# The Kennecott Mines -- NT



## blackburn49 (Jan 2, 2008)

John J, I did not forget your question: _"Speaking of Mines. When was the last time any one has been down in the Tunnels of the old copper Mine? Most of them should have caved in by now maybe?"

_I was trying to decide what to do with this question. It seemed best to wait until Shad restored our new forum. We did not have a long wait, did we?  

Well, you know me. I don't like to start a thread unless I'm going to go somewhere with it. I am one of those "handful" of MLS members who creates "substantial" threads. Your question warrants more than a single one or two sentence response.  And so it will be. Those not interested in history need read no further.  You will not learn much about  model trains or structures  in this thread--although I have some great historic prototypes coming up. After all, I probably have the largest collection of historic Kennecott photos to be found anywhere. 

I have written extensively about Kennecott, the Copper River & Northwestern Railway, and my Phase I CRNW layout.  But I have not adquately covered the mines themselves. 

I have noted that more than once you, _John J,  _ have expressed an interest in the old Kennecott minesite(s) that exist here in Alaska, so I will provide you and whoever else might be interested some background on this, one of the most fascinating of historic western mines for any number of reasons. 

Some of you will recall that Kennecott was an interior group of mines that was only made possible by the construction of a 195-mile standard gauge railroad. This was the Copper River & Northwestern Railway, which operated concurrent to the mine from 1911 until the mine closing in 1938. The CRNW, while primarily an ore-hauler and supply line to the mill site, also operated as a common-carrier, providing freight and passenger service to the territories it opened up from the port of Cordova through the Bremner gold mining district, to Chitina and McCarthy and a host of other places. It was the first Alaskan railroad to breach  the Alaskan interior from an ocean port. And, like the White Pass & Yukon, the narrow gauge which entered the Canadian interior through an Alaskan port, this one was built by the same contractor and overseen by the same engineer.  Both represented major engineering achievements, but the CR&NW more so because the obstacles faced by the latter line were far more difficult, even considered impossible by some. 

But this is not a railroad thread. It is about the historic mines themselves--the richest high-grade copper ore veins ever found to this day--and the ones which made Kennecott a household name.  


  _The abandoned Kennecott mill site in 1982 with Bonanza Ridge in the background.  Click to view this in a much larger size._


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## sheepdog (Jan 2, 2008)

One line response..... Don't stop now Ron. 

Second one line response..... I too am very curious on the state of the mines... 

*grin*


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## blackburn49 (Jan 2, 2008)

Hey! One of my favorite posters. Hello, Craig.  Not to worry. I just need some time to pull my resources together here. And, unfortunately, I have a few other tasks which have to be performed today. 

I am going to pull up some of my maps of the actual underground workings--the ones which can be posted on line. These are best seen in the larger size since they are so complex, but I will, of course, reduce them so they can be seen right here. 

Additionally, I want you all to see the actual buildings at the mine adits--there were five separate sites--all interconnected. Some of these were substantial. Almost none of them exist today.  

So, hang on and I will get back to this.


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## sheepdog (Jan 2, 2008)

I keep trying to reply and it keeps deleting my post..... 

Take your time Ron, I enjoy reading all the posts. And I want to add, that model of the brick is first rate! 

Craig


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## John J (Dec 29, 2007)

Thanks for your  special reply.   I really enjoy all your post.   

I also find bandon buildings ( especially industrial) most facinating.   I wish I could come up there and explore.

I set this thread to let me know when you post again.  

I know you have a lot to do to get ready for "THE SEASON"


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## blackburn49 (Jan 2, 2008)

Bonanza--Where It all Began . . . 
  Looking up the aerial tram toward the Bonanza Mine in 1917 (click for larger image)
How many times have I said that? "Where it all began."  This was the place. It was here that the initial discovery was made and the mining claim laid. This was the very first of the Kennecott mines in what would turn out to be a long string of them around the world. For me personally, this was the place I first recognized through this very photo as it appeared in Lone Janson's "Copper Spike" many years ago as a place that I knew was somehow a part of what I am or what I was.  

This was the start of all of it--a lonely mine at the elevation of 6,000 feet along the southern slopes of the Wrangell Range.  And this was what launched Kennecott to world status because of its incredible richness that just never seemed to end.

By the time the original Kennecott Mines Company began working the Bonanza site they had already begun scoping out the Jumbo and Erie claims, knowing that soon they would be developing mines in those places as well. Within a few years they would also add the Mother Lode and the Glacier mines.  

The mines ran along a roughly west-north-west axis for a distance of approximately four miles.  And in time all of these five mines would become connected underground.


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## blackburn49 (Jan 2, 2008)

The Kennecott Mines Contour Map
  The Historic American Engineering Record Recording Project produced this map in the early 1980s fro the National Park Service and the Cordova Historical Society. It shows the relationship of all the mines to the Kennecott mill site at the end of the railroad. You can also see a wagon trail which continued on to the base of the Erie Mine. The two main trams were the Bonanza and the Jumbo--both approximately 16,000 feet long.

The Bonanza Ridge in this map runs roughly left to right with the Mother Lode on the other side of the ridge--facing east.  All the other mines faced west. Mother Lode, which started as a separate company, had its own tram line to a base point on McCarthy Creek.  Erie and Glacier mines also had trams, although the Erie tram was only for men and supplies. All the Erie ore was sent through a long cross cut tunnel to the Jumbo incline shaft where it was trammed to the surface and then sent down the hill to the back of the Kennecott mill. 

Click map for larger one


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## blackburn49 (Jan 2, 2008)

The Kennecott Map Showing Kennecott and Mother Lode Claims
  This map, properly oriented north, was drawn by the very last superintendent at Kennecott, Walter Richelsen, in 1924 in advance of a visit by the Big Man himself, Stephen Birch, head of Kennecott. 

You can actually see part of the main crosscut tunnel drawn between Erie and Jumbo. Click for a larger image.


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## blackburn49 (Jan 2, 2008)

The Cross-Cut Tunnel
  I took a part of the contour map shown in the previous post and added some of the significant tunnels. We will be most interested in the main upper cross-cut tunnel seen here in dark red. It extends from the Erie main adit on the far west end of the claims to the eastern limit of the Mother Lode claims where it actually surfaces at the 1600 foot level--that's 1600 feet below t he main adit of Bonanza mine. 

The green line represents the Jumbo incline. The blue represents the Bonanza incline, a crosscut over to the top of the Mother Lode incline, and the top part of the Mother Lode incline which bottoms out at the 2,800 level. 

The orange line is the crosscut between Jumbo and Bonanza at the 600 level. When this tunnel was completed, the power lines that terminated at Bonanza were run underground through that cross-cut. Prior to that, those lines had to run over the top of the ridge and then down to Jumbo, exposing the line to high winds and avalanches. This crosscut also ended at a surface adit on the right side as you see it here. 

The purple line was the 800 level cross-cut that extended from a point in the Bonanza incline over to the main adit at the Mother Lode on the other side of the ridge. This was known as the Rhodes tunnel. 

Click for a larger image.


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## blackburn49 (Jan 2, 2008)

Geology of Kennecott 
_simplified version_
  You definitely need to click this map to make sense of it. 

What is important here is that we have an underlying level of unknown depth of Nicolai greenstone which is essentially barren of minerals. Above it is the Chitistone limestone.  That is a dolomite which is the host rock for the copper veins which are mostly of chalcocite, chalcopyrite,  malachite and azurite, with the chalcocite being the dominant mineral.  The plane where the two join is known as the contact zone and it is very obvious because of a distinct change in color. The mine adits were all located at the base of this contact zone as you can see from the map. The plane inclines at a roughly thirty-degree angle, which is what determined the angle of the various incline tunnels. Jumbo was 33 degrees. Bonanza was 30 degrees and Mother Lode was 26 degrees. 

The large porphyry formation to the south is significant to the occurence of such rich copper veins to the northwest, but is itself largely barren.


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## blackburn49 (Jan 2, 2008)

The Rock Glaciers
The previous map showing the geology of the Kennecott area indicates the presence of several rock glaciers. The one most commonly seen is this one behind the Kennecott mill site. When walking up the trail on the way to the Bonanza mine there is a particularly spectacular view of it. These features are approximately forty percent ice with the remainder being crushed rock. They act in the same manner as piedmont glaciers, advancing very slowly, but receding at a much slower pace. 
  The presence of so many rock glaciers affected mining operations because these features had to be avoided. Thus, many of the tunnels, including the main cross-cut, had to be routed around one of these--the Amazon Glacier. Additionally, the Jumbo and the Mother Lode man camps were built upon these, creating on-going foundation problems.  Click for larger image.


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## blackburn49 (Jan 2, 2008)

The Contact Zone
This aerial of the Bonanza Ridge dramatically reveals the contact zone. All mining occurred just above this zone up to a distance of approximately 300 feet from the base, but no farther.  Sometimes the lengths of the veins would exceed 1,000 feet.  The Erie, Jumbo and Bonanza adits and the adjacent surface camps were all placed right on the contact zone. 
  If you look closely you can see the abandoned Bonanza camp. You can click the above image for a closer view of the landscape, but also take a look below: 
  This is the detail from that photo showing the buildings perched precariously on the very steep hill. You may also click this image for a wider view.  The photo was taken in 1955.


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## blackburn49 (Jan 2, 2008)

The Bonanza Minesite in 2001: 
  Not much remains these days. Here you see the head of the tram terminal / ore bunke and the remains of the transformer building in the background.  All the rest is gone. It is difficult to tell from this photo, but it is another 1,000 feet from the adit level to the top of Bonanza Peak just above the old mine. (click).


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## blackburn49 (Jan 2, 2008)

The NPS Kennecott Drawing: 
This rather simplified drawing shows some of the existing buildings at Kennecott in the context of the Nicolai greenstone and the Chitistone limestone. It shows the Bonanza mine at 4,000 feet, but what that actually means is 4,000 feet_ above_ Kennecott, which is at the 2,100 foot level for track grade.  Also, Bonanza Ridge tops out at about 7,000 feet, not 6,000 feet. 
  Click for a larger image


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## blackburn49 (Jan 2, 2008)

The Abandoned Bonanza--a Closer View: 
  Here it was about 1965. So much of it is gone now, but try to imagine what it would have been like to have gone through these buildings back then.  That barrack on the right was probably the largest such building ever built in Alaska at the 6,000 foot level at three stories plus the basement and attic areas. It was designed to house 84 men and seat up to 150 for dinner. (click)


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## blackburn49 (Jan 2, 2008)

Bonanza Main Barracks, circa 1918:
  I have several photos of this structure. In front is the boiler building. Behind it and slighly up the hill on the right you can see a stack the seems to come out of the ground. It does. That is one of the entrances to the mine.
The other major entry point was behind the ore bunker that you see on the left.  The ore reached this bunker by means of hand-tramming on 30 inch rails. The ore was then dumped into one of two compartments of the ore bin. Below the bunkers were chutes that allowed the ore to enter the aerial tram buckets for the 45 minute ride down the hill. (click).


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## blackburn49 (Jan 2, 2008)

Aerial Tram: 
 This is one of the aerial tram towers, probably near the top of the Bonanza tram line.  Instead of an ore  bucket, what you see is a sling, which was used to transport material up to the mine. 

Click for larger image


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## blackburn49 (Jan 2, 2008)

Riding the Aerial Tram
Picture shows  an ore bucket as it crosses one of the canyons before reaching the mill. 

/> Miners choosing to use this means of travel had to sign an agreement with the company exempting the company from liability. More fatal accidents occurred with this tram than inside the mine itself.

These buckets were moving at five miles per hour. Clearance at the towers was not much. The miner had to be prepared to duck.   

 click either picture  for a larger view


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## blackburn49 (Jan 2, 2008)

Early Days: 1907 (?)
 Here are two grainy images of the site before the tram was fully operational with the second view looking down in the direction of the tram.  As you can see, the first tram head was very rudimentary. 
Those are mining engineers taking samples of the slide area. This was loaded with broken up ore of varying degrees of richness. Much of this slide was eventually scooped up and sent down the tram line. 

Even though these images are not that good, you can click onto either of them for a larger size.


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## blackburn49 (Jan 2, 2008)

Bonanza Mine Plan, 1911
 The tunnel ran through the ridge to the cliff face on the other side. This cliff  is where the high-grade ore was first spotted in 1900. Over time several tunnel openings were developed along the surface of the cliff.  

Click map for larger size


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## blackburn49 (Jan 2, 2008)

Kennecott the Ghost Town_
_   Kennecott has been the subject of many paintings over the years.   --_Gail Neibrugge painting_ And now we continue . . .


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## John J (Dec 29, 2007)

WOW what great pictures    What great info.....

I am so excited.   I love this thread


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## SteveC (Jan 2, 2008)

Ron

Just a FYI, the following replies toward the bottom of page 1, where you have the "Right click and select "view image" for larger size" doesn't work.


Reply Posted: 02/09/2008 12:11 AM (Aerial Tram w/supply sling)
Reply Posted: 02/09/2008 12:16 AM
Reply Posted: 02/09/2008 12:21 AM
Reply Posted: 02/09/2008 12:28 AM

Another exciting and informative topic, once again thanks, but darn it you've made me start another re-read of you book, like I really mind. /DesktopModules/NTForums/themes/mls/emoticons/hehe.gif


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## blackburn49 (Jan 2, 2008)

Posted By SteveC on 02/08/2008 11:56 PM


Ron

Just a FYI, the following replies toward the bottom of page 1, where you have the "Right click and select "view image" for larger size" doesn't work.


Reply Posted: 02/09/2008 12:11 AM (Aerial Tram w/supply sling)
Reply Posted: 02/09/2008 12:16 AM
Reply Posted: 02/09/2008 12:21 AM
Reply Posted: 02/09/2008 12:28 AM

Another exciting and informative topic, once again thanks, but darn it you've made me start another re-read of you book, like I really mind. /DesktopModules/NTForums/themes/mls/emoticons/hehe.gif

If it is a photo where I say "right click and then select 'view image'" there is no additional link to that picture. After you bring the image up, click the plus sign which appears and the pix should enlarge to its full size.


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## blackburn49 (Jan 2, 2008)

Posted By John J on 02/08/2008 11:39 PM
WOW what great pictures    What great info.....

I am so excited.   I love this thread
I am very pleased to learn this since this thread came about as a result of YOUR question.

My regards,

--Ron in CC


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## blackburn49 (Jan 2, 2008)

Posted By SteveC on 02/08/2008 11:56 PM
Another exciting and informative topic, once again thanks, but darn it you've made me start another re-read of you book, like I really mind. /DesktopModules/NTForums/themes/mls/emoticons/hehe.gif
I am even considering including one entire relevant chapter as a part of this thread. I have one in mind from the book which would fit in here very well--with all the original pictures and probably more, of course.

--Ron in CC


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## flatracker (Jan 2, 2008)

This thread is fantastic Ron. I hate to think what it was like working down in those mines, though your book "Legacy of the Chief" sure gives you an insight. I don't like heights, and would have never gone down on one of those "buckets" the ore was transported in.

The pictures and explanations really help in understanding how things worked. I especially enjoy all the photographs, and appreciate you taking the time to post them. I didn't realize how steep the area was, where the buildings are perched. It would seem they would always be in danger of shifting, and I don't know how safe I would have felt when the heavy snows were dumping on them.

Please keep up the good work!

Is there any high grade ore left, or enough of any kind for them to ever reopen the mine areas?


