McCarthy and Kennecott (Wrangell St. Elias National Park)

From Valdez, we headed into Wrangell St. Elias National Park via the Edgerton Highway. This 93-mile highway leads past the town of Chitina, where Alaskan residents are allowed to dip net for salmon along the river. After Chitina, the road becomes gravel and the real adventure starts. The highway follows an old railroad grade. The guide books say to watch out for old railroad spikes in the roadway.

Old Railroad Next To Road

The railroad was put in to access the cooper mine in Kennecott, six miles farther than you can drive today. Seems some prospectors found the mother load of cooper ore in the vicinity. While they began to develop the mine and all the associated necessities, the railroad was being built along the Cooper River from Cordova on the sea coast.

Copper River

This photo is of a crazy railroad bridge on the Edgerton Highway, over the Gilahina River. We later found out this bridge only took 9 days to complete.

Another Crazy Bridge Along Road

The present day road ends one mile away from the town of McCarthy. McCarthy is about five miles away from Kennecott. In order to reach McCarthy you must walk the mile into town. This requires you to cross two foot bridges.

McCarthy is a fun little town made up of many people our age. Most of them were guides who take people into the wilderness via glacier hikes, rafting or backcountry hiking trips. We had a great time meeting new people and drinking some beer in the local saloon.

Lodge and Saloon in McCarthy

From McCarthy, you can hike the remaining 5 miles to Kennecott. Kennecott is where the actual mining operation was located. Now it is home to just a few year round locals. The National Park Service bought a bunch of the buildings and is in the process of restoring many of them. We got there too late to go on a guided tour. Instead we ran into a guy we met at the bar and he gave us a personal guided tour inside many of the buildings that are closed to the public.

Dave Walking the Road to Kennecott

It was very interesting to see all the work that went into creating this operation. The mine was open 1911 – 1938 and some of the purest copper ever mined came out of it. Everything about Kennecott was massive. One building is 14 stories tall. They had their own power plant, hospital, school, saw mill and bunkhouses. Today most of the buildings are still standing, while others, like the saw mill, were a pile of rubble.

Concentration Mill Building (14 Stories Tall)

Restoration Evidence

Everywhere you walked there was evidence of the mining operation. The locals call this accumulated stuff “Kenne-crap.” It was all over, shovels sticking out of the earth over here. Old ore buckets over there. Seems the old timers just threw their garbage near the nearby glacier. As a result there is a big pile of rotted out metal containers and other misc. stuff. People walk down there and pick through it. Weird.

Example of Kennecrap

After the tour we caught a ride down in the back of a guide’s pickup. As we sat in the back with the wind in our hair looking out at the Wrangell Mountains and the Root Glacier, we wondered “Can life get any better?” We will be back to McCarthy/Kennecott. Let’s hope it doesn’t become any more commercialized because it is just wonderful as it is.