The ride to Kennecott takes about 3 hours with stops. About 60 miles of the McCarthy Road is unpaved and is built on top of the railroad that serviced the Kennecott Copper Mine during its operation. Since this is an unpaved road (I am being kind) and built over the railway without removing the rails, it is not unheard of to puncture a tire or two with spikes that come to the surface periodically. It was very rough and we were glad it was their vehicle taking the pounding. We took a van from the RV to a waking bridge that crosses a river and met a second van which took us to the town of McCarthy and then up the road 5 miles to the Kennecott smelter. There is a private bridge that crosses the river, but the owner charges about $200 to cross it one way. So everyone who visits walks across the bridge and then either walks or catches a second van on the other side.
It was a cool drizzling rain when we got there and continued throughout our stay. We first visited the town of McCarthy, but with the rain we did not do much more than buy a cup of coffee and make a circle through the town. Then we were back in the van to head for Kennecott.
McCarthy in the rain
From 1911 to 1938, nearly $200 million in copper was processed at the Kennecott smelter. The copper mine itself was 4.5 to 5 miles from the smelter, which is the historic landmark, and about 4000 ft higher. Copper ore was moved from the mine to the smelter by means of cable cars. Kennecott was a self-contained company town that included a hospital, general store, school, skating rink, tennis court, recreation hall, and dairy. When it was shut down in 1938, it was to be demolished. But, the person given the contract took the money, demolished a few railroad bridges to stop anyone from going to the smelter, and walked off with the money. Most of the buildings are what you would expect with the smelter being abandoned in 1938. But, some have been restored and others are in the process of being stabilized.
Kennecott Smelter from the bottom
Smelter from the top
Since we were the only ones in our van we had been told the time was ours to do what we wanted, but we needed to head back by 6 pm. After spending several hours looking around, having lunch, looking around some more, and having desert we decided to cut the day short and meet the van at 2:30 to take us to the walking bridge.
On the way back we stopped at Chitina to look at the fishwheels. Fishwheels are a large wheel shaped apparatus with 2 baskets and two paddles that is floated in the river. The current turns the wheel which in turn will scoop up salmon from the water and then the basket will dump the salmon out onto the floating platform. The rains here are about a month late and when added to the record snowfall, the rivers are running VERY high. None of the fishwheels were working and several had been damaged by the high water. We did see one woman who was using a dip net in an attempt to catch some salmon in the Copper River. She had a pole that was maybe 12 feet long with a square frame at the end which had the net attached. She would extend the pole into the river and let it move down stream in hopes a fish would swim into the net that was headed upstream. Because of the rushing water she had a rope tied around her self and to a tree in case she was pulled into the water. It looked very dangerous.
Fishwheel
Karen’s version: The van came to the campground to pick us up at 6:45 this morning. We were to be gone all day, so we hired a woman who works at the campground office to let the dogs out 3 times during the day. We drove about 10 miles on a paved road, then 60 miles on an unpaved road. Imagine the worst pothole filled, muddy country road you have ever been on, then imagine driving on it for 60 miles – in an old rattlely Chevy Astrovan. This drive took about 3 hours. Then we came to a foot bridge that went across a river to a few old shacks on muddy streets, there we were to meet another van that would take us the last 5 miles to the copper mine. We were told there was a public restroom at a little restaurant, there wasn’t. It was barely a restaurant. The only tables were outside. – Did I mention it was about 50 degrees and raining? We walked a couple of more blocks thru the mud to find a public pit toilet. Then we got on the second van – an OLD barebones Ford Econoline. They should have required any passengers to wear ear protection. It squeaked, rattled and shook the whole way there which took about 20 minutes to go the 5 miles. There must have been some kind of metal trays or something in the back, because every so often it sounded like symbols crashing together. That driver had planned to pick us up around 5:00. At least we had the foresight to say we would probably be done by 2:30 or 3:00. This Kennecott mine smelter area was just a bunch of old dilapidated buildings on –guess what - muddy potholed streets. I had seen all I needed to see by noon, but we were stuck there till 2:30 when we were able to get the driver to come back to get us. We luckily found our other main driver early too and finally got back to the campground and our clean, warm camper around 7:00. I get to plan the next vacation!
Karen's version of Kennecott
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