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## blackburn49 (Jan 2, 2008)

Posted By flatracker on 02/09/2008 11:45 AM
This thread is fantastic Ron. I hate to think what it was like working down in those mines, though your book "Legacy of the Chief" sure gives you an insight. I don't like heights, and would have never gone down on one of those "buckets" the ore was transported in.


Please keep up the good work! 

_ Is there any high grade ore left, or enough of any kind for them to ever reopen the mine areas?_
 



Now there is one frequently-asked question I may not have dealt with properly in the book. I'll try to answer that in this thread when we get to that part.
The pictures and explanations really help in understanding how things worked. I especially enjoy all the photographs, and appreciate you taking the time to post them. I didn't realize how steep the area was, where the buildings are perched. It would seem they would always be in danger of shifting, and I don't know how safe I would have felt when the heavy snows were dumping on them.
I climbed to two of the mine sites some years ago--the Erie and the Bonanza.  I never quite made it all the way to the Erie--way too steep and high for me. That route almost requires a mountain-climber and I am definitely not that.

The Bonanza approach is not bad, but it is exhausting. The part from the end of the treeline at about 3,800 feet to the adit level is very steep and the path is narrow. The view, however, is spectacular.  

And, yes, those heavy snows did present quite a problem. At one point in 1918 the Mother Lode workers abandoned the camp because of on-going slides, staying inside the mines.  More frequently, the snows would take out tram towers. These were built increasingly heavier over time so they could withstand direct hits. Some of those are still standing out there.


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## blackburn49 (Jan 2, 2008)

Historic Aerials View 1
  This is the first of three Bradford Washburn shots of Bonanza Ridge and Kennecott in 1938.  This is the straight-on view of Kennecott with a good view of the rock glacier behind it as it flows on the northern slope of Porphyry Mountain.  In front is the morain of Kennicott Glacier. 
Note the difference in the spellings. There has always been a lot of controversy over this. The glacier and river were named in honor of Robert Kennicott, one of America's first official explorers to Alaska.  The town and company had a different spelling. I believe this was deliberate to differentiate the company and town from Alaska due to the unfriendly political climate which existed toward the Guggenheims at that time much as they did toward the oil industry many years later. Every other writer on the subject has assumed that Kennecott is a misspelling, but this does not fit with the way Kennecott did business. Every detail was precise and double-checked. Why would they misspell their own name?  Of course, I am right. (Click for larger view).


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## blackburn49 (Jan 2, 2008)

Kennecott Aerial View 2
  Here we swing around looking directly up the Jumbo tramline--the cleared area going straight up the photo. It terminates at the base of Castle Rock--the distinctive peak that marks the Jumbo mine. To the right you can see a second rock glacier--Amazon Glacier which is directly above the Erie-Jumbo cross-cut. (Click for larger image).


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## SteveC (Jan 2, 2008)

Posted By blackburn49 on 02/09/2008 2:47 AM
Posted By SteveC on 02/08/2008 11:56 PM


Ron

Just a FYI, the following replies toward the bottom of page 1, where you have the "Right click and select "view image" for larger size" doesn't work.


Reply Posted: 02/09/2008 12:11 AM (Aerial Tram w/supply sling)
Reply Posted: 02/09/2008 12:16 AM
Reply Posted: 02/09/2008 12:21 AM
Reply Posted: 02/09/2008 12:28 AM

Another exciting and informative topic, once again thanks, but darn it you've made me start another re-read of you book, like I really mind. /DesktopModules/NTForums/themes/mls/emoticons/hehe.gif

If it is a photo where I say "right click and then select 'view image'" there is no additional link to that picture. After you bring the image up, click the plus sign which appears and the pix should enlarge to its full size. 


Ron

OK, now I understand what you're speaking of, however, be aware that what you describe is only true for the FireFox browser and not MS/Internet Explorer, at least IE v6.0.2800, which may cause confusion.


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## blackburn49 (Jan 2, 2008)

Kennecott historic aerial #3
  This is the one which I find most stunning because it most graphically illustrates the extreme nature of the country. Here you see more of the Kennicott Glacier, which is covered with detritus that has given the appearance to some of mining tailings, which they are not. You can also see Root Glacier--nearly solid white-- intersecting the Kennicott Glacier. At the head of Root Glacier is the famous "icefall stairway."  At approximately the point where you see the ridge dropping steeply into the Root Glacier was the Erie Mine. It was built on a steep slope approximately 1200 feet above the glacier. (Click for larger image).


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## blackburn49 (Jan 2, 2008)

Posted By SteveC on 02/08/2008 11:56 PM


Ron

OK, now I understand what you're speaking of, however, be aware that what you describe is only true for the FireFox browser and not MS/Internet Explorer, which will cause confusion. 
Thanks for that clarification. Now what you were trying to tell me makes sense to me too. I'll go back an remark those accordingly. 

_Okay. I have now gone back and corrected those images. You can now simply click on them for a larger image, as it now states under each photo.  
_
--Ron


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## blackburn49 (Jan 2, 2008)

Historic Kennecott Panorama
  Here is a historic view of Kennecott in the early 1920s taken from the top of the Kennicott Glacier at a time when it was much higher than it is now. It is believed that in the last six decades this glacier has lost over 300 feet of height.   About 1/3 the way up the ridge on the left at the point where it plunges into the Root Glacier was Erie.
The entire mining area of Bonanza Ridge is displayed in this historic photo, from Erie to Bonanza. The approximate location of Bonanza is directly above the mill in the center adn slightly to the right of that hill along the slope but very near the top. There is a rounded hill just below it. The mine was above that. at the lower edge of the snow area. 
This panorama is one of many which is prominently displayed in my bar. (Click).


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## blackburn49 (Jan 2, 2008)

Washburn Aerial #4: Taken from above McCarthy, 1938:
This one shows the entire mining area plus most of Porphyry Ridge and McCarthy.
  You may click this image for a very large one which will even show you details of the railroad as it passes by McCarthy. That is McCarthy Creek in the foreground. You can also see much more of Kennicott Glacier and even some details of Kennecott in the larger photo linked to this one. (Click).


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## blackburn49 (Jan 2, 2008)

Kennecott Looking Up
 Excellent photo of Kennecott as it appears today, demonstrating the relationship of the ghost town to Bonanza Ridge above. (Click).
Now we will return to the various minesites along that ridge from Erie to Mother Lode.


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## flatracker (Jan 2, 2008)

When I saw the Aeriel #1 the first thing that came to my mind was, that must be tailings from the mine, but after seeing #4 plus your comment, I realized how huge the area was and that it couldn't be. That is a neat group of pictures and sure shows how massive the area really is.

I think you did mention in your book, the lack of any interest in ever opening the mines again. I just wondered if the huge increase in the price of copper would open any possibilities. I guess it would be too expensive to get it out unless there was a very large amount left.


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## blackburn49 (Jan 2, 2008)

Posted By flatracker on 02/09/2008 4:31 PM
I think you did mention in your book, the lack of any interest in ever opening the mines again. I just wondered if the huge increase in the price of copper would open any possibilities. I guess it would be too expensive to get it out unless there was a very large amount left.


All of the Kennecott claims are now held by the National Park Service and will never be developed. The Mother Lode claims, which remain in private hands, are accessible only by special permit by the NPS and are thus unlikely to ever be developed. No exploration for additional copper ores have been conducted since 1969. The most promising area for finding additional copper, aside from what was left behind, lies within the Mother Lode claims.


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## blackburn49 (Jan 2, 2008)

The Copper River Region:  Wrangell St. Elias National Park ("WRST")
  Kennecott lies within the WRST  which consists of nearly 13 million acres--the largest national park in America. The Kennecott acreage was not acquired until 1997.  (click for full-sized map)


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## noelw (Jan 2, 2008)

Tks for a very interesting article.. keep it coming..


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## blackburn49 (Jan 2, 2008)

An Expanded Project
  _The rock glacier above the Kennecott mill, picure taken from the top of the mill. _
Starting out on this Kennecott mine site thread has forced me to pull out my rolling cart full of 
Kennecott and its CRNW Railway-related photo albums. I have no idea how many are there, but they do number in the thousands, I am sure.  This has turned into a rather large project in and of itself, but I have been meaning to reorganize this file anyway.

Right now I am in the process of pulling out and re-scanning the photos for greater size in width and length  than I have used in the past. However, you should find that even my large images that you click onto load very fast. That is because I am setting those used  on this site to low resolution for your convenience. For the most part, I am unable to tell the difference. 

Currently I am in the Bonanza photo files, which is the largest part of my Kennecott mine site collection.


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## blackburn49 (Jan 2, 2008)

Early Bonanza 
  Using the same early map, note the first building to appear on the Bonanza mine site was
the "cabin," which was a small barrack.  Among the names which early on are associated with this
site are Stephen Birch himself who was the genius behind Kennecott and its first President. 
This may very well have been Stephen Birch's first Kennecott residence. 

The original adit, as you can see from the map, was behind this building.  Eventually this "cabin" 
would be replaced by the much larger barrack you viewed in an earlier post. 

This shot was taken in 1909. (click)


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## blackburn49 (Jan 2, 2008)

Early Bonanza, Pt 2
  It was not long before the Kennecott Copper had built up quite a complex on the hill at the 6,000 foot level. The ore bunker on the left would soon be significantly altered in appearance.  Note the long snow shed on the right between another new building--probably for the compressors-- and the ore bunker. Below this snow shed in the center is the expanded barrack building.  The snow shed leads to the original main adit. An early fire at the compressor building not only set back plans here but significantly changed the appearance of the complex.

The bunker sits in front of a second adit which led directly to a dumping point at the top of the Bonanza incline shaft.   The tunnel was punched through to facilitate the removal of the ore from underground directly to the top rear of the ore bunker.  When you click onto the larger size you will also more clearly see the steep chute which leads to the top of the ridge. It appears that this was used to transport _slide ore _to the ore bunker. In later photos this structure was gone.


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## blackburn49 (Jan 2, 2008)

Early Bonanza, Pt 3
New barracks added on the left side of the ore bunker, which has already been significantly altered. 
  On the lower right is the head of the Bonanza tram. Behind it is the original barrack structure. 
(click)


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## blackburn49 (Jan 2, 2008)

Early Bonanza, Pt 4
  By now the snowshed is gone, as is the structure which was behind it, probably the compressor building. (click).


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## blackburn49 (Jan 2, 2008)

Early Bonanza, Pt 5
  Photos showing the contrast between the original Bonanza complex (~1912-13) and the later one (1918 --)
  The ore bunker has once again changed, the new barrack is in place, and the older one is gone. Up on the hill a small building which probably held transformers is gone. That is because the power no longer went up the ridge, but instead headed underground, then was strung over to the Jumbo by way of the 600 cross-cut and to the Mother Lode via the 800 cross-cut tunnel.  (click either image).


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## blackburn49 (Jan 2, 2008)

Early Bonanza, Pt 6
  This is the complex just prior to construction of the new barrack in 1916.  The two existing barracks were simply inadequate for the manpower required for the growing operation here at Bonanza. Additionally, the acquisition of the Mother Lode claims was anticipated. This would require an even larger increase in mining personel. They would have to be housed and fed here at Bonanza while they were driving a new cross-cut over to the other side of the mountain. Once that was accomplished it was assumed that the old surface Mother Lode camp would be abandoned and all the miners moved to the Bonanza camp. 
(click)


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## blackburn49 (Jan 2, 2008)

The New Bonanza Barrack, 1916
  Here it is with windows still waiting to be installed. This was the largest of the barracks to be constructed anywhere on the Kennecott Alaska properties with a capability to house 84 men and dine 150 men. To the right is the old barrack. Behind the structure you can see a water line running up the hill.  (click).


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## blackburn49 (Jan 2, 2008)

Fire Strikes Bonanza, 1916
  No sooner had the new barrack gone up than distaster struck. The fire not only took out the new 
barrack, but the original one adjacent it as well (see lower picture--click either for larger image). 
  In this photo, the new barrack is already burned down and the adjacent one is on fire. 
Unfortunately, there is no information as to the cause of this fire.


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## blackburn49 (Jan 2, 2008)

Rebuilding the Bonanza Main Barrack:
    The barrack was not rebuilt until two years later. In 1918 construction began on a near-identical building to replace the structure which had burned down.  Lower picture is the older barrack prior to the fire in 1916.
Upper one was the 1918 re-construction. 
(click either for larger image)


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## blackburn49 (Jan 2, 2008)

Coming up: The workings of Kennecott in a readable scale (very large)







Are you ready to take a look at the layout of the Kennecott mine workings?  

Not yet?  Okay we'll set aside the overview and profile maps for now. I have some other aspects of these mines to deal with, including historic photos of _all_ the other mine sites, a  few historic photos inside the mine itself and even a few inside the ML*  area that were probably taken within the last dozen years or so.  Some parts of the mine has been accessible until the NPS finally found a way to seal off the remaining adits (or at least, so they think). 

_*ML = Mother Lode_


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## Guest (Feb 11, 2008)

hello,

i would be very interested in fotos from the building, where the ore is brought out and loaded.

(got some spooky ideas about building a mine, with the mountainside and building visible from one side, and some of the tunnels from the other side. like if the mountain was sliced open)

thank you,
korm
.


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## blackburn49 (Jan 2, 2008)

Posted By kormsen on 02/10/2008 7:27 PM
hello,

i would be very interested in fotos from the building, where the ore is brought out and loaded.

(got some spooky ideas about building a mine, with the mountainside and building visible from one side, and some of the tunnels from the other side. like if the mountain was sliced open)

thank you,
korm
.
Not all that different from an idea I was considering. I am downloading a copy of the drawing of the original Bonanza ore bin that I found. Since it is in high resolution TIFF, I will be waiting for the two pieces for awhile. I wanted that size to be able to read all the lettering in it. I will present it here maybe later tonight. I have only a few photos that come close to the operation of which you speak and nothing of the inside, but I can give you a good idea of the set up based on what I have figured out, having been on the ground up there. I'll see what I can do. 


--Ron in Alaska


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## sbaxters4 (Jan 2, 2008)

Ron, 
Once again you have capured and mezmerized the masses with your stories of the great Kennecott Mines that you love so much. Keep the material coming and don't leave us hanging. I too would love to be able to get there and walk around the remains of this totally fascinating area. Since reading your book I often think of what it must have been like to be living and working in those difficult days in the weather that is so much a part of the Alsakan image. 
We routinely deal with a couple of days or weeks of terrible below zero temps every winter but up there near where it all begins I can't imagine what it must be like. Truly an amazing story of perseverence and hard work. Thank you again for keeping it alive and giving us a chance to understand it.


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## blackburn49 (Jan 2, 2008)

Posted By sbaxters4 on 02/10/2008 8:42 PM
Ron, 
Once again you have capured and mezmerized the masses with your stories of the great Kennecott Mines that you love so much. Keep the material coming and don't leave us hanging.
This is a very time-consuming process. It is taking longer than I thought to set up for this thread.  It has been a long time since I went through these albums and other documents.  The problem is less remembering them than it is finding that material once again.  Now I'm too tired to think enough to write much of anything, but I am finally  just about ready to continue, probably tomorrow.  And, of course, I am working on more than one thread while trying to keep my main project--which is completing the Phase II project-- on track (pun unintended). 

Oh, and thanks for the compliment.  A few of those are what keep these posts going. 


--Ron in Alaska


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## flatracker (Jan 2, 2008)

I think you have a lot more readers than you think Ron. There are lurkers that never post (I don't know why) though they are interested. In a few Garden Railroad meetings, I have heard people speaking of subjects in MLS that have never posted anything, though they were sure up to date on what was happening. Go figure...

