2015
Summer Journey
Alaskan
Crossing, part 22
McCarthy/ Kennecott Mill
July 27, 2015
Today Julie and I will explore the famous
Kennecott Mill and wander around, aimlessly in the quite town of McCarthy. For
those who haven’t been here on their own travels into Alaska, this is a must
see place, put it on your bucket list.
Overnight parking was five bucks, night was more
of a shadowy dulling of the day light, in Alaska it’s important to block out
your windows if you want to sleep.
It was about 10:30 am and time to get going for our
day’s adventure, we decide to make the walk into McCarthy it wasn’t that far.
Passing by the pizza bus, thoughts of that great pizza made my mouth water.
(Unfortunately I found out recently that they had gone out of business.)
The base camp was full this morning, looks as
though a lot more visitors had arrived during the “night.”
From the bridge that spanned the Kennecott River I
was able to get some great photos of the Kennecott Glacier from there, the
morning cloud covering cut down on the glare off the ice.
Even a few Soapberries were hanging around to be
eaten.(not really they taste just like soap)
It seems no matter how small a town is there is
always a church.
Several other people had the same idea as to
walking into McCarthy, but one had to watch out for landing aircraft.
Remains of a old pulley system was still in place,
somewhat.
Shuttle service was available for 5 dollars, each way. One had passed us and turn at the museum up ahead, we would take a look
inside the museum.
McCarthy Museum was on the small side but held a
lot of local interesting items.
McCarthy was of no exception as far as old
equipment just laying about as we have seen throughout Alaska.
Main Street McCarthy contained few building
in a old town style but yet were too new to be that old. From Wrangell Mountain
Air Julie and I could see most of the township. A little note, McCarthy and the
Kennecott Mill are completely inside the Wrangell- St Elias National Park.
From here we paid our shuttle fee for a round trip
to the Kennecott Mills, a five mile taxi ride.
Kennecott Mill is run by the National Park and
the private sector, each benefit from this arrangement. After we bought out
tour ticket we were off with our tour guide.
At its time the Kennecott Mill owners boasted of a
community center where dances, watching movies and other activities were held.
The only problem was that most of the production employees were working 16
hours a day/6 day a week which was the majority of the work force at the mill.
Our guide led us on to the school house and
housing for all of the single men, each building was near each other, families
had their own separate housing. On the other side of the men’s dorm was the
refrigerated building where all the meat and produce was stored.
There was a lot to see, a lot to take in. From in
front of the post office our group got a good look at the upcoming mill and the
climb that’s goes with it.
Passing by a couple of building being restored,
the one on the left is the hospital, the only building painted white, all other
building are paint red due to that was the cheapest paint one could buy at that
era.
Our next place to scope out was the powerhouse,
getting there we had to walk through the train ore loading dock.
Our group was guide through a side door for a view
inside. We saw steam piping and electric generators. Kennecott Mill generated all
its own power.
Leaving this area and re-entering in another door
we were able to get up close to the steam boilers that was the heart of
Kennecott Mill. All the boilers were sealed due to the high cost of asbestos abatement;
one could still smell the strong odor of fuel oil that was used to power these
behemoths.
Heading to the main course of this tour and a 14
story climb.
Hard hats are required and now the climb with
several stops, some people had to drop out, just couldn’t make the climb.
Making the to the top of the mill, the cables
above us led to the mines up the mountain and ore hoppers were sent down to the
mill.
The upper deck was under construction, this is
where the ore cars came in for processing and begins our journey into the bowls
of this mining operation.
From up here there is a great view of the power
plant, the town below and the Kennecott Glacier.
The first flight of stairs give you reason for the
wearing the hard hats. Stair was steep with many cross beams to hit one's head
on.
Ore separation starts with these hopper shoots.
Kennecott Mill was built for production, not
employee comfort, the steam pipe bend the ore crusher was for production use
only.
With each floor below us more ore was process to
extract more copper with different mechanical methods.
On this floor an operator would have to take care
of as many as ten separating tables on different floors. The diamond shape
wedges would control the water flow, plus the table would vibrate and tilt.
The floor below us has more separating table
and one can see the motors that vibrate and tilt those tables. Image running
between two floors, up and down for up to 16 hours a day.
Some areas where very dark and one had to be
careful. We exited a door and went to the final processing area where chemical
extraction was use to achieve over 99 % removal of copper out of the ore making
Kennecott Mill one of the most efficient mills of it’s time as well as the most
profitable.
This was the end of the tour, as we exit the last
building the skies opened up with rain.
Julie and headed back to Chitina stopping to take
photo at the abandon train trestle.
Almost back to Chitina, more dirt had slid onto
the roadway.
Here we are back at the beginning of the McCarthy
road.
Driving few miles beyond Chitina to a pull out
area, this is where we stayed the night; it was great, nice and quiet.
Thanks to
everyone for reading my TCTRs, all comments are welcome.
Click here for PART 23
Thanks, Alex Blasingame, aka c.traveler2.
