NORTH TO ALASKA 2025 - DAY 36 - TOURING KENNECOTT MINE AND LEAVING MCCARTHY

 Ahhhhh now for the next part of the charm of McCarthy. The whole reason for this town to exist, was because of the Kennecott Copper Mine that developed in the area in the early 1900s. The town grew to supplement the area in needs of a tavern, an inn, a brothel and a mercantile/grocery store in addition to the company store out at the mill site. It was on the railroad route between the crossing of the river and the Kennecott Mill so it was in a great location. 

As for the mill, it's picturesque facade perched on the side of the mountains, all in matching red buildings with white trim has always caught my eye. 

The copper itself is mined far away in the mountains many miles behind the mill. It is transported down to the mill in aerial tram cars or underground mine tunnels in little carts on narrow tracks. The biggest sections of copper were in almost unreachable places over the mountains. By building the mill here into the mountainside, they could process the copper down to its purest form, rather than sending it out clinging to limestone rocks. Instead, they leached out the limestone with some type of acid and were left with all pure copper to ship out in fabric bags on the train. It was quite a process and we were going to learn about it while wandering around the mill site.

So we got up early and left Nick all safe and sound neatly tucked into the motorhome. We went across the bridge and waited for the shuttle. We didn't want to waste the time walking all the way up into town to catch the shuttle there. It would catch us right down here at the end of the footbridge just as well.

We hopped on and chatted with the driver for a little bit. He brought us up into town to the mercantile, where we could buy the wristbands for the shuttle service to take us all the way out to the Kennecott Mine. The wristbands cost $15 each, but it allowed you to ride the shuttle in either direction as many times as you wanted. So we could come back to the motorhome for lunch and then go again in the afternoon if we wanted to.

The mill / mine area is located about 5 miles beyond McCarthy. We got off at the visitor center and took a typical tourist pose in front of this big metal sign.

Now it was time to get the lay of the land and figure out which building was what. There's only one road on the side of the hill with all the buildings on either side of the road. That's it. Back in the 1900s, this was their whole "world" to the people that worked here and their families who lived here.

First off, let me say we are perched by the edge of a huge glacier. 100 years ago this glacier was so tall you could not even see those mountains on the other side of the valley.  All of those gravelly peaks in the valley actually are melting glacier underneath. There is still ice under there, And the gravelly peaks are what's left behind as the ice melts.

The melting glacier sure leaves interesting landscape.

The history of the mine and the mill area is that because of declining profits and less of the high grade copper being mined, the company suddenly decided to close one day in 1938. 

They told all of the employees and their families that the last train out would be their final chance to leave the area. They were all out of a job with only a few hours notice. If they didn't get on the last train, they would have to fend for themselves and try to find a way back to any sort of civilization. 

Can you imagine the wild panic and crazy scrambling trying to gather what possessions you could and hop on the train?

So all of these buildings were left intact. Nothing was removed. It's like they just stepped off the job and that was it. Frozen in time. 

Someone was hired to start stripping the buildings down and taking things out but all they did was take the valuable stuff and leave. They never finished tearing down the buildings (thank goodness).

The National Park Service took it over in 1998. They have been slowly and painstakingly restoring the remaining buildings. A few of the buildings didn't make it. But it's amazing the efforts that they have put into restoring this historical landmark.

New roofs, shoring obstructions, and fresh paint have made a big improvement in the entire project.

Some of these smaller cabins have been restored and are rentable either for the season or by the week.

As we walked into the middle of the cluster of the buildings, we marveled at some of the structures that are still in pretty good shape. This large one here was a huge boarding house.

About 300 men lived right in the mill area to operate the facilities. Another 200 to 300 men were working out in the mines themselves. Some had families, others were single men. 

Steve noticed even the old knob and tube wiring tacked to the outside of the buildings. This is probably the way it was back then too.

Trying hard to imagine life in this simple little isolated area. Some people with families worked at the hospital, some worked with the store and inventory, others worked with the mill operations themselves. They had even built a school for educating the children.

We walked into the general store. The display was very interesting.  I was imagining myself as a young mother standing at that very same counter. Looking up high at the expense of enamelware pots and bowls. Wanting to have nice things, but on a limited income and not being able to afford them. There was even a sign addressing that issue on display. Talking about necessities versus luxuries. There were things like bolts of fabric or rubber galoshes. There were pillows and bedding. Things that any young wife would want to have to start out her family. But on the meager miners wages, I am sure these things cost dearly.

Most of this building was constructed in the early 1900s. Very similar cabinetry to our home that was constructed in 1914 in Chilton. Things like quarter sawn oak for cabinetry varnished with this color of stain. Even pull out bulk bins like the two that we had in our cabinetry.

I can imagine the store was a bustling place with bulk sales of goods as well as delicate little finery things that were precious and very expensive. 

