In 1900 two prospectors were traveling through Alaska. Their horses were
hungry and so when they spied a distant green hillside they thought
their luck was in. They were not wrong. They had stumbled upon a massive
deposit of copper ore, exposed at the surface.
Industry on a massive scale quickly followed. Yet by 1939 the copper was
exhausted, the place abandoned. This is what remains of the
Kennecott Mine Camp.
The Kennecott Mine Camp was a booming Alaskan copper mining town in
the first couple of decades of the 20th century. The richest vein of
copper ever is estimated to have produced $100 million in profits! But
by 1939 the copper was gone and the several mines were abandoned.
However, the Kennecott is in a national park and has been designated a
National Historic Landmark. That’s why the buildings there survived much
better than the surrounding mines, and you can visit them.
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