Nestling under the glaciers of the Wrangell St. Elias National Park, the once busy copper mining town of Kennecott is still amazingly preserved. McCarthy was it’s racier neighbour.  Both can be reached via the McCarthy Road, which follows the route of the old railway line which once carried away the ore.

Just for a change, it was the discovery of copper, not gold that built Kennecott, but either way there were riches to be made – but first they had to get it out.

The find in 1900 led to the construction of the Kennecott Copper Mines and with the backing of the Guggenheims and J. P. Morgan, a railway was begun in 1907.

Although initially dubbed the Can’t Run and Never Will, the Copper River and Northwestern Railway road was ready by 1911, crossing 196 miles of rivers, glaciers and mountains on its way to Cordova from where the ore was shipped to Tacoma, Washington, for processing.

$250,000 worth of ore was waiting when the first train arrived at the mill due to the initial machinery having being carried in by steam boats (which had to be disassembled to get around rapids) and dog or horse sleighs – travel was actually easier in the winter when everything was frozen.

With the arrival of the train, production ramped up. The town was ‘dry’ and only management employees were allowed to bring their families. McCarthy sprang up 5 miles down the road to supply all the goodies that the miners desired, a large proportion being saloons and brothels.

DAY 1 – The Edgerton Highway 

The last stretch of railway ran along the valley from Chitina which today it is the stepping off point for the McCarthy Road.

Chitina is accessed via the 33.6 Mile Edgerton Highway from Mile 82 on the Richardson Highway.

This initially runs for 7 very straight miles over the lowland forest of the Copper Valley, giving a roller coaster effect. Ahead one can see the Wrangell Mountains and a large glacier.

We passed Kenny Lake Mercantile, a hotel cum general store which looks a lot tidier than its neighbour across the road. Shortly afterwards we saw our first Alaskan horse – I would imagine they are a luxury here as they would take some feeding through the long winters – Wenger’s Country Store (10.3) might come in useful!

The valley road was homesteaded in the 1950’s: there were quite a few houses along it with grass and hay fields. Rather incongruously,  we even spotted a herd of Tibetan yaks at the Circle F Ranch (14.9) – I thought I noticed a yak burger on the menu the other day!

The bluffs of the Copper River came into view as we dropped down a hill. We pulled off to camp at the Liberty Creek Trailhead (23.3), a quiet clearing in the forest. The walk climbed a fairly steep mile uphill to a rocky bluff with superb views over a wild lake and the braided Copper River in the distance – lots of people have seen bears there, but we only saw one moose.

Just below the trailhead, Liberty Falls can be found within a charming BLM campsite where the sound of rushing water lulls one to sleep.

DAY 2 – To McCarthy 

The next morning we hit Chitina, where the coffee kiosk was doing a brisk trade. Chitina sprang to life in 1910 as a supply town for the railway and the mine and for a time became the main route for goods and people moving inland via the Richardson Trail towards Fairbanks.

It became virtually a ghost town when the railway closed but now has 71 residents and a few interesting old buildings with lofty wooden facades – Gilpatricks Hotel is still going although it sported a For Sale sign.

From Chitna the road runs 58.8 miles to McCarthy, it’s railroad heritage being immediately obvious from the deep cutting at the start of the road.

The Copper River bridge is just outside town (1.6) and marks where the Copper and Chitina rivers join. It is a wide open area of gravel flats and rushing river. It is possible to drive onto the packed gravel and it is a popular spot for traditional salmon fishing with dipnets and fish wheels. It seemed to be a family affair and there were lots of caravans – one lady told me that they had come down from Fairbanks for the salmon run which is usually from June to September.

It was already a hive of activity at 7.30 am and we paused to watch the fishermen who drag long aluminium handled nets through the water. This is apparently more dangerous than It looks: if the heavily silted water gets into waders It can rapidly weigh one down and drownings have occured.

However, on this day the advantage lay with the netters. It did not appear to be difficult to catch the salmon – we watched them being frequently hauled onto the gravel where they were swiftly clubbed and gutted. 

I actually felt rather sorry to see all these dying fish and the piles of roe taken out of the females who were on their last instinctive journey back to their home lakes to breed, only to have their lifecycle twarted in such a manner. One wondered how the fish stocks can stand such depredations – one chap proudly told me he had caught 30 salmon the previous night and there must have been a couple of hundred people fishing when we were there.

Apparently for rural dwellers there is a subsistence allowance of 500 salmon per person, for anyone else the allowance is 25 fish for the head of the household and 10 for other members.  Selling on is illegal but what does anyone need 500 salmon for?! We were told that the Copper River salmon are the best in Alaska – they have so far to swim they have added fat so are very juicy!