Anyway, please keep up the interesting thread. I love the pictures (that old saying about one being worth a thousand words comes to mind) and also how things worked and the progression of events.

I'm sorry the Park service chose to close everything, but I guess the lawyers cause that, due to their suing everyone, no matter whose fault it is. (It seems no one is responsible for their actions anymore, but the other party is responsible for making sure they have done everything to prevent some stupid jerk from hurting themselves.) Therefore, we all suffer for the actions of a few. Whoops...off the band wagon...sorry..


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## sheepdog (Jan 2, 2008)

Great reading and photos Ron! Don't stop now. 

One of the questions I think JJ had was the state of the mines themselves. Did they blow up the entrances? When was the last time anyone was in them? Any info on the mine shafts? 

Thanks, 
Craig


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## afinegan (Jan 2, 2008)

I use to be one of those lurkers until I went to Diamondhead this year lol, now I am posting alot more.

(btw this post is excellent!!)

- Andrew


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## Torby (Jan 2, 2008)

Fascinating how you've collected all these photos and details. Being neither historian nor Alaska expert, there's just not I can add to your threads, but I do enjoy.


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## markoles (Jan 2, 2008)

Ron,

As you may recall, the company I work for makes grinding mills for mining and other minerals processing applications.  I've followed your posts with great interest since you first started posting in 2003.  I should have bought your book by now, but haven't.  

As for the reopening, I am sure there are people out there who'd love to get at just the tailings of this mine site.  With the price of copper where it is, many operations have found it feasible to invest in equipment to grind the tailings finer and reclaim the copper, sometimes as low as 0.5%.  Given the high grade of the original orebody, I imagine the tailings were high in copper, too.  I'd be willing to bet that the othe copper mines in the world are pretty happy that this site is shut down.  Less high grade copper = higher prices!

And of course, Kennecott Utah remains one of the biggest copper mines in the US. 

I also recalled seeing a primitive ball mill in the processing plant photos you had.  Seems like it had wooden bearings.  Not surprising given the era.  Things have changed quite a bit in that area, but the concept is still the same.

Mark

PS - I always liked the photos you'd post of the weather conditions in CC.  If you have any interesting ones, send them on to me or post them here for folks.


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## blackburn49 (Jan 2, 2008)

Posted By flatracker on 02/11/2008 5:47 AM
 I love the pictures (that old saying about one being worth a thousand words comes to mind) and also how things worked and the progression of events.



  There is something special about Kennecott that one cannot quantify.  Many a person sees this stuff and finds a great urge to want to go back in time when the miners and engineers were there and see what is really going on.  I have spent many years pursuing some of those long-gone engineers trying to piece the puzzle together. That is a story in itself.  It is amazing what is still around to be found--there is a lot of it both on the site itself and in various historic records.  But at the same time it is sometimes curious what is missing probably forever, open only to speculation and one's best educated guesses.  Often it is only the old pictures that are left to give the clues and tell the stories.   

Kennecott in 1981, Porphyry Mountain in the background. Orientation is SSE. Click for a slightly larger version.


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## blackburn49 (Jan 2, 2008)

Posted By markoles on 02/11/2008 11:50 AM
Ron,

As you may recall, the company I work for makes grinding mills for mining and other minerals processing applications.  I've followed your posts with great interest since you first started posting in 2003. 
. . . I also recalled seeing a primitive ball mill in the processing plant photos you had.  Seems like it had wooden bearings.  Not surprising given the era.  Things have changed quite a bit in that area, but the concept is still the same.

Mark
Wooden bearings? I doubt it: Here is the ball mill:
      As always, these photos can be clicked to a larger image.


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## blackburn49 (Jan 2, 2008)

And here is the diagram for the crushing process within the Kennecott mill . . . 








click for larger image


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## blackburn49 (Jan 2, 2008)

For context, here is the full mill process:
  Click for a much larger (readable) size,but in low resolution for fast-loading


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## blackburn49 (Jan 2, 2008)

And, finally, here is the 1916 flowsheet.  
This was drawn up before the water flotation process was added that nearly doubled the size of the mill. 
_As you can see, this is a long sheet, clickable to a slightly larger, more readable size. _
  Before we head back up the hill to the Bonanza mine site where we started, I have one last item to show you.


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## blackburn49 (Jan 2, 2008)

The Kennecott Bonanza-Jumbo Tram Terminal:
  VIew of mill from rear:  This is the Bonanza tram terminal. On the right is the Jumbo tram. 
  The ore discharges from the tram buckets here. The way it works is the bucket is unclipped from the 1 1/4 inch steel cable as it is hooked up to an overhead steel rail mounted from above.  The bucket is then brought to the vibrating grizzly where the ore is discharged. Then the bucket is pushed around the steel rail loop   to the other side where it is brought past the large cable wheel, then re-hooked to the return line so the empty bucket can proceed back up to the mines.   

A similar system existed on the other end just below the Bonanza ore bins. I don't have pictures of that end on the inside, so I am showing you the  system at the mill-end. Regrettably, all of the overhead system on the mill discharge end itself was destroyed in 1964 when the roof was torn off the mill. Fortunately, we do have the historic photos.


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## blackburn49 (Jan 2, 2008)

Receiving End of Discharge Terminal at the Kennecott Mill, 1911
  I personally visited the Bonanza tram terminal about 1996 or 7. At that time the room was still intact where ore was dischared from the bins above to the tram buckets, which were run along rail just like what you see here. 
  Much of the time, just one man was on this level to handle the ore discharge. These buckets were separated by only 1200 feet and coming at him at a rate of five miles per hour. I read a story where in 1937 one of the workers nearly fell through the grizzly. Something caught him so he could hold himself in place long enough to be rescued. This only happened when someone realized that the tram buckets were backing up. 

That man was George Sullivan who went on in later years to become mayor of Anchorage for several terms back in the 1970s.  
  click any photo for larger image

And now we return to the Bonanza surface camp . . .


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## blackburn49 (Jan 2, 2008)

Posted By sheepdog on 02/11/2008 6:12 AM
Great reading and photos Ron! Don't stop now. 

One of the questions I think JJ had was the state of the mines themselves. Did they blow up the entrances? When was the last time anyone was in them? Any info on the mine shafts? 

Thanks, 
Craig
I am working myself to that point.  We're not quite there yet.


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## blackburn49 (Jan 2, 2008)

Posted By markoles on 02/11/2008 11:50 AM
Ron,

As for the reopening, I am sure there are people out there who'd love to get at just the tailings of this mine site.  With the price of copper where it is, many operations have found it feasible to invest in equipment to grind the tailings finer and reclaim the copper, sometimes as low as 0.5%.  Given the high grade of the original orebody, I imagine the tailings were high in copper, too.  I'd be willing to bet that the othe copper mines in the world are pretty happy that this site is shut down.  Less high grade copper = higher prices!

Mark

.
I was able to obtain some tailings for my Kennecott model project. They are integrated into the area in front of the model of the power plant. This is no longer much more than color because the milling process at Kennecott was so efficient. 

On the other hand, one of the world's richest copper mine is about to find its way into another part of Alaska to the west of Anchorage under the name "Pebble Mine," of which Kennecott holds maybe a ten percent interest. It appears that this one, if it makes it through the environmental maze, will be among the top three copper producers in the world. We're talking of something in the scale of the Alyeska pipeline. Needless to say, the environmentalists are already lining up in opposition even before the environmental impact studies have been done.


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## John J (Dec 29, 2007)

I was born in the wrong time period.   I should have been born in the early   1900's   I would love to have gone the mies and  seen what they do and how they do it.

I also would have loved to have worked on  the first Rail Roads.


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## blackburn49 (Jan 2, 2008)

Plans for the Original Bonanza Ore Bunker: 
  
  These were the plans for the ore bunker you see here. Although the roofline was significantly altered, the plans you see are otherwise the bunker and tram terminal as it was at abandonment. Picture of the original is below.  I am assumingthat the roofline was turned around because that original design allowed too much snow to fall onto the open area behind the  bunker.Later on that area was covered with an extensive snowshed.  Click either plan for a larger version. 








Note the severe steepness of the terrain that even shows up in the 1911 plans.


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## blackburn49 (Jan 2, 2008)

Ore Bunker Operation:
click onto the picture for the larger one with the labels.

Based on my personal observations on the site and other data, I can tell you that this is how the bunker and tram terminal would have operated. You can see the incoming empty bucket (blue arrow).  This was also the supply line, so instead of a bucket there could have been either a sling or a specialized tank attached to carry water, fuel oil or coal.  Heavy incoming objects for the mine would go to the right side of the bunker where they would have been winched up to the adit level.When I examined it, there were no tracks there, just a slick wood surface. 

There was, however an intact set of overhead rails of the same type seen in the photos for the top of the mill. These were for moving the tram buckets beyond the end of the tram.  

There was also a sizeable generator below the tram encased in a concerte base. This was used as a dynamic brake on the tram line while at the same time generating additional power for the mines. The tram line itself operated by gravity. That is, the weight of the ore heading down the steep line was what it took to move the buckets. The generator here and at the angle station about half way down were needed to control the rate of the buckets heading down to the mill. 

Other items would be rolled over to the snowshed on the right where they would have been hoisted up a set of tracks to the lower level of the barrack or to the boiler house, transformer building or the underground compressor room (moved there after a disasterous fire early in the operation).  It was probably by this means that the ore cars and battery locomotives were sent to the mines. A second and third haulage tunnel were located immediately behind the barrack building.  

The bunker was at the end of what was probably a double track that enabled hand trammers to select which bunker in which to dump the ore.  (light blue arrows  above the bunker).  The line to the left was also the way to the waste rock dump (green arrow), a covered snowshed.  You also see a blue arrow pointing toward the extension at the base of the bunkers. This was for some kind of scraper that brought rich slide ore the top of the tram.  It would only have been in operation a relatively short time, probably during the mid 1920s when Kennecott was also developing the Glacier open pit mine.


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## blackburn49 (Jan 2, 2008)

Bonanza Layout
  This is nearly the full layout of Bonanza as it appeared in the 1920s and 1930s. Click for the larger image.


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## blackburn49 (Jan 2, 2008)

Bonanza upper camp circa 1918:
  Use this as a comparison with the plan. Note the extensive waste ore snowshed,  the slide ore drag-line area, and the long snowshed up to the rear of the main barrack. When this photo was taken, the end of the tram terminal was not extended as it shows in the plan. Instead there is a tram tower there.   Click for larger image.


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## blackburn49 (Jan 2, 2008)

Posted By John J on 02/11/2008 7:25 PM
I was born in the wrong time period.   I should have been born in the early   1900's   I would love to have gone the mies and  seen what they do and how they do it.

I also would have loved to have worked on  the first Rail Roads. 
You wouldn't believe how often I hear that, especially from guys who are in their late 50s and older. It is a remarkably common sentiment.  No question about it, those were exciting times.  They were also far less complicated days in which to live. We could never repeat something like the Kennecott because it was a direct reflection of a type of society that no longer exists.


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## blackburn49 (Jan 2, 2008)

The Bonanza in the 1980s
  I can no longer remember the source of this photo. It was probably taken from the Alaska Magazine back in the early 1980s.  The tram terminal and much of the ore bunker is still intact and even the barrack on the left is still standing.  It was pictures like this one back then that really helped awaken my curiosity about Kennecott.

I used to sit in the cafe at the old Hub at Glennallen in the late 1970s and hear stories from one guy that traveled in and out of McCarthy.  He worked at McCarthy lodge as a cook back then but made occasional trips up to the mine sites. He would tell us about how the adits were mostly iced-over but that sometimes holes would open up and air would be blasting through those.  Curious, indeed. 

Click for larger image.


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## blackburn49 (Jan 2, 2008)

Bonanza Ruins
  Of course, the first time I viewed these pictures I had no idea what had been here originally. It was only later, as I conducted my extensive photographic research of this project that I realized that half of the camp was gone--without explanation. What had happened to the big barrack?  Had a snow slide come along and taken it out for one glorious ride down the very steep hill?  Nothing in the archives gave me a clue.  It was only much later in one of my interviews that I found out the story behind the disappearance of the huge barrack and other buildings that once existed on the right side of this photo. 
(click)


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## blackburn49 (Jan 2, 2008)

Bonanza in the 1990s
  By the time I arrived the remaining structures were definitely looking like the end for them was near. The old barrack on the left side of the tram terminal had mostly fallen in. The tram terminal itself felt unstable to walk on. However, it was mostly intact inside.  That is a large tram tower you see there on the left. 

(click)


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## blackburn49 (Jan 2, 2008)

The Bonanza Ore Bunker: 
  Here is a good photo of the ore bunker from the east side as it appeared in 1965--about the time that the roof collapsed on it.  The machine hoist is clearly visible on this side of the bunker.  (click).


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## blackburn49 (Jan 2, 2008)

Relationship of the upper tunnels to Bonanza Camp
  
Here I show the tunnels to the surface at the upper level behind Bonanza camp.
Click either image for a larger one.


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## blackburn49 (Jan 2, 2008)

The Miners at the Old Bunker 
  Very early photo of the men on the old waste ore rail line to the dump.  This feature was soon abandoned in favor of a line which ran behind the bunker on the ground and inside a snowshed.  In the distance is the east ridge leading to McCarthy Creek.  (Click).


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## Kevin Miller (Jan 5, 2008)

Ron,

You can count me as one of those always looking for more from *blackburn49*.   And I thank you for making your photos dialup compatible.


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## blackburn49 (Jan 2, 2008)

Posted By Kevin Miller on 02/11/2008 10:42 PM
Ron,

You can count me as one of those always looking for more from *blackburn49*.   And I thank you for making your photos dialup compatible. 
Pleased to learn it has worked out. I use an Adobe Photoshop program to convert my images to low resolution both within the forum itself and also for the larger pictures behind them--some of them being 1600 pixels wide and even more.

I have so much activity going between this one and the historic KMR project that I am having a problem balancing all of that in my head to keep track of where I am at for purposes of providing the right images without duplicating them elsewhere. I try to load the ones I am going to use the night before so that they are fresh in my mind. All of them are located in my Photobucket account. 

This is a useful project for me  because as I write these posts, my mind works at another level planning new moves or refining existing ones on one of my three projects. Granted, Phase I, the Kennecott / CRNW Railway, is long done, but I am working out some ideas that will ultimately bring me back there to do some refinements and possibly add new elements to the original project. 

One of them was alluded to earlier. For many years--even before I bought this location a dozen years ago-- I have wanted to do a mine cut-away model. The main problem is the massive scale involved to make it anywhere near realistic. The addition of a new walkway on the back end of the Kennecott model housing structure actually opens up the way for setting up a model underground cut-away mine that could potentially be close to twenty feet in height, or depth, depending on how you look at it.  Well, that's a long way off, but it is an enticing future feature I need to explore further. And now, I am coming all that much closer to figuring out how to pull that off. 

--Ron in CC, Alaska


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## blackburn49 (Jan 2, 2008)

Lunch at Bonanza, Chapter 21, "Legacy of the Chief," pt A

_* We at Kennecott intend to abandon our large Alaskan presence in favor of a small territory-wide minerals exploration company. We may elect to use the lower Kennecott mill site as a jumping-off point for future exploration efforts in the territory.*  --Stephen Birch talking to the engineering staff assembled at the Bonanza mess hall, July 1924_ Much of interior Alaska consists of low-lying, relatively flat river valleys bounded by high mountain ranges. The Copper River valley is one of these. The cold winter air settles heavily in these areas. Places closest to frozen river channels are noted for their extreme cold. A distance of a few hundred feet up a hill can mean twenty degrees difference in temperature. Up to a point, the higher elevations of the interior are warmer than elevations closest to the frozen rivers. In the summer the higher elevations remain mild, while the lower areas near the rivers become uncomfortably hot. The winter extremes can last from mid-October to mid-March, whereas the summer extremes typically last only from mid-June to mid-July. 

