The Uncosted West · Episode 14 of 15 · 39 min
How a Billion-Dollar Copper Mine Became a National Park the Public Must Clean Up
In 1938, with the richest ore gone, the company shut down Kennecott, Alaska on about a day's notice and walked away, leaving a 14-story mill and a whole town. Ninety years later the public owns both the beloved ghost town and the cleanup. The Park Service now cleans the contamination inside Wrangell-St. Elias National Park, the same corporate name as Bingham Canyon but an opposite fate.
Who's who
- Stephen BirchMining engineer who consolidated the claims and built the Kennecott enterprise
- Jack SmithProspector who spotted the green copper outcrop in 1900
- Clarence WarnerProspector who spotted the green copper outcrop in 1900
- J.P. MorganFinancier behind the Alaska Syndicate
- Robert KennicottNaturalist for whom the glacier and river were named
Where it happens
- Kennecott, Wrangell-St. Elias National Park, AlaskaAbandoned copper mill town now a historic landmark
- McCarthy, AlaskaUnincorporated neighbor of the company town
- Cordova, AlaskaPort reached by the Copper River and Northwestern Railway
Timeline
- 1900Prospectors spot the Bonanza copper outcrop
- April 1911First ore train reaches Cordova
- 1915Operating company organized as Kennecott Copper Corporation
- 1938Company shuts down the complex and abandons the site
- 1986Kennecott Mines designated a National Historic Landmark
- 1998National Park Service acquires the mill town
Still debated
Claims that the ore was 98 percent pure copper overstate it, and the 'Superfund site' label is loose, since the Park Service is cleaning up under CERCLA authority without a formal National Priorities List listing. The dishes-on-the-table image of the abandonment is partly mythologized.