At 15.9 we entered the 13.2 million acre Wrangell-St. Elias National Park, the largest park in America – and one of its most inaccessible, other than via McCarthy and a 42 mile dirt road in from the west called the Nebesna Road. Although there are plenty of public-use cabins and a lot of wilderness out there, the only easy method of accessing them is by aircraft. We were only going to be touching on the edges of this massive park.

Our first stop on route was the Kuskulana River bridge (17.2) which is rather spectacular. Constructed during the winter of 1910 and 525 feet long, it’s metal arches soar 238 feet above the narrow gorge of the glacial Kuskulana River. It took only two months to build in temperatures of up to -57° F and  it was only relatively recently that they added a guard rail – the drop off the edge is quite scary!

Another interesting stop is the Gilahia Trestle bridge (29.8), a wooden structure that was originally 890 feet long and 90 foot high. Built in winter 1911, 15% of the railway was actually built on structures like these due to the rugged terrain.

Now it is bypassed by a modern detour and stands high and forlorn, rather lost in the trees and quite wonky. To fully capture its essence, cross the bridge and walk under it’s soaring spars or take the road a little further up the hill to the left and follow the course of the old railway to its edge.

After that it was a fairly straightforward run to McCarthy, with just some corrugations on sections of the road. There were many dark, limpid lakes, scattered with yellow water lilies and the odd beaver lodge.

Long Lake is a salmon spawning destination and all are well stocked with fish including Dolly Garden, grayling and trout.

McCarthy 

McCarthy guards its privacy carefully. Visitors have to park before a footbridge and either walk into town once having crossed it, or jump on a shuttle bus.

We parked for free at the Ranger station at 58.4. You can also park at 58.6 for $5 or at 58.8 for $12 for 4 hours plus! As we finally reached the bridge, the great white spill of the Kennicott Glacier was obvious to the north, with the Root Glacier coming in to its eastern side. Even at a distance it all looked rather dazzling.

Until 1997, visitors to McCarthy had to use a flying fox to access the town – I was quite happy to gently stroll across the bridge and enjoy the views.

We eschewed the bus in favour of a half mile walk, passing the spring which supplied the town with water and threading along a back path into town – although that is rather an exaggeration.

There are numerous derelict buildings and cars around a slightly smarter small core of Ma Johnson’s hotel, the saloon and a general trading store.

None of it was busy so we ambled down to check out the small local museum which had some good background on the area and books for sale.

We decided to head up to the mine, getting a ride on the $5 a ride shuttlebus which stops outside the museum every half hour. We rattled along the dirt road for 4.5 miles to the large mill town.

What looks like dirty tailings in the valley are actually gravel deposits from the rapidly retreating glacier, which once soared above the buildings. There is still ice under the mess, but for a more pristine view it is necessary to hike up the valley a couple of miles to the Root Glacier.

At its peak the mining company employed 600 people, many of them immigrants. Although the work was hard there were some benefits: food on the table, a social life and a hospital if it all went wrong (it actually had Alaska’s first x-ray machine). 25% of a person’s pay went towards their food, lodging and hospital coverage – I fear the other 75% probably went to the dens of iniquity in McCarthy where there were saloons and girls with names such as Snake Charmer, Tin Can Annie (she could produce sweet music out from anything), Blanche (a black woman) and the Beef Trust who weighed over 300 pounds!

All good things come to an end and by 1938 the mine was worked out. Ore to the value of $200 million had been extracted for an investment of $100 million. Things closed down overnight, leaving much in situ, protected by the remoteness of the area.

Several buildings in the complex are generally open to the public including the awe inspiring power room, a family house and the general store, which has some informative displays and various films. On the huge array of cubby holes, the original descriptive labels can be found. Entry is free anytime although the public buildings are only open to visit through the day.

However if you want a peak inside the original 14 storey concentration mill which dominates the complex, a guided tour must be arranged with St. Elias Alpine Guides. The tour presently lasts 2 hours and costs $34; the company also does glacier, ice climbing and back country tours.

We joined the tour at their office near the bus drop off, where silly hats were handed out. Initially we just wandered through town: the rusty rubbish dump was pointed out in the valley below, the school and the adjacent bunkhouse. The little train station office has been nicely restored and a wide bridge crosses the stream which runs down through the town.

