refuge for people who don't want to be found, surrounded by extreme wilderness. While some believe in continuing the town's frontier way of life, others feel the future of McCarthy depends on dragging itself into the modern age. Which way of life will reign supreme?

About Edge of Alaska - Discovery Channel

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On Monday, July 11, 2016, we checked into the Kennicott Glacier Lodge and took a shuttle van into McCarthy. Having seen a few episodes of Edge of Alaska on the Discovery Channel, we were curious about this "isolated" town. The fact that it was so close to Wrangell-St. Elias National Park was a bonus. Our first stop was the Visitor's Center located in the old CR&NW train station.

The museum is filled with lots of artifacts from the early days of both McCarthy and Kennecott. It is really hard to separate one town from the other. McCarthy was founded in 1906 by John Barrett for the purpose of leasing land to the railroad and encouraging businesses to support the rich Kennecott Copper Mine just five miles up the road. By 1916, McCarthy had a population of over 1,000 people and dozens of shops like Watsjold Groceries & Meat and Hardware.

In 1938, when the mine closed, McCarthy almost folded as well. We were curious to see which buildings survived. With walking tour map in hand, we set out to discover McCarthy. The grocery store in the above photo is still standing.

When Kennecott Copper decided to close the mine, it gave the workers and their families just 24 hours notice to get ready to leave on the last train. There would be no more trains as they pulled the tracks up on their way out. Large items like this train turntable were just abandoned.

Much of the town has an abandoned look. Many items have been repurposed. If a truck no longer runs, turn it into a planter.

We took a stroll down Kennicott Avenue to the banks of the McCarthy Creek. In this area, nothing remains where once a dozen cabins lined the river bank. This area was McCarthy's Red Light District. Locals just called it the "The Row." Prostitution was a very lucrative business in McCarthy. There were over 200 single miners in Kennecott. "McCarthy Rose" Silberg saved over $20,000 in cash before being murdered by her ex-boyfriend.

The population of McCarthy and Kennecott fell to almost zero until the 1970s, when the area began to draw young people from the many who came to Alaska in the '70s for adventure and the big money of the Trans Alaska Pipeline project. In the '80s, after the area was designated Wrangell-St. Elias National Park, it began to draw some adventurous tourists to the new national park. The few people that lived in McCarthy began to provide a variety of tourist services. St. Elias Alpine Guides took over an old power plant building.

Wrangell Mountain Guides have their own vegetable gardens.

Neil Darish, the star of Edge of Alaska, is the unofficial mayor of McCarthy. He moved to McCarthy 15 years ago with dreams of restoring the small town to its former glory. Neil has spent years buying property after property in downtown McCarthy and laying plans to bring this ghost town into the 21st century. Some folks feel he is turning the town into Disneyland.

 Here is one of Neil's properties - Ma Johnson's Hotel.

Here are three more Darish properties - The Golden Saloon, The McCarthy Lodge and Mountain Arts Gifts.

Mr. Darish also owns the Lancaster's Hotel, McCarthy Center Grocery & Hardware Store and Nugget Liquors. If you think about it, Mr. Darish isn't doing anything different than old Mr. Barrett who founded the town to service the mine and miners of Kennecott. Instead of miners, Mr. Darish plans to make his fortune servicing the tourists visiting the Kennecott Mine National Historic Landmark. But the real question we have is, where did the traffic light go?

We all know that reality TV is not real. But we honestly thought that McCarthy was an isolated town that you could only reach by walking over a pedestrian bridge. They never tell you about the private car bridge that residents use. The McCarthy Airport handles dozens of flights a day. The folks that live in McCarthy have access to cell phone and internet. When the mail plane lands twice a week, it is usually filled with packages from Amazon Prime!

We finished our tour of McCarthy with a cold beer at The Potato. When we left, Happy Hour was in full swing with all the guides and adventure seekers reminiscing about their adventures and planning tomorrow's outings.

Speaking of which, we have a glacier hike to get ready for. Stay turned.