Well, first things first, big thanks to our friend Bob! We’d have never known about McCarthy or Kennecott if it weren’t for Bob’s crazy motorcycle trip, and telling us about it. We didn’t experience Wrangell Elias the way he did with cramp-ons and ice axes, but none-the-less had a great time learning some Alaskan history.
On our way back North from Valdez, we made a right turn and went to Chitina. We camped there, with amazing views of the edge of the largest NP in NA (13 Million Acres!). The next morning we loaded the jeep (actually unloaded first, then re-loaded) for our first “roadtrip within a roadtrip”. We drove 60 miles from Chitina to McCarthy in the jeep. This road is notoriously bad, and we’d been warned by folks we’d met already. It was rough and bumpy the first 5 miles and the last 10 miles or so, but otherwise pretty good. Amazing views, especially given the fall colors popping out now. One sort of damper was our jeep clutch started sounding like a worn out serpentine belt (very loud screeching), but we made it.
So, a bit of history… it turns out McCarthy is not really the main attraction to this area. It all started when a couple of prospectors went to a trade post in SE Alaska and saw Tlingit indians there trading beautiful copper made goods. Evidently, the Indians were not known to be big miners, so the prospectors had to ask “where’d you get this stuff?!” (I’m sure they played it cool at the time). I guess the answer was honest and detailed enough, that within a year the prospector’s were able to find the place. What they found was the single greatest source of grade A copper ever. They built a cabin, applied for a homestead claim, and went in search of investors.
The search took them to a newly graduated ivy league engineer named Steven Birch. Birch was naive enough to take on the task of designing the mine, and had rich neighbors. The rich neighbors got some other rich friends together (the Morgans of JP Morgan and the Guggenheims), and they started the Alaskan Syndicate which provided the 1 million in seed money required to start mining. They were able to mine enough silver to fund most of the rest of the construction of the copper operation. Depending on who you ask, they grossed between 100 and 300 million dollars (this is early 1900’s), in today’s money more like 2-6 Billion. According to our guide, the two original propectors were sqeezed out and didn’t get a dime. (after 5 years in court, they were unable to beat the fact that the judge was in the syndicates back pocket).
At any rate, once the grade A copper ran out, and the price of Copper dropped, the closed the mine and left it pretty much as it was.
Once they got tired or fighting all of the injury lawsuits, the syndicate donated the mine to the Park Service.
Birch had rules, and two of them contributed to high turn-over in the ranks: you can’t have your family with you, and you can’t drink liquor. As a result, enterprising minds got together, and founded the city of McCarthy, 5 miles down the road from the Kennecott mine. Here, hardworking minors could spend their $5.50 per shift on booze, gambling, and women! It was a raging success. In fact, it improved turn-over so much, Birch even secretly funneled money back into McCarthy.
So you have a really cool “deserted” Copper Mine, in the middle of nowhere, and a ghost town 5 miles down the road from nowhere. Today, if you live in McCarthy, you can pay to use a private bridge to bring cars over, but tourists can only arrive on foot. (or as Bob did via hand-operated trolly).
We parked our car at the foot bridge, walked across the bridge and up the hill 1/2 mile to McCarthy. The next shuttle was in about an hour. McCarthy was pretty cool, but mostly closed, so we did what we normally do, we ate granola bars, the kids found some dogs to pet and play fetch with. Kim engaged anyone she could find with her smiling, inquisitory banter. I looked for coffee, failed, found a bench and sat down.
After Kat wore out two dogs and started fetching her own stick, we got the bus and arrived in time for the 3:30 mill tour. We got lots of stories and history from our guide. We also were able to tour a bunkhouse, and the powerplant. Got some great pictures, and we could really feel this history of the place.
After the tour, we grabbed the last shuttle back to the bridge, and went to stay the night at the “large” cabin Kim had rented. I put large in quotes, because it was a one room cabin, which was actually quite nice and cozy, but it was only large in comparison to a couple of the “Apen Meadows B&B”‘s other cabins. It was great to do something different, but Kim and I actually missed the RV a bit (mostly having our own bedroom and a bathroom).
The next day, we drove back to Chitina, loaded up the RV, and drove to Tok. We all really enjoyed visiting McCarthy and the Kennecott mine. The kids LOVED the cabin, and were so excited to stay there. I’m haunted by the idea that the prospectors didn’t get any of the money (and I guess that they kind of screwed the indians too for that matter). I plan to research this story soon to learn more.
Here are pics from this great adventure. Thanks again for the reco Bob!
