History of McCarthy/Kennicott
McCarthy/Kennicott is located in the Wrangell Mountains and is surrounded by the Wrangell St. Elias National Park
which is four times the size of Yellowstone Natinal Park. The town of Kennicott was founded to mine the copper from
the mines discovered in the late 1800's. The town of McCarthy was founded by John Barrett and was the place where
the trains carrying the oar were turned around to back up to the mine as the mine was on a hillside and there was no room
to turn the trains around up there. The town of Blackburn was located near the present day airport and was a collection
of homes and shops that today only exists on a map.
The oar was taken by train (Copper River and Northwestern Railway) 196 miles to Cordova, Alaska.
The train was built by financers JP Morgan and the Guggenheim familes for over $30 million US and was completed in 1911.
The railroad construction was managed by the same man who built the railroad from Skagway to Whitehorse during the gold rush
to Dawson, Yukon. The oar was then put on ships going to Tacoma, Washington for smelting. During this period over
4.625 million tons of copper valued at $207 million US was mined. The investors made approximatly $100 million US.
The last train in 1938. When I list these dollar figures one has to keep in mind what prices were during that period.
We'd be talking $3.6 trillion US at today's price of copper. Amazing!
The mine is now being renovated by the National Park Service
and visitors can take tours, including a tour of the mill, which is absolutly a must. The mine was listed as
a National Historic Site in 1986.