Kennecott Mines National Historic Landmark

Kennecott Mines is an abandoned mining camp now located in Wrangell-St. Elias National Park and Preserve, the largest national park in the United States.  While the park was established in 1980, the townsite was not designated a National Historic Landmark until 1986 and the National Park Service did not acquire it until 1998.

The townsite overlooks the Kennicott Glacier, northeast of Valdez. It sits 4.5 miles up the McCarthy Road from the small town of McCarthy (see our prior blog entries).  The camp and mines were declared a National Historic Landmark in 1986 and are administered by the National Park Service.

After crossing the pedestrian footbridge into McCarthy, we were picked up by a shuttle from the Kennicott Glacier Lodge and driven up to the lodge, which is in the townsite of Kennecott.  (The proper geographic name for the glacier, river and related matters is, "Kennicott," with an "i," but due to a spelling error, the company that established the mine and town was named "Kennecott," with an "e," and so the differences in spelling were carved in stone for all time.

As we entered the townsite, we saw this arresting marker:

Kennecott had five mines: Bonanza, Jumbo, Mother Lode, Erie and Glacier, each located several miles from the townsite and mill. The Bonanza, Jumbo, Mother Lode and Erie mines were connected by tunnels. The Erie mine was perched on the northwest end of Bonanza Ridge overlooking Root Glacier about 3.7 miles up a glacial trail from Kennecott.  Ore from the mines was transported through the tunnels and then down a tram to the concentration mill at the Kennecott Town Site, where the copper ore was separated from the limestone in which it was embedded, and then hauled mostly in 140-pound gunny sacks on steel flat cars to Cordova, a port on the Alaskan coast, via the Copper River and Northwestern (or CR&NW) Railway (some called it the "Can't Run & Never Will" when it was originally conceived and built by the Kennecott owners), 196 rail miles away, as evidenced by the sign on the Kennecott Railway Depot in the photo below:

Here is a photo of the lodge, where we stayed:

Built in 1987, the Kennicott Glacier Lodge is a replica of one of the historic mining buildings from the copper mining boom town days.  Much of the original town remains intact, as it was abandoned suddenly in 1938 when the copper ore ran out and the company gave its employees only 24 hours' notice to board the last train out of town:

The town sits in a spectacular setting, with the Wrangell Mountain Range to the north (that's Regal Mountain, the source of Root Glacier, behind the stacks of the Kennecott Power House):

To the northwest, Mount Blackburn, the fifth highest peak in North America, presides:

To the west is the Kennicott Glacier (the tan basin of sandy waves in the middle ground of the photo below - tan because the ice is covered in gravel and rock debris), and, behind the glacier, Fireweed Mountain:

Far to the south is the Chugach Mountain Range, which lie outside the national park:

Kennecott's Power House employed three sources of power:  (1) hydroelectric power from a nearby stream to the extent it was available through a complex system of dams, (2) diesel power, from several large diesel generators, and (3) wood-fired steam power from standby boilers, used only when another source of power was unavailable:

Steam and electricity traveled to other buildings in the townsite through "utilidors" (pipes), built under wooden walkways.  This design kept the walkways warm and ice-free through the freezing winters.

Here's a photo of Kennecott's imposing steam boilers, which were, incidentally, manufactured in Erie, Pennsylvania:

Buildings in the townsite are in various stages of decay, stabilization, preservation or renovation, depending on the condition of each building when the National Park Service acquired the townsite. The building in the photo below is the machine shop and stacking shed, which, while it is not likely to be renovated, has been stabilized:

Here are two other examples of buildings that have not been restored (although you can see a bunkhouse in the process of restoration in the right background):

Ore traveled out from the mill and supplies traveled in by rail over a trestle across the creek in town. While the original trestle collapsed, this is a view of the new trestle reconstructed by the NPS - now a walkway for visitors:

On the hill above the mill buildings sit rows of cottages, many of which have been restored.  These were the residences of middle- and upper-management employees and their families, perjoratively referred to as "Silk Stocking Row."  The restored cottages now serve as private residences for NPS staff and other workers related to the townsite.

The most important and dramatic of the Kennecott buildings was the concentration mill.  We took a tour of the inside of the mill.  Its story is so complex and unique, we decided it should have its own blog entry, which is coming!