One last heat wave sat over the lowlands of the Nizina, Chitina and Copper River valleys when the Birch party arrived in mid-July, 1924. Temperatures at the mill site were reaching uncomfortable highs that would be normal most anywhere else. At the 6000-foot altitude of Bonanza, the engineers found relief from the hot weather they had been experiencing below at Kennecott. Once again it was a beautifully clear day with only light breezes. The spectacular view from the Bonanza barracks included the backdrop of the distant, white-capped Chugach Range. The southern end of Kennicott Glacier near McCarthy had striations which could only be seen from above. Most eye-catching was the west-facing rock glacier, which ended two thousand feet above Kennecott, while originating near the summit of Porphyry Mountain. 
* Once again it was a beautifully clear day with only light breezes. The spectacular view from the Bonanza barracks included the backdrop of the distant, white-capped Chugach Range.  * *Porphyry Mountain and the Chugach Range as seen from the Bonanza barrack. *


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## blackburn49 (Jan 2, 2008)

Lunch at Bonanza, Chapter 21, "Legacy of the Chief," pt B

*The Bonanza in its heyday*
Bonanza, Jumbo and Erie mines all had a south-westerly orientation, placing each mine site in its own unique position to catch the setting sun. Each mine sat a thousand or more feet below the summit of Bonanza Ridge and was therefore also in the path of rock slides and avalanches. The tree line was somewhere below the angle station at 3,800 feet. Even the brush line ended well short of even the lowest camp. Each was at the head of an aerial tram line. 

The Bonanza tram was 16,100 feet long and had a monthly capacity of 16,000 tons per month, using six-cubic-foot capacity buckets. The speed of travel was 500 feet per minute. The Jumbo tram was 16,500 feet long. It ran at 525 feet per minute. The 5000-foot long Glacier tram connected to the Jumbo at about the halfway point at the Junction Station, which showed on the map as Station No. 3. The angle station at 3,800 feet, was the midway point for the Bonanza aerial tram. The Jumbo and Bonanza trams terminated at floor level twelve of the mill at 2,300 feet. 

The tram at the Erie was for personnel and supplies. The tram at Mother Lode extended from the upper camp at the 5,200 level eastward to an an abandoned lower camp at McCarthy Creek. The company rebuilt the tram in 1920 as an alternative means to supply the upper camp, but the 6,000-foot tram remained out of use in 1924. Another tram extended from the Mother Lode upper camp to the Marvelous adit, two hundred feet above. The ore from the Mother Lode was trammed underground through the thirty-three degree Bonanza incline to the Bonanza adit at the 150 level, where the Bonanza aerial tram transferred the ore to the mill. 

*The Bonanza only thirty years after Birch visited it for the last time. *


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## blackburn49 (Jan 2, 2008)

* The Jumbo mine site*
Lunch at Bonanza, Chapter 21, "Legacy of the Chief," pt C

On July 15th, the Erie cross cut tunnel to the 1500 foot level of Jumbo was completed. Tracks were then laid so that a battery locomotive could move Erie ore to the Jumbo thirty-degree incline tunnel, where it would be hauled to the surface and sent down the Jumbo tram to the mill. 

The Jumbo and Bonanza had a cross-cut tunnel at the 600 level. These two mines were about a mile apart. Mother Lode connected to Bonanza at the 800 level in 1919 and the 1250 level by 1921. With the Erie to Jumbo two-mile cross-cut completed at the 1500 level of Jumbo, all the underground workings were finally connected in 1924. 

The Glacier Mine was a surface operation that was a mixture of ice and ore from the Bonanza outcropping. Because it was a rock glacier, the ice made up forty percent of the volume. A Bagley scraper operated throughout the 1920s during June, July and August, digging into the rock glacier. Bonanza mine had several adits in the cirque overlooking the rock glacier mining operation. One of these portals was the head of a temporary tram to the Glacier mine, 1000 feet below. Most of the others were old adits from the early days when Stephen Birch’s first crew began removing the high-grade ore from the surface. These old tunnels ended as thousand-foot sheer drop-offs. 
* View of the Glacier mine tram head overlooking the Kennicott Glacier*


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## blackburn49 (Jan 2, 2008)

*Engineering and office staff at Kennecott in the 1930s. The man in glasses with the pipe is superintendent Richelsen*
Lunch at Bonanza, Chapter 21, "Legacy of the Chief," pt D
On July 15th, there were 72 men working at Bonanza, 86 at Jumbo, 17 at Erie and 146 at the Mother Lode Mine, for a total of 321. Another 142 worked at the lower camp. The aerial trams, messes and staff accounted for the rest, bringing the total workforce at Kennecott to exactly 550 that day with a monthly payroll of $86,337.00. The previous year had seen peak ore production at 339,374 tons. The workforce then had been about 600 men. By the end of 1924, the production would be about three quarters of 1923. Such was the state of the mines as Stephen Birch and Dan Jackling headed up the Bonanza tram to visit the Bonanza, the Mother Lode and the Jumbo in the summer of 1924. 

Our entire staff had already arrived ahead of all the top-level managers and visitors. We realized that the Bonanza and Jumbo were essentially cleaned out. Even the Mother Lode was nearly depleted of its proven reserves. Typically the company was able to establish reserves four years in advance of actually removing the ore. This was no longer true. Everyone knew what was coming. 

I sat down next to Russell Belvedere at one of the two ten-man tables placed together for our meeting. Coffee and water was already set up. The meal would follow Stephen Birch’s speech. The Great Man rose to speak. 
*Stephen Birch, "the great man," on the ground at Kennecott in a 1911 trip, probably a few months after the railroad reached this site. The man next to him was Superintendent Seagraves, while the two others were representatives of the Guggenheim brothers--the original investors and originators Kennecott*.


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## blackburn49 (Jan 2, 2008)

* Stephen Birch, *Founder, President and Chairman of the Board, Kennecott; president and director of the Alaska Steamship Company; chairman of the board of Braden Copper Company (the big one in Chile); a director of the Alaska Development and Mineral Company; the Bankers Trust Company of New York; the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy Railroad Company; the Colorado & Southern Railroad Company; and the Northern Pacific Railroad Company. *1872-1940*.
Lunch at Bonanza, Chapter 21, "Legacy of the Chief," pt E
“By now, all of you are aware why I came here with Mr. Jackling. Our consulting engineer Mr. Bateman first called my attention to the need to reevaluate this great interior Alaska mine group in relation to our worldwide system, including the Bingham, Ray, Chino, Ely and Braden Mines. 

“It has been a great run. Much more so than we ever had dreamed. This mine, as you all know, was my first. It is the one which I hold dearest because my career really began right here close to the spot where I now stand. The Bonanza-Jumbo for a brief time was a top producer worldwide. We suspected at the beginning and we know now that the richness of the ore here has never been surpassed and probably never will be. 

“But the Bonanza and Jumbo have already seen their heyday. We have no reason to believe that any new significant ore bodies will be discovered in either of those mines. You will soon be asked to begin preparing a plan of retreat for these two mines. 

“With the completion of the Jumbo to Erie crosscut, we have discovered four new veins. There remain other areas which have not yet been fully prospected. However, there has been nothing which appears to approximate the ore-bodies of the Jumbo or Bonanza. I have concluded that it is unlikely that any really large deposits exist in the still unexplored area between Jumbo and Erie. Nevertheless, I am directing Bill Douglass to concentrate core-drilling in that area and develop prospect drifts and cross-cuts where they can be justified." 
*The Erie Mine overlooking Root Glacier. *


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## blackburn49 (Jan 2, 2008)

* Upper Mother Lode camp in Potter Gulch*
Lunch at Bonanza, Chapter 21, "Legacy of the Chief," pt F
“We will continue to extend the Jumbo incline downward, as there is still some remote likelihood of ore-body extensions at still lower levels. 

“The Bonanza has been explored to the limits of the Mother Lode boundary. It has been fully prospected. We now consider this mine as essentially done. Instead we will concentrate our greatest efforts in the adjacent Mother Lode property. The Mother Lode incline will be extended, possibly another thousand vertical feet, since this area remains the most promising. 

“Also, the upper reaches of the old workings on the McCarthy Creek side --the Marvelous vein--needs to be fully opened and explored. You will be directed soon to submit plans for a small-scale operation in that area. Although I personally hold little hope that we will find anything of significance there, we need to fully prospect that area so we can assure our shareholders that all possibilities of finding new ore-bodies have been exhausted.” 

“Having said that, it is my personal feeling that the end of the mine is now in sight. I believe this is obvious to all of you fellow engineers. The quality and quantity of the ore below the 1,252 stope is not encouraging. The trends are discouraging. I will recommend to the board that we downgrade this mine to secondary status. It is time to look toward implementing a plan of full scale retreat in advance of closing our interior Alaskan operations and shutting down our railroad." 
*McCarthy Creek downstream from the Mother Lode claims, looking south.
*


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## blackburn49 (Jan 2, 2008)

*The great Bonanza Mine*
Lunch at Bonanza, Chapter 21, "Legacy of the Chief," pt G

“This will be reflected in the maintenance budget. No longer will large amounts of money be spent without first checking with the New York office. No major construction of any kind and no major purchases should be considered. This means minimal development, but an increase in exploration. I will be sending our chief consulting engineer from Yale University, Mr. Alan Bateman, here next season to map out our exploration alternatives and initiate a full-scale plan of retreat. 

“Our Alaskan operations manager, Mr. Nieding here, will be moved to our Seattle office. He will only appear for inspection visits while we concentrate on our activities outside of Alaska. We already know that we will be shutting down our Beatson and Girdwood mines on LaTouche Island by no later than 1930. I would like to try to close out this operation at the same time as the Beatson Mine. We at Kennecott intend to abandon our large Alaskan presence in favor of a small territory-wide minerals exploration company. We may elect to use the lower Kennecott mill site as a jumping-off point for future exploration efforts in the territory. 

“I wish to thank your engineering staff under Bert Nieding for the help they have extended Mr. Jackling and myself. The report provided by Bill Douglass and the rest of you has been of particular value to me. I am sure the board and stock holders will be pleased, even as we begin to slowly close this operation down. I wish I could be as optimistic as Mr. Douglass or even Mr. Jackling, but I am not. So we will begin by cutting back expenditures wherever possible. Gentlemen, it has been my pleasure to have visited this fine site one last time and for meeting all of you. Most of you are new since I was here last in 1916. I will be leaving with my staff on tomorrow’s train. Thank you, again. Let’s enjoy the great lunch Mr. Sato has prepared for us at the very place where it all started.” 
*Abandoned Kennecott, trackless and with the roof torn off the mill, and with most of the windows removed from the mill,  but otherwise still largely intact in 1964. *


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## blackburn49 (Jan 2, 2008)

*The Stephen Birch house, falling in at the abandoned town of Kennecott in 1966*
Lunch at Bonanza, Chapter 21, "Legacy of the Chief," pt H
Everyone of us knew this had to be coming, but the words were still a shock. Our beloved mine was already downgraded to a secondary position. We were to prepare plans for a retreat. The end was in sight. But we were also caught up in the moment of the obvious historic value of this occasion. The staff of engineers stood up and applauded our own Great Man, Mr. Stephen Birch most enthusiastically. 

Then we sat down--most of us in a sort of stunned contemplation. We looked around at each other and quietly resumed drinking the coffee while we waited the lunch service. As Mr. Birch had noted, the head cook for the entire camp, Mr. Sato himself, who had prepared the Chinese dinner last night, was overseeing this preparation as well. Sato was a choice find brought in by Bill Douglass. His culinary skills were well known, and his demands on the cooking and waitering staff which he headed were harsh, but the results were excellent. The meals at Kennecott had become famous throughout the territory. Kennecott was known as the mine with the best working conditions, of which food service was a key part. Bill Douglass wanted to keep it that way. 

I looked at Russell, seated to my right. He had been the junior engineer until I arrived last year to take that dubious honor. I leaned in his direction and quietly remarked, “I guess we better prove our value here while we have the chance. Clearly there is no future in this place. We’ll all be looking for careers elsewhere soon, I suspect.” 
*Early mining crew at Jumbo, including the ever-present Japanese cook*


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## blackburn49 (Jan 2, 2008)

*The Jumbo overlooking Kennicott Glacier* Lunch at Bonanza, Chapter 21, "Legacy of the Chief," pt I
Russell then leaned toward me. We typically would consult each other first before talking to any of the senior engineers. He had been enormously helpful in ensuring that I did not make any mistakes either professionally or socially which would make me look too foolish. He acted as both a sponsor and an older brother. As I would learn later, it was Bill Douglass who suggested to Russell that he act as a kind of unofficial sponsor to me since I was so young and relatively new to the business. I have to say that all the staff had seemed to go out of their way to take care of me and point me in the proper direction. They did it unobtrusively, but there was always someone prepared to give me some sort of hint if I appeared to be headed in the wrong direction. 

“Not to worry. We know we are looking at several more years of operation here, with the ore that is now in sight and the projected reserves. We won’t be closing along with the Beatson Mine, either. They’ll be done well ahead of us. It would be good to begin looking elsewhere for work in the next year or so, since this will soon become a dead-end spot. That should be obvious from the tone just set by our esteemed leader.” Russell said that somewhat facetiously, but so that only I could hear it. He was a maverick--not one to be readily impressed by trappings of power, wealth or other forms of prestige. I think Russell had no real interest in a career with Kennecott. He was not much of a company man at heart, but he knew how to appear to fit in. His work was always good, though seldom great. 

“You actually have an opportunity here, Frank. I heard Birch mention the Marvelous vein. No one really wants to oversee that operation. You could probably have a chance of being in charge over there as a project engineer if you want the assignment.” 
*Mother Lode Upper Camp*


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## blackburn49 (Jan 2, 2008)

*Kennecott Engineer Frank Buckie--Castle Rock in background, c. 1924
*
Lunch at Bonanza, Chapter 21, "Legacy of the Chief," pt J
I was still working on the Erie crosscut veins. I had overseen the cutting of the connecting tunnel from the west, while another engineer had directed the crosscut from the Jumbo end. I had even been there to help direct the Erie barracks addition, which still remained unfinished since there was so much going on right now. We increased the size of that building to accommodate a crew of thirty in anticipation of running into rich ore veins in that direction. 

“One of the early consulting engineers, Wes Dunkle, suggested to me that there are plenty of opportunities in the gold-fields of this territory.” Russell said. 

“I am planning to see what’s out there. I did not come here to be a just another corporation flunky.” Lunch consisted of a choice of meaty sandwiches, mashed potatoes and gravy and cream of broccoli soup. Dessert would soon follow. 

Our site manager Bert Nieding stood up as we finished the main course. 

“We all wish to thank Mr. Birch and Dan Jackling for joining us here in our cheerful dining hall at this, the place where Kennecott itself began. 

