The Kennecott Mines Ghost Town (Kennecott /Alaska)

Oct 02, 2016 09:26




The Kennecott Mines is an abandoned copper mining town in the Valdez-Cordova Census Area in Alaska. It is located beside the Kennicott Glacier, northeast of Valdez, inside Wrangell-St. Elias National Park.
From the first discovery of the copper in 1900 it had about 30 years of prosperous business, having the richest known concentration of copper in the world at the time.
By the early 1930s the highest grades of ore were largely depleted and mines started closing one by one. The last train left Kennecott on November 10, 1938, leaving it a ghost town.
By the 1980s the old mines were attracting tourists and in 1980 it was declared a National Historic Landmark.



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