Abandoned Copper Mining Town in Alaska

SeaBreeze

SeaBreeze

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Abandoned Kennicott copper mining town in Alaska. More here.

The old mining town of Kennicott in the US state of Alaska is located on the south slopes of Wrangell mountain close to the Kennicott Glacier, about five miles up from the small town of McCarthy. While McCarthy has a year-round population of about two dozen people, Kennicott is totally deserted.

This mining town was founded in the 1900s after a group of wealthy investors discovered incredibly rich deposits of copper ore in the mountains. A railroad was promptly built to transport ore from the mines to the nearest port, in Cordova, and the company town of Kennicott was officially founded in 1911. Its name is actually a misspelling of Kennecott Copper Corporation.

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Amazing!

I can't imagine the breathtaking beauty combined with the hardship that went into building and operating a copper mine in that location.
 

One of my hobbies when visiting an old abandoned site is to look for a sign of a garden and see if there are any surviving plants.

A friend just bought an old cottage that hadn't been used for twenty years. The leeks were still growing as well as some perennial rock garden plants.

Alaska would be tough survival in winter.
 
One of my favorite shows on Discovery.

Tradition collides with transformation in McCarthy, Alaska. The isolated town -- once considered to be the state's version of "Sin City" -- flourished during the Gold Rush but is now home to roughly 40 people, a mix of mavericks, risk takers and rabble rousers willing to brave extreme conditions to live free. While some believe in continuing the town's frontier way of life, others feel the future of McCarthy depends on dragging it into the modern age. Long-standing resident Jeremy Keller fights to protect its roots, while Neil Darish has purchased multiple properties in town and plans to restore its vibrancy. "Edge of Alaska" tells the story of a hinterland at a crossroads.
 
Butterfly said:
SB, when did it close down?
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Looks like it closed down in 1938 Butterfly, if you click on "here" in my first post you can read the rest of the article and see more photos.
 

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