Kennecott, Alaska: The Copper Town Left Standing in the Mountains

In the summer of 1900, two prospectors in the Wrangell Mountains of Alaska spotted green streaks on the cliffs high above a glacier. The green was copper, part of one of the richest copper deposits ever found. The deposit drew the attention of two of America's wealthiest families, the Morgans and the Guggenheims. Their syndicate bought the claims and built the Copper River and Northwestern Railway, 196 miles of track through the mountains and across glaciers and rivers to the port of Cordova. In 1911, the first shipment of ore went out by train. The mine company's name, Kennecott, came from an early misspelling of the nearby Kennicott Glacier. The mining town grew beside the glacier, with the mines higher up on the mountains above. At the center stood a huge timber mill building 14 stories tall, painted red, where ore was crushed and concentrated before shipment. Kennecott was a company town, with a hospital, a general store, a school, a skating rink, a tennis court, a recreation hall and a dairy. At its peak, it employed 500 to 600 men. Drinking and gambling weren't allowed, so a separate town, McCarthy, grew up about 5 miles away to provide them. The richest ore didn't last forever. In 1925, a company geologist predicted that the high-grade ore bodies would run out. Copper prices fell during the Depression, and the operation shut down temporarily in the early 1930s. The Glacier Mine closed in 1929, the Mother Lode in July 1938, and the last three, Erie, Jumbo and Bonanza, in September 1938. In its run, Kennecott produced about $200 million worth of copper. On November 10, 1938, the last train left Kennecott. Most of the town's residents left with it, though one family stayed behind as watchmen, and the railroad was soon abandoned. Because the site was so remote, nearly everything was left behind: the mill, the houses, the bunkhouses, even the machinery. For decades, Kennecott sat almost untouched in the mountains. In 1986, it was designated a National Historic Landmark, and in June 1998, the National Park Service bought the mill town and much of the surrounding land. Today, the red buildings still stand on the mountainside above the glacier, and the Park Service is stabilizing and restoring them.