22 Valdez through Kennecott
Valdez has a small but nice museum. It was worth a visit.
A couple of original town of Valdez fire trucks.
A wool fish supposedly caught somewhere around the city.
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The first barrel of oil delivered thru the pipeline.
Self-explanatory.
A tanker taking on crude for shipment South. They only to West Coast U.S. ports.
We were there for Goldrush Days. A typical small town affair although they served very nice ethnic type food at the Eagles Club. A fundraiser where several ladies prepared food from their country of background (Italian, Swedish, Greek, etc.)
Not until our last day in Valdez did be realize that we were surrounded by steep mountains, several of which with glaciers.
Waterfalls driving North of Valdez.
Worthington Glacier, again North of Valdez.
Farther up the highway from Valdez we decided to take a highly recommended detour to the East into Wrangell-Saint Elias National Park specifically to visit the old Kennecott Copper Mine and the support town of McCarthy where the families lived, the stores and bars existed, etc. etc. The road was interesting being very narrow (actually the old railroad bed).
We passed through Chitina on the way and where the paved road ends. It was a major support center for the mining which took place in the area and supported the railroad which was built to connect the Kennecott Mine and Cordova where the ore was loaded on ships.
We saw the bridge shown in this picture and figured it wasn’t anything we had to deal with. WRONG Next picture shows we did deal with this rather narrow and high above everything bridge.
Fortunately, we did not have to cross this one!!
Where we parked.
A glacier next to our parking place.
From the parking area (where we camped), one crosses the river, takes a shuttle van to Kennecott, a distance of some 5 to 7 miles.
The main road in Kennecott.
The Kennecott Inn. When the mine was operating, it housed visiting dignitaries and company officials.
A piece of mining equipment overlooking the area where the glacier was in the early 1900’s.
Original??
The post office.
This is one of the buckets used in the cable car system used to transport ore from up the mountain to the mill. We will see more of the mill a bit later. Of interest is that those miners too lazy to walk up the mountain to the mines at times would travel in these gondola things. Problem is people are big, gondola is small, if not careful one lost limbs or head.
A company furnished home for high ranking workers at the mine. All others had to leave families in McCarthy or elsewhere.
Mine buildings.
This is the mill. It is 14 stories high climbing up the hill. Long walk up and scary walk down the steep narrow stairs.
The company store.
The hospital.
The top of the mill building. The heavy cables were used to move the gondolas of ore from up the mountain.
Riffle board. Many of these on several floors used to separate copper from rock and dirt. They vibrate and water and ore are passed over them. Copper being significantly heavier than rock, it settles to the bottom and is caught up in the riffles.
The Kennecott Corporation closed this facility, leaving most of the heavy machinery in place. Over the years it was stripped of many of the items and most copper wiring by scavagers. The Company finally donated the property to the National Park Service.
This wraps this update. Hope you enjoyed it!!
