Mill workers and miners lived in bunkhouses, worked 7 days a week and sent money home to their families. The Kennecott Copper Corporation lured workers to this isolated Alaskan mining camp with higher salaries than any mine in the lower 48 offered. The railroad was completed in 1911 and the Kennecott Mines quickly established itself as a model of state-of-the-art technology and progressive management. He reassembled them on the Copper River, and used them, as well as horses and dog sleds, to bring in equipment and begin mining before the railroad was even finished. He used dog sleds to haul entire steamships, piece by piece, from Valdez. Steven Birch, a mining engineer, was hired to develop the Kennecott mining claims. It took Heney and his crews 4 years of tireless labor in temperatures as low as 40 degrees below zero to build the rail bed and bridges through the regions rough terrain. Heney, who had previously built the White Pass & Yukon Railroad. Morgan and several other wealthy families collaborated to form the Alaska Syndicate and capitalize on this rich mineral source. The samples they collected from Bonanza Peak’s magnificent green cliffs of exposed copper revealed up to 70% of pure chalcocite. In the summer of 1900, prospectors Clarence Warren and Jack Smith were exploring Kennecott Glacier and came across the richest concentration of copper ore ever discovered. Historic Details: The Discovery of CopperĬopper became an extremely valuable mineral at the turn of the century due to the inventions of electricity, automobiles, and telephones. Elias Alpine Guides, a local company that has been granted special permission to take travelers not only around the town, but also inside the buildings. With a Guide: Take a guided tour with St. Without a Guide: You can explore the area on your own following a map from the National Park Service. The iconic view in Kennicott is the giant red mill building from the old Kennecott Copper Company, which stands 14 stories above the Kennicott glacier (the different spellings are due to clerical mistakes on official paperwork a century ago). ![]() Today, Kennecott is a popular tourist attraction and the National Park Service is currently stabilizing and rehabilitating many of the mill and town buildings. In 1925, a geologist predicted that the area would soon be mined out. Kennecott became a bustling mining camp filled with miners and their families. Established in 1903, Kennecott Mining Corporation operated 5 mines in the area. This abandoned copper mining camp is a National Historic Landmark District.
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