"JOHN DENVER AND COPPER"
Kennicott Copper Mill
It felt as though I had reached the end of the world at the Wrangell-St. Elias National Park. Here was a wilderness of mountains and rivers carved by melted water flowing from glaciers that were tens of thousand years old. On its eastern border the park faces Canada's Kurane National Park. It is the largest United States national park, six times larger than Yellowstone National Park. It has more glaciers and mountains than any other one, having nine of the sixteen highest mountains in North America. The highest mountain is Mount McKinley at Denali National Park. Mount St. Elias is second.
 Water Lily |
The harsh mountainous environment and climate kept out settlers until the copper boom of the early 1900s. But the profits of copper mining changed the situation when miners moved into this area just as they had flocked to Yukon in search of gold. After a copper refinery was built in Kennicott, the railroad followed as did both a bank and hospital. Kennicott's population combined with that of the adjoining town of McCarthy rose to 2,000. During the peak of this boom, mining operations continued 24 hours a day and produced 591,000 tons of copper.
However in 1938, due to the worldwide price collapse, the copper refinery closed in Kennicott. Currently only about thirty people live here around the year. Dilapidated old buildings survive in spite of severe rain and wind and serve as reminders of the past. The National Park Service purchased the refinery and other properties from their company owners to restore for a historical site.
 "Lodge" Restaurant |
On my visit to the site I met Diane who welcomes visitors during the short summer season, while her husband is a full-time park guide. Both are enraptured with the scene. After the park service acquired the refinery, Diane began taking visitors to it and explaining its features. She also takes black and white photographs of local scenes with her 35 millimeter camera,taking it with her all day even to work. She is always recording the mountain environment and history with monochrome films.
When walking under her guidance in the old buildings, the floors creaked noisily every time we took a step. It also seemed as if copper miners and other workers from the past were ready to operate the old greenish machines. Diane explained she too thought they might still be around, because she had spent so much time studying their dramatic past. Indeed, she was recapturing the spirit of by-gone people--hard-working miners. My walk with Diane left me remembering for some reason the Japanese poet Basho who had imagined the dreams of long-dead warriors buried in a grass-covered field. (Basho was a famous seventeenth-century haiku poet in Japan.)
 Roots Glacier |
John Denver, a favorite folk singer, was also enamored with this mountainous copper country. He visited the area and perhaps went to the "Lodge," the only bar in McCarthy where people could sip beer on long midnight sun evenings. One local resident recalled that Denver had been in town one evening and had climbed to the top rung of the ladder leaning against the refinery wall. He then took his guitar and began singing a song as he composed its words. His song celebrated the eagle and hawk soaring in the high country's sky towards the heavens and the future. It was broadcast throughout the United States and aroused interest in preserving something of the copper country. After the National Park Service acquired the refinery, local residents are proud of it and still remember John Denver.
The day after visiting the refinery I climbed up Roots Glacier. I had to walk with spikes on my shoes to keep from falling on the ice. Slowly I walked. The glacier blue enhanced the sky's brightness, and the melting ice water quenched my thirst. While kneeling down to sip water from a glacier that had been created tens of thousand years ago, I felt how short is the time for a human life. One bald eagle was flying high--higher perhaps than some of the snow-covered mountains. How awesome nature is!
| Wrangell - St Elias National Park & Preserve 106.8 Richardson Hwy. PO Box 439, Copper Center, AK 99573-0439 Phone: 907-822-5234 www.nps.gov/wrst |