The Abandoned Town Of Kennecott Alaska

Jan Mulherin

#183 of 770

The Abandoned Town Of Kennecott Alaska Photograph

Jan Mulherin

Leeds, ME

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Title

The Abandoned Town Of Kennecott Alaska

Artist

Jan Mulherin

Medium

Photograph - Digital Photography-enhaced

Description

During my trip to Alaska, my husband and I ventured into Kennecott, Alaska to see the abandoned mine and ghost town. I was amazed that they allowed us to take a tour through the dilapidated old mine. The history of the area is extremely interesting.

Kennecott, also known as Kennicott and Kennecott Mines, is an abandoned mining camp in the Valdez-Cordova Census Area in the U.S. state of Alaska that was the center of activity for several copper mines. It is located beside the Kennicott Glacier, northeast of Valdez, inside Wrangell-St. Elias National Park and Preserve. The camp and mines are now a National Historic Landmark District administered by the National Park Service. It was declared a National Historic Landmark in 1986.

Kennecott had five mines: Bonanza, Jumbo, Mother Lode, Erie and Glacier. Glacier, which is really an ore extension of the Bonanza, was an open-pit mine and was only mined during the summer. Bonanza and Jumbo were on Bonanza Ridge about 3 mi (4.8 km) from Kennecott. The Mother Lode mine was located on the east side of the ridge from Kennecott. The Bonanza, Jumbo, Mother Lode and Erie mines were connected by tunnels. The Erie mine was perched on the northwest end of Bonanza Ridge overlooking Root Glacier about 3.7 mi (6.0 km) up a glacial trail from Kennecott. Ore was hoisted to Kennecott via the trams which head-ended at Bonanza and Jumbo. From Kennecott the ore was hauled mostly in 140-pound sacks on steel flat cars to Cordova, 196 rail miles away on the Copper River and Northwestern Railway (CRNW).

In 1911, the first shipment of ore by train transpired. Before completion, the steamship Chittyna carried ore to the Abercrombie landing by Miles Glacier. Initial ore shipments contained "72 percent copper and 18 oz. of silver per ton.” In 1916, the peak year for production, the mines produced copper ore valued at $32.4 million.

In 1925, a Kennecott geologist predicted that the end of the high-grade ore bodies was in sight. The highest grades of ore were largely depleted by the early 1930s. The Glacier Mine closed in 1929. The Mother Lode was next, closing at the end of July 1938. The final three, Erie, Jumbo and Bonanza, closed that September. The last train left Kennecott on November 10, 1938, leaving it a ghost town.

From 1909 until 1938, except when it closed temporarily in 1932, Kennecott mines "produced over 4.6 million tons of ore that contained 1.183 billion pounds of copper mainly from three ore bodies: Bonanza, Jumbo and Mother Lode." The Kennecott operations reported gross revenues above $200 million and a net profit greater than $100 million.

In 1938, Ernest Gruening proposed Kennecott be preserved as a National Park. A recommendation to President Franklin D. Roosevelt, on 18 Jan. 1940 for the establishment of the Kennecott National Monument. went nowhere. However, on December 2, 1980 saw the establishment of the Wrangell-St. Elias National Park and Preserve.

(Wikipedia)

The keywords associated with this image are Kennecott, Kennicott, mine, ghost town, Blackburn, mountain, mountains, Wrangell-St. Elias, park, preserve, Alaska, and Jan Mulherin.

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