“This is a momentous occasion. We are finally officially marking the beginning of the end. No one else beyond the staff at New York and we here at this table are aware of the severe depletion of reserves at his mine. We are obliged to keep this conversation confidential. We especially do not want to give any potential union activists some kind of advantage here. As far as all are concerned--and that includes our families--life will go on as normal. There will be no outward visible changes. We will even be repainting the mill building next year and continuing all the routine maintenance which will give this camp a clean and neat appearance. Appearance is everything. I repeat--we will keep this conversation among ourselves.” 

“I will be departing for good in a few weeks after working with Bill Douglass on the outlines for the future or lack of it here at Kennecott. If any of you have concerns about your own careers, let me assure you that we will have other assignments for you. I have complete confidence in each and every one of you and look forward to many more years of all of us working together.” 
*Kennecott Engineer Stanley Olsen, circa 1924*


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## blackburn49 (Jan 2, 2008)

*Superintendent William C. Douglass*
Lunch at Bonanza, Chapter 21, "Legacy of the Chief," Conclusion Now it was the turn of Bill Douglass. 

“I see the dessert is on the way, so I’ll make this brief. 

“I wish to reinforce the words of Mr. Nieding. Please remember that this is confidential company business. We have a tremendous amount of work ahead of us. I intend to remain here with you for the duration. There is not a one of you whom I would not be pleased and delighted to work with during the remaining years of this great and unique mine. It is you fellows who have made it what it is today. You all are a part of a proud tradition which began under Stephen Birch twenty-three years ago. 

“We have always prided ourselves in our engineers. We run a first-class operation only because of you and those who came before you. We have stacked up a list of engineering achievements between the mines and the railroad which will probably go down in the history books. 

“I am a strong believer in families. You know that, because I have four kids living here.” 

The men chuckled at the comment. He was not through with his point. 

“I have done my best to make this camp a family place. We are a family. You can always come to me if you have any problems here at all, whether its is professional or personal. I am here to serve you, just as you have served us so well for so long. For Stephen Birch, Dan Jackling, Bert Nieding, and all the others, I thank every one of you for your very significant contributions to the Kennecott which has become our home--the Kennecott which in some way will be with each one of us all the rest of our lives.” 


*Kennecott in 1911*
_*--end of chapter--
*_


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## blackburn49 (Jan 2, 2008)

Models Inspired by this Story:










You can see my model of the Stephen Birch house in the middle of both of these photos. In the top photo on the left, just below the Birch house, is the superintendent's residence. In the lower photo you see the engineers' staff house with the general office in front--the same one where the photo was taken of Superintendent Richelsen and his staff. 



Also in the top photo is the hospital on the left and a barrack building patterned after the Bonanza on the right. In the background is a painting of Bonanza Ridge.


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## blackburn49 (Jan 2, 2008)

*The Bonanza Barrack Model:  *
  * This model was completed in 1997 as a near-duplicate of the long-gone Bonanza main barrack and dining hall. *
  *True, it is not in the right place, since it is within the Kennecott model.   I wanted it in a display area where it could be seen. *


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## blackburn49 (Jan 2, 2008)

The Bonanza model is made ready for the long ride to Copper Center:
  These old photos are interesting because they give you a sense of the size of this particular model as it sits on the back of my Ford Ranger. The model was cut and assembled in Fairbanks, then brought to Copper Center for detailing and ultimate placement on the historic  railroad layout. 
  It was early winter when I loaded this onto the truck--November of 97, if I remember correctly. 
It was a long run of 270 miles transporting this and another model you see on this truck back to my new home (at the time) in Copper Center.


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## blackburn49 (Jan 2, 2008)

Enough of the models. Back to the mines. This is an old map of the Nizina Mining District 
showing all of the copper mines in that area at the time. You will note that a group of them that include the Kennecott
ones tend to run along an axis that runs SE to NW.  
  Can't read the map? Neither can I ! Click it !


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## blackburn49 (Jan 2, 2008)

Taking a closer view: 







The Erie (1), Jumbo (2), Bonanza (3) , Green Butte (6)  and Nicolai (8 )mines all line up. 
Mother Lode is the only significant one which does not. There is a reason for that. The other mines all have adits at the contact zone which inclines downward at an angle that averages about 30 degrees.


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## blackburn49 (Jan 2, 2008)

And that brings us back to the layout of the mines   This is a typical cross-section for much of the Kennecott mine system. You see a main incline tunnel with cross-cuts and drifts.
The incline runs along the contact zone, following that plane very closely. Thus, most all of the ore pockets will occur above it, as you see here.  The broken mill ore area is actually an open stope.  Ore is dug out from below, blasting to the top of the vein and then mucking it out in  what is known as the shrinkage method of mining. 

You will see a totally used-up stope at the top of this segment while the one at the next level down is still being mined. This was very typical. The upper areas were usually mined out first.   The above plan would be that same area looking _down._ As you can see the drifts follow the edges of the ore occurences, thus often defining the limits of the ore vein.  These diagrams were drawn up by William Douglass, the superintendent during most of the 1920s at Kennecott.


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## blackburn49 (Jan 2, 2008)

The Kennecott model with painted diorama







Let's get back to the mines . . .


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## markoles (Jan 2, 2008)

Ron,

See, its good that you still have those pictures of the ball mill.

It is interesting because at the time (what, early 1930s?) grinding using a ball mill was in its relative infacy.  The majority of comminution was done with jaw crushers until the semi-autogenous mill was developed in the late 1970s.  Ball mills use steel balls tumbling in a mill like the one Ron posted.  Typically, you have a ball charge that is approximately 30% of the mill's internal volume.  Semi-autogenous mills use about 10% grinding media. The remainder of the volume is taken up with rocks of larger sizes, from 6" on down to fines.  I would expect that the feed size to a mill as shown would be something less than 1".  Depending on how much attention they paid to the grinding, they may have been able to create some very fine particles.  It is likely that the grinding mills were directly responsible for  the decision to proceed with flotation.  

The ball mill shown is very small by today's standards. It makes sense though, because at the time the knowledge of rock grinding was somewhat limited.  There wasn't a good way to show the relationship between a given ore and the required power to break it down to a size where the desired mineral could be separated from the gaunge (unwanted rock surrounding).  It wasn't until Fred Bond came up with his work index in the 1950s that power requirements for ores was established.  Today, we rely on Bond's Work Index to determine energy requirements (the unit of measure is Horsepower - Hours per ton, or some variant of that).   Additionally, grinding is typically the highest energy consumption in a mine.  Is it any wonder when we are installing 40' x 20' Semi-autogenous mills that have 25,000 HP ring motors? And each of those SAG mills feeds a 20,000 HP ball mill? 

60-65% copper is amazing. According to the 1938 diagram, below 2mm, they could not process any further and that material was shipped elsewhere.  (Note - I tried to figure out where the ball mills were located in the 1916 flow sheet.  Doh! Its must have been added later on.)  The ball mill must have been added for the flotation plant.  However, from the photographs, I can't tell how it was arranged.  Unless the photos were from the 1960s with the feed spout removed. Might be the case, since in the second photo (which is not linkable for some reason) there appear to be studs or bolts at the mill bearing.  Fine grinding and ultrafine grinding circuits are now becoming small parts of the overall mining circuits.  (product size of 80% minus 10 micron is not uncommon).  However, these circuits sometime entail other equipment beyond the grinding mill for recovery, such as an autoclave.  That can put them beyond the scope of the captial the mine has set aside for ultrafine regrind recovery. 

For those of you that want to relive these good old days,  remember that the conditions those miners endured were similar to those found in China now.  If I read it right, the mine diagrams were drawn up by one of the guys on site.  Mine drawings are notorious for being incorrect.  Case in point, the 2002 Quecreek coal mine accident in Western PA where coal miners accidentally dug into a flooded mine.  Their maps showed they were OK do dig there, but the reality showed the opposite.  Mining was and is extremely dangerous, especially underground mining.  Don't believe me? Go check out http://www.msha.gov/fatals/fab.htm Now, it is likely that some form of surveying was conducted underground, and not knowing how to survey, I can't comment to the ease with which it is done underground.  Also, I bet that amonia leaching plant was a lot of fun to work in and around.  Sometimes, it is better to look at pictures of the past but actually being there and doing the work was probably a lot worse than it looked...

However....going to this site, armed with the information that Ron has gathered would be something different entirely.


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## Guest (Feb 12, 2008)

Ron, 

glad, that you got tired. that was a big chunk of information. 
you are writing about alaska, like a lover about his adored... 

thank you, all those fotos and specially the (downloaded) plans have widended my ideas, how a mine should look. 

korm 

ps: posting the fotos of your models was unfair. how can i hope, to build something comparable?


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## blackburn49 (Jan 2, 2008)

Here is the flowsheet the NPS put together based on the data they had:


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## blackburn49 (Jan 2, 2008)




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## blackburn49 (Jan 2, 2008)

Posted By markoles on 02/12/2008 8:54 AM


60-65% copper is amazing. According to the 1938 diagram, below 2mm, they could not process any further and that material was shipped elsewhere.  (Note - I tried to figure out where the ball mills were located in the 1916 flow sheet.  Doh! Its must have been added later on.)  The ball mill must have been added for the flotation plant.  However, from the photographs, I can't tell how it was arranged.

The above newest flow sheet should answer your question. According to the engineering reports I have here, with the ammonia leaching plant operating, which processed the carbonates (the part of the ore which could not be mechanically separated), 96 per cent of the ore was recovered. Ammonia Leaching Plant


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## blackburn49 (Jan 2, 2008)

Posted By markoles on 02/12/2008 8:54 AM


For those of you that want to relive these good old days,  remember that the conditions those miners endured were similar to those found in China now.  If I read it right, the mine diagrams were drawn up by one of the guys on site.  Mine drawings are notorious for being incorrect.  Case in point, the 2002 Quecreek coal mine accident in Western PA where coal miners accidentally dug into a flooded mine.  Their maps showed they were OK do dig there, but the reality showed the opposite.  Mining was and is extremely dangerous, especially underground mining.  Don't believe me? Go check out http://www.msha.gov/fatals/fab.htm Now, it is likely that some form of surveying was conducted underground, and not knowing how to survey, I can't comment to the ease with which it is done underground.  Also, I bet that amonia leaching plant was a lot of fun to work in and around.  Sometimes, it is better to look at pictures of the past but actually being there and doing the work was probably a lot worse than it looked...

However....going to this site, armed with the information that Ron has gathered would be something different entirely. 

All of the mining engineering and the physical plant drawings were done here where they had a blue print machine.  When the project was over, the office had a huge collection of engineering documents stored upstairs.  
  The mining engineers on the site also served as the safety officers. Kennecott was the safest large-scale mining operation in Alaska. In the last two years of operation there were no fatalities at all. 
The engineers who served here were among the best and the brightest. 
Typical crew load for Kennecott during the busier years was 500 people of which about half were miners. 

As for the_ ammonia _leaching plant, that had to be a_ noxious_ experience !


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## blackburn49 (Jan 2, 2008)

Posted By kormsen on 02/12/2008 10:34 AM
Ron, 

glad, that you got tired. that was a big chunk of information. 
you are writing about alaska, like a lover about his adored... 

thank you, all those fotos and specially the (downloaded) plans have widended my ideas, how a mine should look. 

korm 

ps: posting the fotos of your models was unfair. how can i hope, to build something comparable?
That is not as difficult as it might appear. I have never considered myself a model-builder_ par excellence_ and still don't.  When I started this project I had absolutely no knowledge of the art and no background in carpentry or any extensive practical skills. After all, I am a political science major, with the emphasis on _political_ and the de-emphasis on _science.

_
I had to learn from scratch without the benefit of an online resources in 94-95. It wasn't until 99 that I finally got my first computer (had to learn _that_ from scratch and on my own, too.)  By then I had learned how to make up the drawings that enabled me to go to a carpenter to cut the pieces so I could assemble and detail them.  I still don't cut my own pieces.  I am not the craftsman here.

All of this came about out of sheer willful determination and a great deal of belief in my ability to make it all come together, plus considerable planning and patience. 

There is nothing in the original project that you can't do yourself with a little practice (if you're not already that far along in skills).  The real key to all of this is imagination and a belief in yourself. 

I am still _not: _a) a carpenter
                      b) a model-builder
                      c) any kind of engineer
                      d) an expert  railroader , or even close
                      e) scientist or one who  possesses much scientific knowledge
                      f) a professional writer, photographer, artist or anything else within the arts
                      g) a businessman in the true sense of what an entrepreneur _should_ be. 

Yes, I operate a business. But I definitely do not possess the midas touch. What I have going is strickly a seat-of-the-pants operation. I have missed out on so many money-making opportunities I don't even care to think about it. 

I'm not even all that great a political science major. My predictions and assumptions have been more wrong than right, probably because I am grounded somewhere in some past era where things actually made some sense. Now, society itself is a mystery to me. Pop culture and I do not mix.  So, as a poli-sci-guy I am a near-total flop. 

I am, however one who can make things work with the aid of a very vivid imagination. I was able to write a historic novel and oversee the creation of a massive historic model on sheer willpower--persistence, helped along with an unassailable vision. 

So, it really comes down to two things: persistence and vision. That's it. The rest will follow. 

Never doubt yourself. Just go for it. It _will _happen.


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## Jerry Barnes (Jan 2, 2008)

Ron, 
This is one fascinating read. When I came back from Nam in 70, we went up above the town of Encampment Wyo, met a guy way up in the hills and rode his horses on up about 5 miles to a old copper mining town, Rudafaya. It had a tram that went up over the ridge and back down to Encampment. Quite a bit still remained at that time, I'm sure it's long gone now, but it brought back some memories. 
Jerry


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## blackburn49 (Jan 2, 2008)

Posted By Jerry Barnes on 02/12/2008 2:23 PM
Ron, 
This is one fascinating read. When I came back from Nam in 70, we went up above the town of Encampment Wyo, met a guy way up in the hills and rode his horses on up about 5 miles to a old copper mining town, Rudafaya. It had a tram that went up over the ridge and back down to Encampment. Quite a bit still remained at that time, I'm sure it's long gone now, but it brought back some memories. 
Jerry

There are probably few ghost towns left anywhere in North America that are as intact as Kennecott.  
It has been abandoned for seventy years now, yet much of it remains. Some of it is being restored. One building I visited which had not been touched was so intact it was as if it had only been abandoned a few years. That was the west barrack (not in sight in the aerial below). 

I don't know if this is true, but Kennecott is sometimes referred to as the largest ghost town in N.America. That may rest on how one defines "ghost town." In the case of Kennecott, there were no people living there until the late 70s.  I don't believe anyone resides there in the winter, but it is a very active place in the summer, including a rather elaborate lodge that is designed to fit in with the rest of the ghost town.


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## blackburn49 (Jan 2, 2008)

The Jumbo Mine
  _ Partial map of the Kennecott underground workings, upper levels of Jumbo to Bonanza as of 1926_ The Jumbo is connected to the Bonanza by the 600, 1600 and 2600 cross-cuts.


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## blackburn49 (Jan 2, 2008)

The mighty Jumbo Mine
  Jumbo is approximately one mile WNW of Bonanza. It was the second mine to go into production and ti was the richest producer of the five mines.  This is the mine which also housed the most miners. 

The picture above I scanned from an original photograph.


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## blackburn49 (Jan 2, 2008)

Jumbo Camp







The layout consisted of three bunkhouses, a cookhouse and the tram terminal which extended right into the ground.


