McCarthy – Kennecott

From Chitina the road into the Wrangell – St Elias National Park is a 60 mile gravel road ending at the town of McCarthy. The road started it's life as a rail road going to the copper mine at Kennecott which is next to McCarthy. As gravel roads go, it wasn't too bad. Sort of like a main logging road in the states. I road it on the motorcycle as I didn't want to subject the motor home to another gravel road just yet.

Along the way there are remnants of the old railroad, this bridge is one of them. I was told that up until a few years ago it didn't have guard rails. Can you imagine what it must have been like in winter! Pity the poor snow plow operator who had to plow it.

This is the view of the gorge looking down from the middle of the bridge.

This is the remains of another old trestle used by the railroad.

When you get to the end of the road, your not at McCarthy. It's on the other side of the Root Glacier River. But there is a footbridge that crosses the river. I was about to park the bike and walk across when there attendant came up to me and told me to go ahead and ride the bike across. That saved me over $20 in parking fees and shuttle fares.

This is McCarthy, just about all of it. There is a newer (built in the last 20 years) general store behind me.

Believe it or not, this building is still being used. I'm not sure for what, not a hardware store.

Laura

So why the picture of Laura, the gal that runs the general store. We were talking and I told her that I had McCarthy in my blood, which I do. My mother's maiden name is McCarthy. So we started talking. She wasn't very busy. As usual, when meeting someone on the road, the question is asked, “Where are you from?” I told her a little town in Idaho called Rose Lake and that no one has ever heard of it. She had this kinda stunned look and said that not only does she know exactly where it is, she spent many a summer day swimming in the lake. Her grandparents lived on the lake while she was growing up. How about that! There's what, maybe 15 homes on the lake. I still can't believe that I met someone in this little town in No Where Alaska who knew about and spent time on Rose Lake.

This is the Kennecott Copper Mine. Believe it or not, I have a connection to this place that I didn't realize until reading some of the history of the mine. I grew up in Tacoma Washington and as a kid, once in a while the whole area would stink as in smell really bad. It was called the aroma of Tacoma and was caused by the smelter at the other end of town. We knew it when we were down wind from the smelter. My connection to the Kennecott Copper Mine is that all the ore from the mine ended up in Tacoma at the smelter for processing. Some of that ore is probably still stuck in my lungs!