In 1900, a pair of prospectors hiking near Alaska’s Kennicott glacier discovered an outcrop of copper ore on a mountainside about 100 miles inland from Valdez. Soon, several mines were developed, and a small base camp grew into a mill town dominated by enormous processing buildings. Kennecott Mines (yes, the town name is spelled differently from the glacier’s) operated for nearly 30 years, until the ore was depleted and the remote town was abandoned in 1938. Kennecott’s massive structures sat deserted for decades, until the Alaskan tourism market developed, and the site was declared a National Historic Landmark, much of it later acquired by the National Park Service. Some preservation work has been undertaken, but a few of the buildings are being allowed to continue their “slide into oblivion.”
Kennecott Mines: An Alaskan Ghost Town
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A view of the abandoned buildings of Kennecott Mines, inside Alaska's Wrangell–St. Elias National Park and Preserve. The larger stair-step structure was the Concentration Mill, where copper ore was first crushed and separated. #
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A view near the top of the Concentration Mill, overlooking a rock-covered section of Kennicott glacier in the valley below. When the mine was operational, aerial tramways carried raw copper ore from the surrounding slopes to this point to begin processing. #
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