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## blackburn49 (Jan 2, 2008)

Jumbo and Castle Rock as Seen from the old Kennecott mill:


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## blackburn49 (Jan 2, 2008)

Bonanza Ridge as seen from the top of the mill: 








  (click)


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## Jerry Barnes (Jan 2, 2008)

Beautiful picture! Jerry


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## markoles (Jan 2, 2008)

Ron,

Thanks for that flow diagram!  Showed me what I wanted to see!  96% recovery is really good.  I would expect that if sufficient tailings were still present, that some operation would be looking at that now for further processing!!  

The fact that there were no fatalities in the last two years is a testament to the miners and engineers at that mine.  It takes everyone being focused on being safe and working safe for that kind of thing to occur.  Fatalities in US mining are down, for the same reason.  From my limited experience working in and around mines, the workers are like a big family.  They don't want to see anyone get hurt, either, and work toward keeping everything as safe as possible. 

Mark


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## blackburn49 (Jan 2, 2008)

Posted By markoles on 02/13/2008 10:45 AM

The fact that there were no fatalities in the last two years is a testament to the miners and engineers at that mine.  It takes everyone being focused on being safe and working safe for that kind of thing to occur.  Fatalities in US mining are down, for the same reason.  From my limited experience working in and around mines, the workers are like a big family.  They don't want to see anyone get hurt, either, and work toward keeping everything as safe as possible. 

Mark
I have read interviews conducted with people who worked at Kennecott and I have even conducted my own interviews with one of them who worked there at the mines and with one of the men who had worked on the railroad. Those people considered their days at Kennecott and on that railroad to be among the best days of their lives. This sentiment seems to be universal  with the children of Kennecott--those who grew up there. The local Kennecott organization from the time of William Douglass forward (1920 until the end)  treated everyone who worked there as part of one big family. Those were remarkable times that, unfortunately, can never occur again because the nature of our society has changed so much. In those days it was far more cohesive, at least in frontier Alaska. 

It was not exactly an equal society, either. The engineers were separate from the miners in the same way that officers are separate from enlisted men, but the system worked very well.


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## blackburn49 (Jan 2, 2008)

Posted By Jerry Barnes on 02/13/2008 9:41 AM
Beautiful picture! Jerry
I took that photo in mid-September, which is probably the best time to visit the area to take in the spectacular scenery, as you can see.  By then the tourists and the mosquitos are gone and the fall leaves are out while at the same time the snow is advancing down the moutainside.


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## blackburn49 (Jan 2, 2008)

Close-up of Castle Mountain and the Jumbo mine site taken from the mill top deck:
  The larger image linked to this photo is 2500 pixels wide--much larger than I normally use. However, it enables you to see the site close-up. About all that is visible is the tram tower and behind it is the point where the tram entered the mountain. There is not much left of that. The larger photo is low resolution, so it shouldn't take too long to download.  Photo taken Sept 17, 2005.


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## Torby (Jan 2, 2008)

Wow. Look how tiny those *big* buildings are!


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## blackburn49 (Jan 2, 2008)

Bonanza Peak from the mill top: 
  This one has another large image behind it when you click this picture. You are looking directly at the Glacier mine just below Bonanza Peak. You can even see the tram head for the Glacier mine. On the right side of the ridge up there is the Bonanza minesite.


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## blackburn49 (Jan 2, 2008)

While you're looking at the BIG picture, you can find these:
  The discovery vein is not obvious, because it is mined out, but I wanted you to see it. The Bonanza remants are not very clear, but this photo shows that Bonanza had a direct line of sight to the mill. That had to be a spectacular view. It has been so long since I have been there that I can no longer recall the details. I wish I had brought a standard camera. I had a video high-8 camera along, but the film was inadvertently destroyed.


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## blackburn49 (Jan 2, 2008)

*
Jumbo Camp, historic view 4*
  Showing the entire Jumbo upper camp layout in front of an active rock glacier. The larger view is VERY large so you can see some of the details, but it loads fast. 

On the left is the tram terminal which actually goes directly underground.  In front are building numbers 2, 3, and 4.  In the back of number 2 is the original structure, probably the cook house. Up on the hill are additional structures that were never identified.  There was an adit access up there.


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## SteveC (Jan 2, 2008)

Hey Ron

Not being as familiar with the terrain as you are I'm having difficulty locating what you are pointing out. So I downloaded the larger image then lightened it and the following are what I think you are pointing out, but maybe I'm totally off base here too. HELP!!! /DesktopModules/NTForums/themes/mls/emoticons/sick.gif


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## blackburn49 (Jan 2, 2008)

Posted By SteveC on 02/13/2008 5:56 PM
Hey Ron

Not being as familiar with the terrain as you are I'm having difficulty locating what you are pointing out .  .  . maybe I'm totally off base here too. HELP!!! 








 

This one is correct. That is the Glacier mine tram terminal.  I have some additional historic pictures of that one when we get there.


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## blackburn49 (Jan 2, 2008)

Posted By SteveC on 02/13/2008 5:56 PM
Hey Ron

but maybe I'm totally off base here too. . . 










That's a rock formation you're pointing toward. Behind it and slightly lower is a kind of natural circle. At approximately 11 o' clock on that circle is the base of the tram terminal.


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## flatracker (Jan 2, 2008)

What a wonderful job you are doing, exposing so many of us to parts of history we would have never known about or even had an inkling of, and what went on. You should be proud of yourself for extending the knowledge to so many, who never had any idea of the history of that area and how much it contributed to the economy and growth of our nation. I told you there were a lot of people who have enjoyed your history lesson, and some that never made comments, but never the less, enjoyed all your hard work. I only wish it could be introduced to a larger portion of our population and those who might not understand the R/R portion of it. The Railroads really contributed so much to opening our country, and without them we would never have grown into the great nation we are now.

Again, thanks so much for all your pictures,  knowledge, and hard work delving into the past, and posting it all.


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## blackburn49 (Jan 2, 2008)

*Jumbo Mine*, historic view #5


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## SteveC (Jan 2, 2008)

Thanks Ron,

Well one out of two isn't too bad, and what's missing the other by just one "ridge" between friends, eh. /DesktopModules/NTForums/themes/mls/emoticons/whistling.gif


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## blackburn49 (Jan 2, 2008)

Posted By flatracker on 02/13/2008 6:12 PM
What a wonderful job you are doing, exposing so many of us to parts of history we would have never known about or even had an inkling of, and what went on. You should be proud of yourself for extending the knowledge to so many, who never had any idea of the history of that area and how much it contributed to the economy and growth of our nation. I told you there were a lot of people who have enjoyed your history lesson, and some that never made comments, but never the less, enjoyed all your hard work. I only wish it could be introduced to a larger portion of our population and those who might not understand the R/R portion of it. The Railroads really contributed so much to opening our country, and without them we would never have grown into the great nation we are now.

Again, thanks so much for all your pictures,  knowledge, and hard work delving into the past, and posting it all. 


A few years back I used to do a slide show presentation of historic Kennecott and its Copper River & Northwestern Railway. I have used those slides in a couple of classes I conducted for the local community college and also for a rather lengthy presentation at Valdez. It seems to me I put together something like 800 slides altogether. It can take up to three hours to properly get through it all.  I still have all of that in storage: slide projector, projection screen and all those boxes of slides that I had made up off of my historic photo collection.  Maybe someday it will all be worth something to someone.


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## SteveC (Jan 2, 2008)

Ron

Was there any way up to the Bonanza other that by tram, or was it the only way? And, yes I can well imagine that there weren't many views that would eclipse those from Bonanza.


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## blackburn49 (Jan 2, 2008)

Posted By SteveC on 02/13/2008 6:13 PM
Thanks Ron,

Well one out of two isn't too bad, and what's missing the other by just one "ridge" between friends, eh. 
Actually, finding that spot is anything but obvious.  I had to see several recognizable objects in the enlarged picture in order to determine that this was the actual mine location. I had not noticed it until today.


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## blackburn49 (Jan 2, 2008)

Posted By SteveC on 02/13/2008 6:21 PM
Ron

Was there any way up to the Bonanza other that by tram, or was it the only way? And, yes I can well imagine that there weren't many views that would eclipse those from Bonanza.
There were and still are trails to both Bonanza and Jumbo. Officially the company did not sanction travel by aerial tram. The liability even then was considered too great. In fact, more men lost their lives travelling the tram than were lost in the mines.  In the winter time there was no other way to go back down except by skis (some men actually did that from Bonanza) and no way up at all.


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## SteveC (Jan 2, 2008)

Posted By blackburn49 on 02/13/2008 6:20 PM
I still have all of that in storage: slide projector, projection screen and all those boxes of slides that I had made up off of my historic photo collection.  Maybe someday it will all be worth something to someone. 

Have you considered maybe donating the slide presentation and a manuscript to a museum at some time in the future, or maybe upon your demise, As a possible way of insuring that all of what you've accomplished in documenting the history doesn't get lost along the way. I know that all (well maybe some) the information is available from various sources and could be gathered if one was of a mind to go about doing it. But I also know that you've acquired a great deal of photographs and first source information from sources that are that are available to very few, and some that is no longer available period. Then there's the fact that your perspective is rather unique because of your heritage. None of which I feel should be lost.


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## blackburn49 (Jan 2, 2008)

Posted By SteveC on 02/13/2008 6:40 PM


Have you considered maybe donating the slide presentation and a manuscript to a museum at some time in the future, or maybe upon your demise, As a possible way of insuring that all of what you've accomplished in documenting the history doesn't get lost along the way. I know that all (well maybe some) the information is available from various sources and could be gathered if one was of a mind to go about doing it. But I also know that you've acquired a great deal of photographs and first source information from sources that are that are available to very few, and some that is no longer available period. Then there's the fact that your perspective is rather unique because of your heritage. None of which I feel should be lost.
That is one possibility I have considered. Along with the slide collection and implements  are a ton (probably weighs close to that) of documents, books, maps, albums containing over 3,000 items, and another hundred or so framed large historic photos and panoramas. So far I have not found an ideal organization for this, although I belong to two museum boards--The Copper Valley Historic Society and the McCarthy-Kennicott Museum. There is the consideration of having the capability and room to be able to properly store these documents. It is a very large collection--far larger than most of its type.


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## SteveC (Jan 2, 2008)

After thinking about it a bit more, how about some of the universities that have mine engineering, or for that matter the Smithsonian, or national archives. I mean, what the heck, the worst that can happen is they'd say no thank you we're not interested. Although personally I'd think they were very shortsighted if they did, but then I'm biased.


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## blackburn49 (Jan 2, 2008)

Posted By SteveC on 02/13/2008 7:05 PM
After thinking about it a bit more, how about some of the universities that have mine engineering, or for that matter the Smithsonian, or national archives. I mean, what the heck, the worst that can happen is they'd say no thank you we're not interested. Although personally I'd think they were very shortsighted if they did, but then I'm biased.
I would certainly look favorably on that option.  I'd like this material available to as many as possible who want to study the railroad or the mine system.  However, if I don't find a suitable entity, at some point down the line I may put the whole works up for sale as one entire unit.  When I was threatened with a lawsuit last year I was prepared to do exactly that just to keep it all intact.


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## John J (Dec 29, 2007)

Was the Bonanza Mine  the Headquarts of the operation?  All the ore was  transported  down to the Bonanza mine for Processing?  Nothing was processed at any of the other mines?


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## blackburn49 (Jan 2, 2008)

Posted By John J on 02/13/2008 9:21 PM
Was the Bonanza Mine  the Headquarts of the operation?  All the ore was  transported  down to the Bonanza mine for Processing?  Nothing was processed at any of the other mines? 
I refer you back to the historic Kennecott claims map. You see two tramlines leading to the rear of the mill, which was the only  real processor on the Kennecott property. 

One tram  was from the Jumbo and the other from the Bonanza. All the ore entered the mill from one of these two trams. The Jumbo took the Erie and Glacier Mine ore while the Bonanza  took the Mother Lode ore. It was simply a matter of practicality to set the system up that way.  One tram was not enough and more than two would not work if they were to go to the rear of a single mill of that size.

The mines in order of production values, largest to smallest were the Jumbo, Bonanza, Mother Lode, Erie and Glacier. In addition there was the slide ore at Bonanza which was counted separately.

Ore was weighed and sampled at the Mother Lode at the 1250 level before proceeding up the Bonanza incline for tramming down to the mill. That was because ML ore was operated under a separate company with its own set of books. Additionally there appears to have been  some manually separating  of ore at the Bonanza and the Jumbo. Both locations had ore bins. I know all the ore was sampled before being sent down the trams because it was labelled according to grade and ore type. 

Each camp had its own superintendent, although the Glacier mine was under the supervision of whoever was in charge at Bonanza. Additionally, the superintendent at Bonanza probably often supervised operations at the Mother Lode because those facilities were combined by the early 1920s. 

The only real headquarters, however, was the general office next to the mill. It is said that WCDouglass took off up to the camps by means of the tramline from Kennecott every morning to keep on top of the situation.

Generally the main activity would center on just one area of the complex. In the early years it was the Bonanza. By 1916 it had shifted to the Jumbo. By 1918 it had shifted over to the Mother Lode and mining activity at the Bonanza was largely over. Some mining occurred off and on at Erie, but it did not really get going until 1924  when three or four veins were discovered along the new cross-cut tunnel. However, the Erie was shut down within a year or two and did not resume activity until 1936 or 37 when it became temporarily the biggest producer.  

The Glacier mine was operated only during the 1920s when it was clear that production was slowing down, and then only during the summer months as a surface scraping operation.  Because of the large amount of host rock and ice that was scrapped up with the ore, its production was very low grade. As I indicated before, this operation was conducted out of the Bonanza. The men were lowered in makeshift trams from tunnels high along the upper cliffs of the main level of Bonanza, then returned to the Bonanza barracks at night.  All that ore was sent down along a separate tram until it reached the Junction Station where it continued along the Jumbo tram.


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## markoles (Jan 2, 2008)

Ron,

I think this picture sums up my feelings for the pictures and story of Kennecott...


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## Guest (Feb 14, 2008)

Ron, 

don't look for a museum! 
you got a bar, a layout with the theme - just add your own museum. 

on foto number five, above the houses are wooden corners visible. are they as protection against snow, or against rocks? 

korm 
.


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## blackburn49 (Jan 2, 2008)

Posted By kormsen on 02/14/2008 1:53 PM
Ron, 

don't look for a museum! 
you got a bar, a layout with the theme - just add your own museum. 

on foto number five, above the houses are wooden corners visible. are they as protection against snow, or against rocks? 

korm 
.










*These walls are for diverting avalanches. *


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## blackburn49 (Jan 2, 2008)

Posted By markoles on 02/14/2008 9:17 AM
Ron,

I think this picture sums up my feelings for the pictures and story of Kennecott...










_Please_ don't drool on my photo albums !


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## Guest (Feb 14, 2008)

thanks!


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## Guest (Feb 14, 2008)

uuups, sorry, double by accident


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## blackburn49 (Jan 2, 2008)

The Jumbo Mine Retaining Walls Years Later: 
  Aerial view probably shot in the early  1980s shows buildings 2 and 3 still standing, building 4 almost down, with all the other structures down except the tram terminal structure going underground on the left and the retaining walls behind the camp. (Click).


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## John J (Dec 29, 2007)

Ok  I missed that   I thought  Bonanza and  the mill were  one in the same place.   I still think this is a great thread and  still get excited everytime I open it to see what you posted.


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## blackburn49 (Jan 2, 2008)

Posted By John J on 02/14/2008 5:08 PM
Ok  I missed that   I thought  Bonanza and  the mill were  one in the same place.   I still think this is a great thread and  still get excited everytime I open it to see what you posted. 
Ironically, the _original_ name of the entire site was the Bonanza Mine. That was all there was in 1907 when limited development at Bonanza began until 1913 when the Jumbo tram was finally constructed. I believe at the time the railroad first arrived it was still known as the Bonanza Mine. The headquarters was wherever Stephen Birch was because he was first on-site manager.


