Alaska Blog 5
Kennecott & McCarthy
I’m in Alaska travelling with an LPTV film crew making a program for the forthcoming Roads Less Travelled series with National Geographic. After starting out in Anchorage I’ve been by train to Whittier, crossed Prince William Sound and taken the McCarthy Road up to the old ghost town of McCarthy. From there I ventured out on to the Root Glacier to try ice climbing (and ice biking, that’s another story) and camped out on the glacial ice.
Then it was back down to Kennecott. There’s some spelling confusion here because the glacier and the river is the Kennicott, but the Kennecott mining company managed to misspell the name, so their town is Kennecott. The gigantic timber mine building still stands, towering over the town and a visible landmark from way up on the
glacier. The mine closed down in 1938 and one story insists that the door was slammed shut in a real hurry, the mineworkers were told it was all over and they had two hours to grab their belongings, shut up shop and grab the last train out. In fact the final three mines were closed in September, but the last train out didn’t depart until November.
The 27-story-high wooden Kennecott Mine Building
I’m in Alaska travelling with an LPTV film crew making a program for the forthcoming Roads Less Travelled series with National Geographic. After starting out in Anchorage I’ve been by train to Whittier, crossed Prince William Sound and taken the McCarthy Road up to the old ghost town of McCarthy. From there I ventured out on to the Root Glacier to try ice climbing (and ice biking, that’s another story) and camped out on the glacial ice.
Then it was back down to Kennecott. There’s some spelling confusion here because the glacier and the river is the Kennicott, but the Kennecott mining company managed to misspell the name, so their town is Kennecott. The gigantic timber mine building still stands, towering over the town and a visible landmark from way up on the
glacier. The mine closed down in 1938 and one story insists that the door was slammed shut in a real hurry, the mineworkers were told it was all over and they had two hours to grab their belongings, shut up shop and grab the last train out. In fact the final three mines were closed in September, but the last train out didn’t depart until November.The 27-story-high wooden Kennecott Mine Building
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Once while Travelling: The Lonely Planet Story