There are guided tours that go way up inside of the buildings perched on the hill. This is the rock crushing system that helped grind down the large hunks of limestone with the rich copper attached to it. We opted to not take the tour all the way up inside and instead walked around ourselves with the brochure and the map on a self-guided tour.

This is the little railroad depot station in the foreground and behind it is the mine supervisors building. It is the nicest one there and has been added on to. The original part appears to be log, and later the rest of it appears to be the same tongue and grooved siding used throughout the other buildings.

Everything looks so bright and clean and well maintained. Kudos to the National Park service for getting it restored this far.

This building was the general store. I am sure it was the hub of busy activity and communication as well as socializing.  We walked through the many rooms and bins of the warehouse area for the general store. It was interesting to see what it took to keep this community of 600 people said, closed, and furnished with the basic necessities.  

About 25% of the wages were removed from the miners checks to pay for their room and board. I am sure anything they got from the company store was applied to their paychecks the following week. It must have been very difficult to get by.

The shambles of this next building are one that didn't make it and was not restored. This is where the sawmill was located. I am sure they brought in some finely milled lumber and timbers to get the buildings made, but the sawmill I think did the large timbers that were used for shoring up the mine tunnels out in the mountains.

Also, the building where the chemical leaching had taken place with strong acids was also in such disrepair. I don't think that one's going to be restored either. Thinking of the toxic chemicals that are probably embedded in the wood, maybe the park service felt it was best left alone.

I think about the families that were living here and existing in this remote community. I don't know the percentage of how many wives and children were here, but I can imagine arriving at this train depot with your only possessions in a few satchels or a trunk.

Inside the train depot, they had a display with a few of those old fashioned suitcase satchels, and a hammered brass metal trunk that we admired. I had one similar to it a long time ago that now resides in my daughter's cabin.

The Park Service is still working on these three buildings. The two to the rear are more boarding houses that serviced the men. The foreground building is the hospital. We remarked that it was rather large for a community of only 600. I bet there were a lot of mining accidents that needed treatment.

In between the buildings, a bubbling creek came running down and out through the town. I think this was a source of freshwater for everyone? It seemed to be centrally located and many of the residential type buildings were clustered around it.

Here's a close up of the superintendent's building and offices. We didn't go up in there because we didn't know if it was open for display. But this was also centrally located that they could see every train car going in or out, and everybody crossing the bridge. I think it was their center of operations. It was the nicest building of all of the structures  too.

We walked along in the narrow channel where the railroad cars passed through as they were being filled with the precious finished high grade copper. The structure above was the rock crushing machinery, and the pulverized crumbled copper came out the bottom in chutes.

We found small pebbles scattered about with a verde green covering that are oxidized copper.

It was very interesting to walk through this facility. I could only imagine the blood sweat and tears that went into creating it, operating it, and then leaving it behind.

Some of the buildings are being worked on so it is still a construction area. We picked our way through carefully. You can see here where things are being shored back up with heavy logs. I am sure it takes extreme effort and engineering experience to keep this building from falling down the hill.

The structure is over 100 years old, and it is wonderful to see it being restored. We saw no evidence of workmen at the time, but we did see supplies and materials housed in some of the buildings that were locked up.

Steve remarked that the beautiful red color has sustained all of these years probably because this is lead-based paint on all of the exterior wood surfaces. Red is a hard color to maintain, the pigment fades quickly in the sun. So mixed with the lead in paint, it could sustain the rugged temperatures, heavy snows and blasting winds.

In one of the buildings, they had a nice topographical display of where the mines were located, and their locations in relation to the mill area. One of the biggest deposits of the highest grade copper was the furthest away in what was called the Mother Load Mine. It was over the mountains and they had to transport the copper through underground tunnels or through a trolley system that hung on cables up high over the mountains.

Some of the machinery from the trolley system, or replacement parts, are still laying in front of one of the large maintenance buildings to this day.

It may have value as scrap metal, but by the time that you put in the expense to haul it all of the way out somewhere to sell it, it's not worth it. So nobody ever stole it! Lol

This side of the structure looks a little more rugged and original. Like I said, things are still being restored. I hope it gets taken care of before any more falls off of it. People go up and walk in there on the guided tours. I don't think I would want to.

This very neat building was the power plant. It's supplied all the power to run the mill as well as all of the electricity for the buildings. We found out that they ran the big boilers on fuel oil! So fuel oil was transported in on the railroad cars and filled into huge tanks behind this building

Inside of the building, I could only imagine all of the noise and the heat and the work it took to keep these boilers going.

Steve noticed the name Allis Chalmers stamped onto the side of this large generator unit. That company is located in Milwaukee Wisconsin. His grandfather worked there during the years that this was possibly manufactured. His grandfather was a welder. What a connection!

On the outside of the building, the four big boilers were connected to these huge smoke stacks. They are all wired up to make sure they don't blow over in the heavy winds. Steve noted that they had to be so tall to get proper draw or drafting, because of the winds coming down off the mountains. To work effectively they needed to be tall enough to pull the smoke and the steam away from the boiler to process effectively.

