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History

From Copper Town to Ghost Town

by Linda Zajac

Unlocking an old mill

As I neared the old mill in the ghost town of Kennecott, my boots crunched on the gravel walkway. Corey Belt, a St. Elias Alpine Guide, slipped the key in the lock and turned the handle. The door groaned wearily as he unlocked the mill's once glorious past.

The mill was built when the United States was hungry for copper. As World War I raged on, the need for copper soared. In the booming years that followed, it was used for ships, trains, cars, pipes and wire.

From 1911 to 1938, Kennecott was a thriving town in Alaska. At one time, over five hundred people lived and worked there. Most miners were immigrants who settled there with their families. Back then, the red wood-framed mill operated around-the-clock tumbling, grinding, and crushing rocks. It was the heart and soul of the town—the reason it grew and prospered. In 1938, everything changed. From then on, the town was silent.

Today, the abandoned town is part of enormous Wrangell-St. Elias National Park. Historians there are studying, exploring, and rebuilding history. Visitors aren't allowed inside empty historical buildings unless they're on a guided tour.

I followed Corey inside the top floor of the towering fourteen-story mill. We passed the end of a cable line. From mineshafts high on the mountainside, miners loaded copper ore into buckets and sent them down by cable to the mill for processing. Once inside the mill, the rocks thundered down a metal chute.

Corey passed around a heavy chunk of Kennecott ore. While other copper mines churned out ore with tiny scraps of green copper, those at Kennecott had six times as much of the mineral. Some of the richest veins of copper ever found were layered in green cliffs high on this mountainside.

Corey led the way across the dusty creaky floor. We trudged down flight after flight of wooden stairs. This mill on the hillside contained the most up-to-date processing equipment available at the time. We passed rooms with large wheels for grinding, long tables for shaking, and fine screens for sifting. Day and night, rocks banged and clanged, smashed and crashed, tumbled and rumbled.

Corey grabbed a burlap sack and demonstrated how a mill worker stuffed it with copper. The sacks were piled into railroad cars. A railroad line transported the copper out of this remote mountainous area. The one hundred ninety-six mile track stretched from the mill to the port of Cordova, Alaska. From there, workers loaded the copper onto a steamship bound for a refining plant in Tacoma, Washington. Packed with copper, the first train left Kennecott on April 8, 1911.

For twenty-eight years, miners filled bucket after bucket with ore. During this time, the town had a post office, bunk houses, a general store, a power plant, a sawmill, a recreation hall, and a schoolhouse. The Kennecott hospital contained the most advanced medical facilities around. The town had everything it needed to operate on its own, but trouble was brewing.

Hard working miners chiseled at rock until they picked it clean. Cliffs once green with copper weren't green anymore. In 1929, the stock market crashed. The price of copper plunged to five cents per pound in 1931.

Owners of the mill notified the townspeople. They had three days to pack their bags. The town was shutting down. In November 1938, the last train out of Kennecott screeched to a halt. The town had thrived on a feast of copper. When the meal was over and the ridge near empty, the town was tossed away like the skeleton of a Thanksgiving turkey.

Outside, I gazed at the tired worn mill. During its glory days, nearly a million dollars of copper had rumbled through! Now, there was only silence as Corey turned the key.

The United States purchased Alaska from Russia in 1867, but little was known about the land. Prior Russian expeditions met disaster when they encountered the fierce Ahtna natives. In 1885, Lieutenant Henry Allen was selected for the dangerous expedition of exploring the interior of Alaska. Despite the risks, the U.S. Army instructed the Allen expedition to map the area and to report on the natives.

It was a challenging journey. They trekked over immense mountains, through icy valleys, and across raging rivers. After weeks of trudging through wilderness, the men located Ahtna Chief Nicolai's camp. Despite the warnings of danger, Allen and his men earned the native's trust. The chief revealed a secret stash of copper.

Later in 1900, explorers Clarence Warner and "Tarantula" Jack Smith spotted layers of limestone and greenstone. They marveled at magnificent green cliffs. Wealthy investors, J.P. Morgan and the Guggenheim brothers, got involved. They financed the construction of the railroad and the town so they could tap into one of the richest veins of copper ever.

Allen, Lieutenant Henry T. "Report of an Expedition to the Copper, Tanana, and Koyukuk Rivers in the Territory of Alaska, in the year 1885 made under the direction of General Nelson A. Miles. Second United States Cavalry." 49th Congress 2nd Session. Washington: Government Printing Office. 1887.

Balcom, Mary G. "Ghost Towns of Alaska." Chicago: Adams Press. 1965.

Belt, Corey. St. Elias Alpine Guides. Kennecott Historical Mill Tour. July 2, 2007.

Bleakley, Geoffrey (Park Historian). "Early Explorations of the Copper Basin." Lecture, K'elt'aeni: Visitors guide to Wrangell-St. Elias National Park and Preserve, 2007.

Dufresne, Jim and Aaron Spitzer. "Alaska." Oakland CA: Lonely Planet Publications. 2006.

Eppinger, R.G, Briggs, P.H. U.S. Department of the Interior, U.S. Geological Survey. "Geochemical Data for Environmental Studies of Mineral Deposits at Nabesna, Kennecott, Orange Hill, Bond Creek, Bremner, and Gold Hill, Wrangell-St. Elias National Park and Preserve, Alaska." 1999.

King, Robert E. "Alaska's Lewis and Clark Expedition." BLM Alaska Frontiers. Summer, 2004.

Medred, Craig. "Stabilizing State History." Anchorage Daily News. www.adn.com. July 1, 2007.

Molvar, Erik. "Scenic Driving Alaska and the Yukon." Guilford, CT: The Globe Pequot Press. 2005.

National Park Service. "Landmarks at Risk: Kennecott Mines West Bunkhouse, Kennicott, Alaska." Preservation Assistance Division. 1969.

Richotte, Megan. "A Link to History." K'elt'aeni: Visitors guide to Wrangell St. Elias National Park and Preserve. 2007.

Internet:

Alaska Historical Society.
http://www.alaskahistoricalsociety.org/index.cfm?section=Discover%20Alaska&page
=This%20Month%20in%20Alaska%20History&ContentId=23&viewpost=2

Bleakley, Geoffrey (Park Historian). "In the Shadow of Kennecott: The forgotten Mining Camps of the Wrangell Mountain Region."
http://www.nps.gov/wrst/historyculture/upload/Forgotten%20Mining%20Camps.pdf

South Central Alaska. http://www.alaskagold.com/copper/mcarthy/mcarthy.html

The Library of Congress. America's Story. http://www.americaslibrary.gov/jb/recon/jb_recon_alaska_1.html

The McCarthy Lodge. http://www.mccarthylodge.com/aboutarea.php

The National Park Service Wrangell St-Elias National Park. www.nps.gov/wrst/historyculture.

Photos: Courtesy Geoffrey Bleakley

Linda Zajac is a freelance science writer with a background in computer programming and systems design. Her work has been published in numerous national magazines for children. She writes literary nonfiction and focuses on cutting-edge science, technology, and biotechnology and how they are used to advance medicine, study wildlife and protect the environment. She lives in Connecticut with her husband and three children.

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