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## mhutson (Jan 2, 2008)

Thanks for this, Ron. Even after two trips to Kennicott and having read everything I could find about the mines I still find your posts full of great information. 

Cheers, 
Matt Hutson 
M.P. 294 on the Rio Grande's Baldwin Branch


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## Torby (Jan 2, 2008)

Avalanche deflectors: 

Did they work, or would an avalanche just use the deflector to destroy the building?


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## Torby (Jan 2, 2008)

You guys up there are either amazing or crazy. Perhaps both.


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## blackburn49 (Jan 2, 2008)

Posted By Torby on 02/15/2008 6:40 AM
Avalanche deflectors: 

Did they work, or would an avalanche just use the deflector to destroy the building?
It appears that wherever these deflectors were placed, they did their job. Some of the Kennecott structures were ultimately destroyed by avalanches, but that was largely the result of the poor choice of location of the buildings.


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## ByrdC130 (Jan 4, 2008)

Let me also add my thanks to you for this thread. It has been a great read and the photos of the areas landscapes breathtaking. In one of the photos of the tram works, I was amazed at the smallish size of the tram buckets. I was immagining a large bucket, but seeing the true size of them really makes you take in the scope of this operation. How many millions of tons of earth had to be transported 6sq ft at a time for the life of these mines is staggering to comprehend. 

Looking forward to the next installment.


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## blackburn49 (Jan 2, 2008)

Back to the Jumbo Plan: 
you can use this to identify the buildings below:
    You can also clearly see three avalance deflectors. Be sure to click the image for the larger size.


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## blackburn49 (Jan 2, 2008)

Jumbo prior to 1918: 
  The highest-perched building in the back is the one over the mine entrance and tram. Just this side of it is building #1, which was probably the original cook house. Below it is barracks #2. Closest to you is barracks #3. When this photo was taken, barracks #4, which was also a recreation hall, had not yet been built.


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## blackburn49 (Jan 2, 2008)

Very Early Jumbo Mine, probably c. 1912
Compare this with photo in previous frame. You see only the original bunkhouse/cookhouse and a building on poles which is probably a food cache to keep wild animals away from the food. It is far enough away from the barrack structure to avoid having bears too close. 
Both of these structures appear in the above photo. The cache, if that is what it is, is gone by 1918 when the last barrack was built. 
  No sign of the tram, which places this photo prior to 1913.


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## blackburn49 (Jan 2, 2008)

Two Early Views of Jumbo Prior to 1918: 
    Barracks #2 and #3 are in place. Number 4 came later--ironically, after the main vein at the Jumbo had already been exhausted. 
By the time it was built, it was probably not needed.  Often this is how is goes in Alaska and the Yukon with a boom that never seems to last long enough for all the infrastructure that is eventually constructed for it--like the Klondike Mines Railway being constructued _after _the gold rush when it was no longer justified.


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## SteveC (Jan 2, 2008)

Ron

Maybe I'm wrong, but from looking at all the photographs of the various mines, excluding the maybe the mill area where the railroad was. It seems to me that all the areas were way above the tree line, so it surprises me that bears would be a problem that far up (cats maybe, don't know if there are indigenous to Alaska). What prompts my question is your reference to the 'food-safe.'


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## Guest (Feb 17, 2008)

in the foreground of this foto on the glacier seem to be telegraph-lines.
that raises the question, how quick/slow does the glacier move?

korm
.


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## blackburn49 (Jan 2, 2008)

Posted By SteveC on 02/17/2008 1:18 AM
Ron

Maybe I'm wrong, but from looking at all the photographs of the various mines, excluding the maybe the mill area where the railroad was. It seems to me that all the areas were way above the tree line, *so it surprises me that bears would be a problem that far up* (cats maybe, don't know if there are indigenous to Alaska). What prompts my question is your reference to the 'food-safe.'
It was only a guess based on the nature of that pole structure at Jumbo. I could be wrong. 
After all, what would bears be doing above the treeline? 
  _Bear problems at the Erie Mine barrack
_


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## blackburn49 (Jan 2, 2008)

Posted By kormsen on 02/17/2008 2:17 AM









in the foreground of this foto on the glacier seem to be telegraph-lines.
that raises the question, how quick/slow does the glacier move?

korm
.
Anything placed on these rock glaciers is done at the peril of the builder.  These move slowly, but not_ that_ slowly !  These lines were replaced by underground lines running through the 600 cross-cut between Bonanza and Jumbo. The ones you see here were also coming from Bonanza, but over the ridge top, then across this rock glacier. I have to admit, it amazes me too to see this.


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## blackburn49 (Jan 2, 2008)

Jumbo Bldg 4:
This occurred while the camp was still in operation. Most likely this was caused by the movement of the adjacent rock glacier undermining the front area where this building  stood. Over time all of the structures at Jumbo took on this look, though the others did not begin tilting to a significant degree until after abandonment (1938). 

Seeing this, it is difficult to imagine why anyone would construct _on_ the rock glacier or _even near it._


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## SteveC (Jan 2, 2008)

OK, so I was wrong, /DesktopModules/NTForums/themes/mls/emoticons/hehe.gif and since as far as I remember it, the Erie mine was located somewhere a bit above the 5,000 ft. altitude mark, then it was common for bears to be wandering up that high. thanks for the answer.


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## blackburn49 (Jan 2, 2008)

Posted By SteveC on 02/17/2008 10:26 AM
OK, so I was wrong, /DesktopModules/NTForums/themes/mls/emoticons/hehe.gif and since as far as I remember it, the Erie mine was located somewhere a bit above the 5,000 ft. altitude mark, then it was common for bears to be wandering up that high. thanks for the answer.
I have to admit I don't really have a definitive answer. What appears to be a food cache in that early photo of Jumbo could easily be some other kind of structure. One certainly would not expect to see bears above the tree line as was the case with the Erie bear incident.


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## SteveC (Jan 2, 2008)

Posted By blackburn49 on 02/17/2008 10:34 AM
I have to admit I don't really have a definitive answer. What appears to be a food cache in that early photo of Jumbo could easily be some other kind of structure. One certainly would not expect to see bears above the tree line as was the case with the Erie bear incident.

No problem Ron, I can understand that if the frequency was regular enough it would be better to be over-protective rather than lax, since I would think replacing lost supplies would be an expensive proposition and having a camp full of hungry miners with no food wouldn't really be a great idea. /DesktopModules/NTForums/themes/mls/emoticons/ermm.gif


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## sschaer (Jan 2, 2008)

ron 

i just started re-reading your book a week ago when i left for holidays. this topic really comes at the right time to give addtional informations. your efforts in researching , sorting and presention informations are just amazing. however, your books leaves some questions unanswered. intentionally as i assume. i will try to collect and order my questions and probably contact you offline. 

the more i read the more i'm happy that i visited you in 2004 and joined your excursion to mc carthy and kennecott. btw, do you know if this old couple (forgot the names) are still fine ? if i remember right this lady grew up and went to school in kennecott. 

hopefully i will soon have the time and cash to come up to copper center again. for me it was one of the best weeks in my life. 

sandro


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## sschaer (Jan 2, 2008)

you mentioned a slide show a few pages back. is this the one you presented at mc carthy when we were up there ?


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## blackburn49 (Jan 2, 2008)

Posted By sschaer on 02/18/2008 4:15 AM
you mentioned a slide show a few pages back. is this the one you presented at mc carthy when we were up there ?
That's the one:
      Slide show in 2004 at McCarthy Lodge


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## blackburn49 (Jan 2, 2008)

The original McCarthy Lodge did not become one until the 1950s when "Mudhole" Smith--an_ in_famous Alaskan pilot-- was the first one to make Kennecott a tourist destination. Since then it has gone through many owners and operators.

This building was actually Cap Hubrick's photo studio. Many of his panoramas of the 1920s have survived.


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## blackburn49 (Jan 2, 2008)

Bonanza Minesite: Most Recent Photo: 
  Someone sent me this image last year, showing that as of that time at least the Bonanza tram terminal was still mostly intact.


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## blackburn49 (Jan 2, 2008)

Bonanza Mine Site Comparison Shots: 2005 vs 1965: 
  
  The most obvious changes are the collapse of the right section of the tramway landing and of almost all of the old Bonanza barrack on the left side of the tram terminal,  just above it. That was barrack #1, which outlasted #2, the large one which was burned down in 1968.


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## SteveC (Jan 2, 2008)

Ron

Is it just my imagination or does it seem that the various Kennecott sites are seeming to disintegrate at more rapid rate since the NPS has total control over it?


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## blackburn49 (Jan 2, 2008)

Posted By SteveC on 02/21/2008 6:35 PM
Ron

Is it just my imagination or does it seem that the various Kennecott sites are seeming to disintegrate at more rapid rate since the NPS has total control over it?
Deterioration has indeed increased in the last few years. I intend to go up early in the summer and take new pictures along the National Creek area which flooded out a couple years ago, apparently causing considerable damage to the hospital and other structures.


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## blackburn49 (Jan 2, 2008)

The New NPS Visitor Center: 
  Speaking of the NPS, they  have taken the company store, seen here in the foreground, built in 1918, and have undertaken a massive restoration. This one was missing most of its roof, but that has been replaced.  The whole building was lifted and a new foundation installed. This will be the new visitor contact center--an excellent choice (click).


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## blackburn49 (Jan 2, 2008)

Castle Peak and the Jumbo Mine, 1955 Aerial: 
  (Click for larger image)

The only way to truly appreciate the magnitude of the effort involved in establishing the Kennecott mines is to fly over the country. Here you can see the context of the remains of the Jumbo mine in 1955 relative to the rugged terrain in which it was built.  On the left is the Amazon rock glacier, while Jumbo sits at the edge of its own rock glacier that served to destabilize the entire site.


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## blackburn49 (Jan 2, 2008)

The Jumbo buildings: a closer look: 
  
This aerial had enough resolution in it to allow me to blow it up to take a closer look at the remains as of 1955.  By this time barracks/cook house #1 is already down. Also, the building over the tram is about to totally collapse. However, buildings 2, 3 and 4 are still in relatively good shape. The structures that were at the upper level to the east of building #4 are missing. Those marked another entry point into the mine.  That hill behind building no. 4 is mostly mine tailings from muck removed from the Jumbo. Click this photo. It enlarges to a good size but with low resolution for fast loading.


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## blackburn49 (Jan 2, 2008)

The Jumbo in 1969
  I obtained this photo from an old Fairbanks photographer many years ago who had flown over the area to write an article about Kennecott. This shows a steady advance of deterioration of the site, especially building #4, which is nearing a total collapse point. The structure over the tram is now gone, but the tram lines themselves are still up in the air on this end. Click for a much closer look.


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## blackburn49 (Jan 2, 2008)

Ten years later building #4 is not even visible and building #3 is leaning badly. Meanwhile the upper tram structure also appears to be leaning heavily.  Tram line is still intact. (click).


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## blackburn49 (Jan 2, 2008)

Jumbo Tram Structure:
  This was the building over the ore bins at the top of the Jumbo tram. To the right is part of building #1. As you can see, both structures are already showing deterioration even when the mine was still in operation. Both are missing tarpaper on the roofs and walls, and the wall of the ore structure shows broken shiplap siding.


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## blackburn49 (Jan 2, 2008)

Jumbo Mine Site Detail, c. 1965:
  This shows the west end of building #3. The tram appears to connect this cookhouse building to the boiler building.   Note that even this long after abandonment power lines are still standing.


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## blackburn49 (Jan 2, 2008)

Jumbo Buildings #3 $ #4, c. 1965: 
  Here is a good detail shot of building #3, which was probably the messhall and cookhouse, as well as a barrack, plus building #4. You can also see the tram from the previous shot.


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## blackburn49 (Jan 2, 2008)

Detail showing buildings 1, 2, 3, & 4: 
  I brought this one back up for reference again, but with emphasis on just the four barracks structures.


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## blackburn49 (Jan 2, 2008)

One final look at Jumbo: 1965: 
  This is one of my more spectacular shots, showing the remains of the four barracks structures. The old number one structure is almost down, but the roof line is still visible. Number Four structure is in the worst shape of the three front ones, but is still precariously standing.


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## blackburn49 (Jan 2, 2008)

The Northwest corner of the Kennecott Properties: The Erie Mine







This is a frame from my video camcorder from 15 years ago when I attempted to reach Erie. This was as close as I got. The shot was taken from across a steep gulch. 
The Erie was the latest of the mines to operate. While not one of the great producers, the existence of this mine kept the tram lines open at Jumbo after most of the ore was already depleted from that mine. Toward the very end, Erie produced almost all the remaining ore for Kennecott. It was opened for production in 1924 when the first cross-cut tunnel from the Jumbo 1500 level was brought to the surface at Erie, revealing four new ore bodies in the process. Most of the production took place in the last two years of Kennecott operation.
It is said that the late discovery of one last body of ore here kept the Kennecott open longer than was planned and probably resulted in the failure of the company to remove much of its material from Kennecott toward the very end--items like warehouse stock, all of the office furnishings, all of the barracks furnishings and most everything that was in the hospital. Only the most valuable and immediately saleable of the mining equipment and power plant equipment was removed from the camp. But  the camp itself, aside from what was in the power plant and some valuable pieces in the mill and water flotation plant, was left intact and ready to re-occupy by any potential buyers. 

Of course, no buyers ever emerged. A ghost town was left in place wholly intact right down to the china in the dining rooms and the linen for the beds on December 23rd, 1938 when the last of the Kennecott workers and engineers flew out in a chartered plane, leaving Kennecott behind never to return. The building above was one of those which at one time was fully furnished even as the men departed this barrack.


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## blackburn49 (Jan 2, 2008)

Ore Transport Route from Erie to the Kennecott Mill: 
  *Red* = 12,000 foot cross-cut from Erie to the Jumbo 1500 level
*Green* = 30 degree incline shaft to surface by means of a three-compartment shaft
*Blue* = 16,000 foot aerial tram from Jumbo to the rear of the Kennecott mill.


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## blackburn49 (Jan 2, 2008)

Looking down the main haulage tunnel:  
  Very likely this photo was taken on the Erie side of the main 1500 level cross-cut since there are ore pocket loading areas seen here which probably did not exist anywhere else along the 1500-level  tunnel (on the Mother Lode side it was the 1600 level tunnel. The numbers changed in the Jumbo mining area).


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## blackburn49 (Jan 2, 2008)

Looking Down the Jumbo Tram: 
  That's the toe of the Kennicott Glacier up there--McCarthy would be to the left and near the front of the glacier.


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## blackburn49 (Jan 2, 2008)

The Junction Station


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## blackburn49 (Jan 2, 2008)

Jumbo Tram discharge station at rear of mill:


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## blackburn49 (Jan 2, 2008)

I have posted a number of these images previously in the old forum.
Some of you are undoubtedly familiar with a number of these as a result.
However, now that I can use the low resolution function of my image software, I am making 
new scans of almost all of these images in a much larger size where the detail in the 
historic photograph allows it. Thus you will be seeing much more than before by
simply clicking onto the images which are clickable, which is most of them.

and now, back to

The Erie Mine over Root Glacier
  It is extremely difficult to find good historic photos of some of these locations, notably the Erie Mine
the Glacier Mine and even the Mother Lode.  This is one of my favorite period photos  of the Erie. Even though I have shown this one before, earlier in this thread, it is so dramatic as to warrant showing it again. 

