Kennecott, Alaska
In the early twentieth century the copper deposits at Kennecott, named for the Kennecott Glacier, were exploited by five mines, named Bonanza, Mother Lode, Erie, Glacier, and Jumbo. Several of the mines were connected by underground tunnels, easing the movement of men and equipment between the mines. They were operated by the Kennecott Copper Corporation, which in 1916, their peak production year, produced over $32 million worth of high grade copper ore.
The mines operated at Kennecott from 1909 until 1938, except for a brief period during 1932. After a multiyear battle with conservationists over the building of a railroad to transport the ore to Cordova (which required the intervention of the federal government) the Copper River and Northwestern Railway began moving the ore from Kennecott to the port. This was a vast improvement over the movement of the ore by steamboat, and over the years of the mine’s operation more than 200 million tons was moved by rail to Cordova.
The company employed more than 600 people at the site, about 300 in the mines and the rest in the company town of Kennecott. As a company town, commodities were purchased from the company, using company currency rather than US dollars. The town included a small hospital, skating rinks and tennis courts, a general store, a dairy, and other amenities. The hospital housed the first x-ray machine in Alaska. It also had a recreation hall for year round use and a school building. There were both houses for families and bunkhouses for others.
In 1929, as the quality of the mined copper ore began to decline the mines began to close. By September 1938 all of the mines were shut down. Mined ore continued to be transported that fall, until all of the ore had been shipped. On November 10, the last train from Kennecott left for Cordova, taking with it all of the residents of the town. Most of the mining equipment was left behind, as was the stock of the general store, medical supplies and equipment, and in many cases personal belongings of the town’s residents. The Kennecott Copper Corporation left behind a family of three to act as watchmen, but by 1952 they were gone too.
The town was ordered destroyed by the landowners but though the job was started it was never completed and most of the town stands as it did when it was summarily abandoned eighty years ago. It is now under the administration of the National Park Service as part of Wrangell St. Elias National Park and Preserve. Tours of parts of the mining areas and the company town are available. It can be reached by car in the warmer months.
Sources:
National Park Service.
National Register of Historic Places
US Department of the Interior Bureau of Land Management
Bodie Foundation
United States Forest Service
Handbook of Texas Online
History of Kennecott Online
Bannack State Park