[Wrangell-St Elias National Park, Aug 1, 2025]

We enjoyed a lazy morning in Kennecott since we didn’t have anything on the books until our mill tour at 11:30 am.

At breakfast, we reconnected with a couple, Keith and Mary Kay, who we’d talked to the day before. They were going on a white water rafting tour. We didn’t envy them having to be out there with rain in the forecast. They seemed not to mind, though.

Our mill tour began in town. Our guide described the life of a mine worker, which was not easy. Workers had only two days off – July 4th and New Year’s Eve. For this reason, people in McCarthy and Kennecott celebrate July 4th with extra pomp to this day. On all other days of the year, the workers put in 8-hour shifts. They slept in hot beds, meaning they shared beds. They would come back to the sleeping quarters after their shift and simply find a bed that was unoccupied to sleep in. The reality of their day-to-day life stood in stark contrast to the natural beauty around us.

I marveled at the Root glacier’s surface moraine, and the mountains and ice fields that fed it were visible behind us. A surface moraine is ice covered in rock and debris the glacier picked up as it flows downhill. The Root glacier’s surface moraine was 200 to 300 ft higher then compared to now.

We continued on and passed the general store and post office. The mail came twice a week, same as now, except then it was by train and now it’s by plane. The general store had everyday items, but if you wanted something else, you had to order it from a catalog. It was quite expensive for the more luxurious items!

Soon, we made our way up the hill towards the top of the mill. On the way, we passed what remained of the hospital. It was the only white building in Kennecott; the rest were painted a reddish brown because it was the cheapest color.

We also toured the manager’s office. The two-story building began as a small log cabin in 1906 and was later expanded. It was the first structure built in Kennecott. All of the day-to-day decisions about operating the mine happened here.

We climbed up the hill until we got to the top of the mill. The copper would arrive here in buckets down the tram from the mines up in the mountains. Workers also rode the buckets even though they weren’t supposed to; otherwise, it took them 4 hours each way to get to the mine. Riding the buckets was dangerous but workers knew they would get bonuses for injuries; $150 for a lost finger, $250 for thumb,  $1200 for blindness.

We learned a bit about the mill itself. Before opening it to the public, the National Park Service had to stabilize it. The 14-story, 34,500-sq-ft building was constructed on a series of terraces that stair-step up the 36-degree slope. The timber foundation of the building has been deteriorating. Restoration work has focused on a secondary system of support to halt collapse in crucial sections of the building, as well as moving soil away from the building.

We made our way down the mill. It was abandoned in 1938 with only 2 days notice, so lots of stuff has been left just the way it was. Our guide explained how the various machines (e.g. Hancock jigs, sorting tables) on each floor worked to extract the copper out of the rock. Essentially, the machinery on each floor would progressively crush and sort the rock to separate the copper from the useless parts.

Two different types of rock were prevalent on the mountain. One was quite pure (the one with way more green in it) and could bypass the bulk of the processing; it was just sent down the chute outside.

Because the mountain turned out to be so rich in copper, the mill had to be modified multiple times to add additional floors for more machinery. This was evident when we looked at some of the windows. They were cut in half by the new floor!

All in all, the tour was fascinating and very informative. We enjoyed it a lot!

For lunch, we decided to check out Kennecott’s only food truck, the Meatza Wagon. I continued choosing seafood over anything else; my salmon pita sandwich was delicious!

Olivia went back to the room but I needed to get more steps in. Our guide had mentioned that the big wigs at the mine lived up the hill in small log cabins on a gravel street called Silkstocking Row. It had started to rain, but I enjoyed my walk up there.

In the late afternoon, we caught the shuttle down to McCarthy. We wanted to grab a drink at the Golden Saloon before heading next door to Salmon & Bear for dinner. As our drinks came, we started chatting about Keith and Mary Kay. We were both really curious how their white water rafting adventure went, given that it rained all afternoon. Not 30 seconds after we mentioned them, they walked in the door! Another guy, Jay, was with them. All 4 of us are trying to visit all 63 national parks, and we exchanged stories and tips about our adventures.

They ended up joining us for dinner next door at Salmon & Bear. Despite the remote location, this was fine dining at its best. Our meal was delisious!

We missed the last scheduled shuttle back to Kennecott, but we knew the restaurant would make arrangements for us to go back when we were ready. The guy who showed up to drive us up to the lodge was Neil Darish. He owns many of the business in McCarthy and was even mentioned relatively prominently in the Papa Pilgrim book.

As we left the restaurant, we realized that the rain storm from the afternoon had moved on. The evening was gorgeous and it looked like we were going to have a fabulous clear day for our return flight back to Glenallen the next day.