Climbing up past the restored Office, one enters the Concentration Mill on the top floor, as the copper ore once did. There were several mines up the mountains from where the ore was ferried down by cable cars. The miners also had dormitories and restaurants at each mine so did not have to travel up and down each day. The ruins of these can still be visited if one is up for a 1,100 m climb, although at the time of our visit they were still under snow.

The mill drops down 14 floors, each floor breaking up and separating the ore into smaller and smaller concentrations so that it came out bagged up on the ground floor ready to be loaded onto the train. 

There were crushers and other obscure machinery on each dusty wooden level, tilt tables and giant separation barrels, none of which looked as if it would take much effort to work again. The whole thing was actually an amazing time capsule of a copper mining operation which must be fairly unique in the world.

95% of the copper was retrieved in this manner, but the little that had been missed was recovered by an ammonia flotation process and even further by using eucalyptus oil. 

These buildings, one in total ruins, are on the other side of the road and contain huge metal containers – 98% of copper was recovered in the end which was pretty impressive. 

After our tour, we had a quick wander up to Silk Stocking Row where the management once lived. Now the tidy row is privately owned and a neat loop covers it.

Dropping down, we set off on the 4.5 mile walk back to McCarthy on the Wagon Trail, which wasn’t that exciting although pleasant enough, the track wending through a leafy forest. We found lots of bear droppings but no bears although there was apparently a black bear with 3 cubs in the area. 

About a mile from the mine we came across the old cemetery, very few of whose occupants enjoyed a peaceful end. The white picket fences were sadly broken and the writing mostly illegible on those crosses which remained upright but there was a helpful plaque which listed them. The names told of the lengths people had come for the American dream: Sweden, Greece, Germany, Russia..

Our yomp brought us into town at 7 pm so we felt we deserved supper and detoured to the Potato whose menu was relatively healthy by American standards – falafel! – although the curly fries on the side probably didn’t help. I had a chicken fajita wrap and Simon pulled pork, both of which were tasty and with two drinks still came to £40 – America is not a cheap country anymore! We ate outside surrounded by a rag tag assortment of dogs and locals with screaming brats – it was obviously the place to be on a Saturday night in McCarthy!

We finally retrieved the car and headed back out, camping in the forest under the Gilahia Trestle Bridge. It was so late by then that we went straight to bed.

Over and out

Back at Chitina, we drove around the lake and followed the O’Brien Creek road – once the railway – for 3 miles to a large parking area on the Copper River. Salmon fishing charters are run from there and more salmon were being industrially filleted. 

An ATV trail runs on for 10 miles but that is the last easily accessible portion of the railroad. Even today the rest of the route is inaccessible by road. 

After it closed Cordova had the idea of using it to link up to Chitna by road from the south but the scheme ran out of will after 48 miles when it reached the Million Dollar Bridge over the Miles Glacier. Today even that section of road is unusable due to two bridge washouts. 

So most of the line is still out there in the wild, rusting bridges on glaciers, warped rails, washed out, affected by landslides and time, the wooden trestles sinking quietly, but still surprisingly well preserved, into the land – an unseen memorial to the many who toiled on the track through icy winters and mosquito laden summers, a crazy idea which worked, a testament to the drive and ingenuity of the men who had the vision to pursue the riches to be found high in the mountains.

NOTES 

The road is good gravel with some corrugations but manageable in any car. The last fuel is in Chitina. There is free parking at the Ranger station at 58.4, it is $5 at the next spot at 58.6 or if you want to park right before the bridge it is $12 for over 4 hours.

There are two shuttle choices in town. The vintage white bus known as the Blackburn Heritage Shuttle charges a simple $5 per ride, leaving from the bridge or the museum to the mill. The posher Copper Town Shuttle is $20 for unlimited rides or $10 one way (2 tickets $15) although it is free from the bridge into town. Both run all day from about 8 am to 6pm at half hourly intervals. The walk from the bridge to town is an easy 20 minutes; it is a further 4.5 miles to the mining area.

If you want to stay amidst the mining town and it is probably the pick of the available accommodation anyway, there is the Kennecott Glacier Lodge with rooms from $225 (there may be early/late season specials). The 180 ft balcony has great views over the valley, and is a good spot for a scenic lunch stop even if you are not staying there – try the Copper River salmon!

There are campgrounds just before the bridge,but also the free walk-in Jumbo Creek campsite 1.5 miles on from the mill with great glacial views. It would be a good location in which to spend a few days and do all the walks in the area – bear proof cannisters available at the Ranger station in Kennicott.

Tours can be booked on line with St. Elias Guides for $34. This will get you inside the big mill building which is well worth it. They also do trips on the glacier and expensive back country excursions into Wrangell St. Elias National Park.