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We all know about the Kennecott mine in Utah but did you know there is one in Alaska also?
This Kennecott mine is located in McCarthy, Alaska which is Southcentral Alaska.
It is 322 miles to McCarthy from Anchorage and 4.5 miles from McCarthy to Kennecott.
A decent roadtrip indeed with wonderful scenery.
NAME OF KENNICOTT:
The name Kennecott was named in honor of Major Robert Kennicott, his named was misspelled
and now both spellings are considered correct.
MINE OF KENNECOTT:
In the summer of 1900 two prospeters named Clarence Warner and Jack Smith discovered
a large green spot on the mountian side that turned out to be one of the richest
deposites of copper ore ever found! The two men sold their clam to a 28 year old
mining engineer from New York named Stephen Birch. He then turned the mountian into
one of the world's largest mining opperations.
Along with building the mine and mill works the corperation constructed
196 miles of railroad from Kennecott to Cordova. They also made a steam ship line to
Tacoma, Washington for the ore to be processed.
The railroad was jokingly named Can't Run and Never Will. It faced many challenges during its
contruction such as huge rivers crossings, swamps, ravines, and of course 50 below working conditions
and mosquitues. (All of these problems where later faced by the pipeline.)
A large crew was required to maintain the railroad and the largest rotary snow plows in the world just to clear the tracks.
The total cost of the railroad was about $20million.
The fist shipment was in 1911 and the last was in 1938. The mine opperated 24/7 365 days a year
and shipped 600,000 tons of copper and 9,000,000 ounces of silver out. The whole cost of construction
were covered by the silver and gold recovered in the same deposites of copper, thus making the total
profit just from copper!
Kennecott stands 14 stories tall and has over 80 miles of underground tunnels!
The copperation employed over 600 people, 300 of them worked in the mill where they crushed, sorted,
and shipped. The town of McCarthy became the station of the railroad turnaround. Kennecott's mine
site did not allow drinking or gambling, therefore McCarthy was popular almong the miners. No church
was ever established but they did have resturants, pool halls, saloons, a red light district, garage,
shoe shops, dress shops, all to provide severice to more than 800 people.
Due to the falling prices of copper Kennecott couldn't stay in bussiness, so they closed
up shop in 1938 leaving everything behind expect for the train. Some people stayed in McCarthy
but many left on the train. The mine then became a 'hardware' store for the remaining
individuals taking everything from windows to doors to mining equipment savonnerie.
Someday Stuart and I will take a trip to McCarthy and we will tell you of our eppic journey or
come with us if you are indeed a true Mojave.
Sources:
This Kennecott mine is located in McCarthy, Alaska which is Southcentral Alaska.
It is 322 miles to McCarthy from Anchorage and 4.5 miles from McCarthy to Kennecott.
A decent roadtrip indeed with wonderful scenery.
NAME OF KENNICOTT:
The name Kennecott was named in honor of Major Robert Kennicott, his named was misspelled
and now both spellings are considered correct.
MINE OF KENNECOTT:
In the summer of 1900 two prospeters named Clarence Warner and Jack Smith discovered
a large green spot on the mountian side that turned out to be one of the richest
deposites of copper ore ever found! The two men sold their clam to a 28 year old
mining engineer from New York named Stephen Birch. He then turned the mountian into
one of the world's largest mining opperations.
Along with building the mine and mill works the corperation constructed
196 miles of railroad from Kennecott to Cordova. They also made a steam ship line to
Tacoma, Washington for the ore to be processed.
The railroad was jokingly named Can't Run and Never Will. It faced many challenges during its
contruction such as huge rivers crossings, swamps, ravines, and of course 50 below working conditions
and mosquitues. (All of these problems where later faced by the pipeline.)
A large crew was required to maintain the railroad and the largest rotary snow plows in the world just to clear the tracks.
The total cost of the railroad was about $20million.
The fist shipment was in 1911 and the last was in 1938. The mine opperated 24/7 365 days a year
and shipped 600,000 tons of copper and 9,000,000 ounces of silver out. The whole cost of construction
were covered by the silver and gold recovered in the same deposites of copper, thus making the total
profit just from copper!
Kennecott stands 14 stories tall and has over 80 miles of underground tunnels!
The copperation employed over 600 people, 300 of them worked in the mill where they crushed, sorted,
and shipped. The town of McCarthy became the station of the railroad turnaround. Kennecott's mine
site did not allow drinking or gambling, therefore McCarthy was popular almong the miners. No church
was ever established but they did have resturants, pool halls, saloons, a red light district, garage,
shoe shops, dress shops, all to provide severice to more than 800 people.
Due to the falling prices of copper Kennecott couldn't stay in bussiness, so they closed
up shop in 1938 leaving everything behind expect for the train. Some people stayed in McCarthy
but many left on the train. The mine then became a 'hardware' store for the remaining
individuals taking everything from windows to doors to mining equipment savonnerie.
Someday Stuart and I will take a trip to McCarthy and we will tell you of our eppic journey or
come with us if you are indeed a true Mojave.
Sources:
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