The Abandoned Town Of Kennicott

Title

The Abandoned Town Of Kennicott

Artist

Jan Mulherin

Medium

Photograph - Digital Photography - Enhanced

Description

During our trip to Alaska, we ended up in Kennicott, which is withing the Wrangell–St. Elias National Park and Preserve. One of the attractions of the area, other than the glaciers, was the old copper mine. The history of the town and the mill was so interesting. The iconic view of Kennicott is the giant red mill building from the old Kennecott Copper Company, which stands 14 stories above the Kennicott glacier (the different spellings are due to clerical mistakes on official paperwork a century ago). Believe it or not, there are still tours through the dilapidated mill building. We had a tour guide that helped us explore the inside the actual building and taught us a lot about how the history of the area and how the ore was processed.

The Kennecott Copper Corporation lured workers to this isolated Alaskan mining camp with higher salaries than any mine in the lower 48 offered. Mill workers and miners lived in bunkhouses, worked 7 days a week and sent money home to their families. Between their hard work and the ingenuity of the founders, Kennecott Copper Corporation produced at least $200 million worth of ore, making it one of the world’s largest mineral companies. Profits were used to expand the corporation by investing in mines in Chile and the lower-48.

Over the years, this town grew into quite the little town. They had their own stores, tennis courts, basketball court, and a state-of-the-art hospital. While the workers slept in bunk houses, the upper management had their own homes and were allowed to have their families with them.

Despite all the initial success, the low price of copper during the Great Depression took it’s toll on the Kennecott Mines. By 1938, all known ore deposits had been depleted. The mines closed their doors, the railroad shut down, and Kennecott became a ghost town with only a handful of residents remaining. The residents were given 24-hours notice to pack their bags and leave. The town was left abandoned until the 1960's.

The keywords associated with this image are Kennicott, mine, copper, abandoned, mill, Alaska, Kennecott, ghost-town, landscape, national, landmark, and Jan Mulherin.

All photographs and artworks in this portfolio are copyrighted and owned by the artist, Jan Mulherin. Any publication, reproduction, modification, transmission, transfer, or exploitation of any of the content, for personal or commercial use, whether in whole or in part, without written permission from Jan Mulherin is prohibited. The images may not be copied, reproduced, manipulated or used in any way without written permission of Jan Mulherin. Any unauthorized usage will be prosecuted to the full extent of U.S. Copyright Law. All images on this web site are protected by the U.S. And international copyright laws. All rights reserved.

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September 20th, 2018

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