We wandered around back of the buildings and kind of looked at the rumble piles of discarded machinery or supplies from during the days when everything was still in operation. These big thick cables, we are thinking, belonged to the overhead tram trolley car system that brought the ore down to the mill. This hunk of cable is almost 2 inches in diameter.

There are spools of this cable, as well as hunks of leftover machinery, all piled along the back side of the power plant building. We found that just as interesting as the building themselves.

These are the heavy sacks that were used to haul the finalized copper on the railroad cars. These discarded ones out in a pile in the back have been covered up with gravel over the years, but you could see a few of them along the surface. I pulled one out to examine it. I could see where it had been repaired over and over again, with big stitches and heavy thread. Inside of one of the buildings I saw the industrial type sewing machine on display. I am sure that machine was used to repair these sacks. After so many uses, the sacks probably were no longer serviceable and tossed out back in a pile. Right where they remain to this day, 100 years later.

We had come to the end of the map. There were a few more cabins at the far end that were also available to rent. But it was time to turn around and head back through the mill site. 

I could feel the echoes of the people that came there with high hopes and dreams, and left with disappointment and frantic packing to get on the last train out when the mill closed.

I think that is the fascinating part about going through old museums or displays like this. Putting yourself in place of the people who worked there or lived there. Trying to imagine what their lives were like and how would you relate or cope or thrive in such an environment?

The isolation and limited contact with others from the outside must have been very difficult. I am sure the train rides back to any large city were extremely expensive and not to be taken unless it was deemed necessary. 

We worked our way back to the visitor center and caught the next shuttle van back down to McCarthy. From there we were brought to the footbridge and crossed over to where our motorhome was waiting, safe and sound along the bank of the river.

Inside, was our little sweet doggy. 

 He was wondering why we were gone so long and happy that we were back!

It was mid-afternoon. We were debating whether we should stay another day in the parking lot at Base Camp, or if we should start heading back on the arduous journey of 60 miles out to the main highway. It would take about 3 to 4 hours. Since it remains light well into 11:00 p.m., we decided that we might as well start driving.

On the way, there had been a beaver lodge that I had seen during our journey out to McCarthy. Steve was able to pull over a little bit so I could snap a photo.

There was also this very interesting school bus that was abandoned along the way as well. I had missed snapping a photo of it on the way in. That is one benefit of coming back the same route as you went in, so you can remember where else you want to take pictures on the way out!

We scrambled along the edges of these crazy crumbling hillsides. No guardrails so we were extremely careful on the way out.  But Steve held well into the middle of the road as he could. Most of the road is single lane wide anyhow.

After 3 and 1/2 hours, we could see the end of the route! Here was the chiseled out area of rock that we had started with 3 days before.

We made it! In and out on the famous McCarthy Road. We had no flat tires, no railroad spikes, no broken windshields, and nothing that so many people had warned us about.

Here is my very capable and careful driver Steveio. His best advice is to go slow, know the limits of your vehicle, and try and steer around the potholes, picking out the best route each time. Make sure your fuel tank is full, have extra tools on hand to change your tire if you need to. He was also prepared with multiple tire patch kits, a big enough air compressor to inflate the tires, and 3 windshield chip repair kits. Of course he had duct tape and wire ties along just in case... Lol

He did a great job keeping us safe and enjoying the adventure of exploring McCarthy and Kennecott. 

We headed back up on the highway between Chitina and heading towards Kenny Lake. We did run into some road construction, and had to wait a while before the pilot car came to guide us through among the machinery. They were working well into the evening. I think this was about 7 or 8:00 p.m. 

Another thing I had seen on our way south to McCarthy were these beautiful muskox in somebody's pasture. Their gorgeous coats were flowing in the breeze. People spin the wool from these animals, called quivet, which is some of the warmest wool there ever is for making socks or hats or mitts.

I wished I could have gone to sheer him, but with that face I think I better stay away?

On the video link below on YouTube I actually have them in a short clip where you can see the breezes blowing their lovely coats.

We made it back to Kenny Lake. This is the place we had fueled up and stocked up on our way out to McCarthy. We knew they had campsites to pull into overnight, as well as laundry facilities. We needed to catch up on that too. So we pulled in for the night and paid for a site.

It was $45 for a full hookup site, but it would also be including our tank dumping in the morning as well as freshwater fill up. We had paid $15 and $5 respectively for those services on the way down a few days ago. So I suppose the price for the campsite really could be considered $25? 

We also stocked up on some groceries from their cute little store, did up our laundry, and filled our propane at the same time. One stop shopping.

Here's the video on YouTube that corresponds with today's adventures. I know we will watch this over and over after our trip is long done. It will be one of those precious memories of something we did on this Alaskan Adventure. We will be 90 years old, watching this video, and remembering what fun we had over the last 3 days.

87 Miles traveled today 

4,012 Miles traveled so far