And now more historic photos of Erie . . .


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## John J (Dec 29, 2007)

They left things intact for potential buyers?   Who would buy the place?  What was left up there  for anyone else to extract?  

Had they abandon this in the presernt day  one could have possibly turned it into a resort of some kind.    How's the sking up there any way /


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## blackburn49 (Jan 2, 2008)

Posted By John J on 02/22/2008 9:36 PM
They left things intact for potential buyers?   Who would buy the place?  What was left up there  for anyone else to extract?  

Had they abandon this in the presernt day  one could have possibly turned it into a resort of some kind.    How's the sking up there any way /
They left it intact because they ran out of time to move anything more. The last train out was run as late as possible without having to deal with winter maintenance. Once it was gone, that was it. But there was a mothballing crew of forty men to complete shut-down operations after that last train departed.

Kennecott clearly would have preferred to sell the operation just to get out of the liability of maintaining it. In the end, they kept caretakers there until 1951. A few years later they actually contracted with Ray Trotuchau to tear down the entire complex and blow all the mine adits. Fortunately, very little of that actually occurred.

The idea was not to leave enough there so it would be saleable, but the possibility was definitely discussed once the site was totally abandoned. But the reality  was there was really nothing left worth the effort to mine in  that area.  Early on the National Park Service considered purchasing the property, but the head of Alaskan operations at the time said it was a bad idea because the mine buildings took away from the scenic beauty of the area. Can you imagine that?  

Then along came World War II, putting an end to any such possibility for many, many years. 

Some skiers have considered the Bonanza hill for its skiing potential. It has been rated, apparently, but I don't know how it went. Imagine being about to resurrect the Bonanza aerial tram for a ski lift !  It doesn't matter now. The whole works except for the Mother Lode claims are now owned by the National Park Service anyway.


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## blackburn49 (Jan 2, 2008)

*Now we're going back into the mines for a closer look at the underground layout in the direction of the Erie claims. . .  *


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## blackburn49 (Jan 2, 2008)

Jumbo to Erie Claims: 
Using the NW part of the claims map, I have drawn in the two levels of cross-cuts that connect Erie to the Jumbo incline and even beyond to the Mother Lode incline.  The upper level (bottom one on this map) is the 1500 level which leads to the Erie main adit, but is 1500 feet below the Jumbo, thus connecting at the 1500 level of the Jumbo mine. The other cross-cut (top one) is 1,000 feet lower--the 2,500 level one. Unlike the 1500 level x-cut, this one opened no new veins, proving to the engineers that at this level all the way to Mother Lode no ore existed. They reached the bottom level of the ore occurrences several hundred feet above this tunnel.  

You can see that there is an Erie incline that connects the upper and lower cross-cuts. I have also shown two of the levels where ore was mined. One of these was 300 feet down and the other was about 600 feet below the Erie main level. 

The 1600 xcut was the level main haulage tunnel and had tracks for use by battery-operated locomotives. 
No ore left Erie by means of the Erie adit. This adit led only to the barrack and also provided a means of re-supply.


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## blackburn49 (Jan 2, 2008)

Full Claims Map: Kennecott and Mother Lode Claims: 
The boundary between the two sets of claims is marked in green
  click for a very large image of this map


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## blackburn49 (Jan 2, 2008)

The Jumbo Profile:
--A look at the mine sideways--
  The 600 level crosscut connected Jumbo to Bonanza well before the 1500 level Jumbo-Erie cross-cut was driven. This is a very impressive profile. Click for the larger view of it.  You will be able to clearly see the extensive workings occurred within Jumbo.


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## blackburn49 (Jan 2, 2008)

Erie has been described as an eagle's nest


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## sheepdog (Jan 2, 2008)

Wow! That is one great shot Ron. Any idea on the year? 

I really don't care for heights.... and sleeping in that dorm would not have been possible.... /DesktopModules/NTForums/themes/mls/emoticons/tongue.gif

Craig


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## blackburn49 (Jan 2, 2008)

Posted By sheepdog on 02/24/2008 4:10 PM
Wow! That is one great shot Ron. Any idea on the year? 

I really don't care for heights.... _*and sleeping in that dorm would not have been possible*_.... /DesktopModules/NTForums/themes/mls/emoticons/tongue.gif

Craig
I can't imagine why not . . . 
  The previous photo was probably taken some time in the mid-1990s. This one was likely taken toward the end in about '37-38.   The view of the Root Glacier would have been spectacular, but, like you, I don't think I could have done it, either.


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## blackburn49 (Jan 2, 2008)

More historic views from Erie during its operation: 
  Below: The famous "stairway icefall" seen from McCarthy but here as seen from Erie:


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## blackburn49 (Jan 2, 2008)

The icefall as seen from near McCarthy: 
Looking north up the Kennicott Glacier valley, in the direction of the head of Root Glacier
one sees the icefall. It is difficult to convey how massive it appears from this point, but
one can feel the cold air blowing from that direction to the point where this photo was taken.

  clicking the photo give you a better sense of the magnitude of this icefall feature.


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## blackburn49 (Jan 2, 2008)

You can even see the location of the Erie Mine from here


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## SteveC (Jan 2, 2008)

Ron

This may sound crazy, but in the darker blue toward the top of he photograph I see what seems to be bright spots that look as if they are stars. Is this in the original photograph, or are they just artefact's from the digitization and/or compression??

Even if the white spots are in the original photograph it still may be nothing. I ask because I wonder if because of the position so close to the polar region if it is possible to actually see stars during daylight hours. Yea, I know I'm nuts, but you don't find things out or learn unless you're willing to ask questions and run the risk of being made fun of.


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## blackburn49 (Jan 2, 2008)

Posted By SteveC on 02/24/2008 6:40 PM
Ron

This may sound crazy, but in the darker blue toward the top of he photograph I see what seems to be bright spots that look as if they are stars. Is this in the original photograph, or are they just artefact's from the digitization and/or compression??

Even if the white spots are in the original photograph it still may be nothing. I ask because I wonder if because of the position so close to the polar region if it is possible to actually see stars during daylight hours. Yea, I know I'm nuts, but you don't find things out or learn unless you're willing to ask questions and run the risk of being made fun of. 
Whatever they are, they're not stars. Like anywhere else, you won't be seeing stars during the  daylight hours up here unless someone knocks_ your _lights out!  

Actually, during _most _of the tourist season, it is not possible to see stars at _any_ time of the day or night !


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## blackburn49 (Jan 2, 2008)

Erie Adit: 
View 1:  Unfortunately, most of the photos of Erie are rather grainy. This one came from the son of Superintendent Douglass. Like most all adits built into mountainsides in Alaska, this one has a snowhed cover to keep snow from burying the entry point. 
  When you click the photo to enlarge it you will see the tram head frame, which was still standing the last time I saw this from hundreds of feet below in the early 1990s.


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## ThinkerT (Jan 2, 2008)

Whatever they are, they're not stars. Like anywhere else, you won't be seeing stars during the daylight hours up here unless someone knocks your lights out! 



Well..if it be weird stuff you want...there be one strange story from that part of the world (actuallly more towards the canadian side of the border) going clear back to the gold rush days and repeated enough times to where it attained a sort of quasi credibility: that being the 'phantom city' of the north, described as a sort of extemely detailed illusion or phantasm or mirage that could sometimes be glimpsed 'somewhere' in the high frozen valleys of the region. The cities architecture was described as being along the line of something you'd find in much warmer (temperate to tropical) climes; I read one convoluted though unconvincing account claiming it to be a reflection/mirage of some city in southern europe.


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## blackburn49 (Jan 2, 2008)

Posted By ThinkerT on 02/24/2008 10:57 PM
Whatever they are, they're not stars. Like anywhere else, you won't be seeing stars during the daylight hours up here unless someone knocks your lights out!


Well..if it be weird stuff you want...there be one strange story from that part of the world (actuallly more towards the canadian side of the border) going clear back to the gold rush days and repeated enough times to where it attained a sort of quasi credibility: that being the 'phantom city' of the north, described as a sort of extemely detailed illusion or phantasm or mirage that could sometimes be glimpsed 'somewhere' in the high frozen valleys of the region. The cities architecture was described as being along the line of something you'd find in much warmer (temperate to tropical) climes; I read one convoluted though unconvincing account claiming it to be a reflection/mirage of some city in southern europe.
I have heard of that too.  Better than that, I have probably actually _seen_ it.  The farther north one goes, the more likely one is to encounter it. What I really saw was the upside down image of Prudhoe Bay, somehow viewable over the horizon from a distance of maybe twenty miles away. It was literally mirrored in the sky and thus looked like a real city, except it was upside down. I suspect that is a natural phenomena of arctic environments.

I believe that Dawson City has been viewed that way from     some impossible distance (wintertime only) and thus assumed to be a phantom city when what was seen really was a mirror image of a real place.


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## blackburn49 (Jan 2, 2008)

Erie Mine Adit, View 2
  Looking up, probably from the top of the waste ore dump pile which was deposited here. By the time I saw this place, the waste ore pile was much higher.   That second tower below the mine head tram still stood as of 1993 when I last visited the site.


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## blackburn49 (Jan 2, 2008)

Two structures between the mine entry and the barrack: 
  One of these buildings had a wooden tank in it I assume was for water storage. It is possible that the other one held transformers for the power line that extended from the Kennecott power plant up the five mile trail to the Erie Mine.


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## blackburn49 (Jan 2, 2008)

The Erie Outbuildings and Power Terminal


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## blackburn49 (Jan 2, 2008)

Erie Adit
  One or both?  I believe the upper one is the adit and the lower shed covers the tram head motor.  (click).


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## blackburn49 (Jan 2, 2008)

Erie Adit 1979: 
  Same area, expanded, showing the outbuildings and the adit area.


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## blackburn49 (Jan 2, 2008)

The Erie Mine site as it appeared in 1979, view 2


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## blackburn49 (Jan 2, 2008)

The Erie Mine site as it appeared in 1979, view 3
  Note the contact zone: the barrack is sitting on the Nicolai greenstone while above and behind is the Chitistone limestone, which is the host rock for the chalcocite--the primary copper ore.


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## blackburn49 (Jan 2, 2008)

The Erie Mine site as it appeared in 1979, view 4


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## blackburn49 (Jan 2, 2008)

The Erie Mine site as it appeared in 1979, view 5


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## blackburn49 (Jan 2, 2008)

The Erie Mine site as it appeared in 1979, view 6
  This is another view showing the dramatic contact zone rock contrast. One other thing: the only feasible approach to this site is by climbing an adjacent ridge to the right to a point well above this site, then climbing down following roughly along the contact zone--a very steep and perhaps somewhat scary climb to say the least !


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## blackburn49 (Jan 2, 2008)

The Erie Mine site as it appeared in 1979, view 7
  A final look at the entire Erie site from adit to 40-man barrack structure (rebuilt in 1924).


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## blackburn49 (Jan 2, 2008)

A final look: The Erie Mine site as it appeared in 1979, view 8
  Close-up view of the barrack/cookhouse/mess & amusement hall
Last in use: August 1938


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## blackburn49 (Jan 2, 2008)

Back to the Junction Station and 
up to the Glacier Mine:
  Looking down the Glacier tram to the Junction Station where it meets the Jumbo Tram


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## blackburn49 (Jan 2, 2008)

Jumbo Junction Station from below:


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## mhutson (Jan 2, 2008)

Ron, 
Thanks for these photos. The Jumbo angle station is as close to the mines as I've made it. I have a gorgeous piece of high grade copper ore from there. 

Cheers, 
Matt


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## flatracker (Jan 2, 2008)

After looking at the Erie buildings, I would figure you would have to be half monkey and half bird to get up there. I can't imagine how they were able to string those heavy cables for the power (and tram in other places), or haul the heavy transformers up there, let alone all the lumber, etc. that had to be hauled up to such a precarious site. I know I would not want to be working at a job in those places. Even getting from one building to another would seem to be a chore. Of course I don't like heights either./DesktopModules/NTForums/themes/mls/emoticons/tongue.gif

Once again, great pictures!


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## blackburn49 (Jan 2, 2008)

Posted By mhutson on 02/25/2008 4:28 AM
Ron, 
Thanks for these photos. The Jumbo angle station is as close to the mines as I've made it. I have a gorgeous piece of high grade copper ore from there. 

Cheers, 
Matt
Having been there then, you are well aware of the overpowering sense of the terrain around this magnificent historic mining project.  Everything is so much "larger than life."  I have said many times that what really makes Kennecott remarkable is its intensely-rugged and highly remote setting.


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## blackburn49 (Jan 2, 2008)

Posted By flatracker on 02/25/2008 6:00 AM
After looking at the Erie buildings, I would figure you would have to be half monkey and half bird to get up there. I can't imagine how they were able to string those heavy cables for the power (and tram in other places), or haul the heavy transformers up there, let alone all the lumber, etc. that had to be hauled up to such a precarious site. I know I would not want to be working at a job in those places. Even getting from one building to another would seem to be a chore. Of course I don't like heights either.


All of the material was hauled up the five-mile wagon road to that tram. It is many hundreds of feet from the tram base up to the adit level. Someone had to climb up there and establish some kind of cable point in order to get it all going. There really is no trail to this location. It truly does take one crazy climbing monkey to get up there.

The adit and out buildings were all connected by a showshed that was built into the steep terrain and that has since fallen apart, making it excessively hazardous to make ones way along at that level which I once estimated as being 1200 feet above the glacier.


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## blackburn49 (Jan 2, 2008)

Kennecott in the early 60s: 
  This photo was in a group provided by Superintendent William C. Douglass's son, showing the ghost town as it appeared when it was intact, except for the rail lines. This was probably taken in 1963--a year before the top of the mill was torn off. 

In those days most of the furnishings of those who left Kennecott so suddenly back in 1938 were still in place. Wouldn't you have loved to have visited this place back then?


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## blackburn49 (Jan 2, 2008)

Compare the above picture with this one taken about two decades later:


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## blackburn49 (Jan 2, 2008)

Rare color photo of mill site with tracks intact--1955


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## blackburn49 (Jan 2, 2008)

"Yes, Virginia, there really was a train at Kennecott . . . "
  Mikado passenger train #70 awaits departure time


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## blackburn49 (Jan 2, 2008)

Kennecott rails 1925


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## blackburn49 (Jan 2, 2008)

Kennecott Rails 1937


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## blackburn49 (Jan 2, 2008)

Kennecott-no rails-torn up ghost town-1970


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## John J (Dec 29, 2007)

What or who took the top of the mill off?


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## blackburn49 (Jan 2, 2008)

Posted By John J on 02/25/2008 1:43 PM
What or who took the top of the mill off?  
The mill in July 1964--just after the roof was torn off:  This was done by Ray Trotuchau's crew. Mr. Trotuchau had a contract with Kennecott to demolish the entire mill and to blow shut the mine adits.


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## blackburn49 (Jan 2, 2008)

The Roofless Mill, View "A"


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## blackburn49 (Jan 2, 2008)

The Roofless Mill, View "B"


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## blackburn49 (Jan 2, 2008)

Kennecott mill in 1955:
Compare this image with the previous one


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## blackburn49 (Jan 2, 2008)

North Face of Mill, 1924:
  Kennecott junior engineer Frank Buckie


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## blackburn49 (Jan 2, 2008)

Another View of the intact Mill in 1955:
  front: the machine shop


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## blackburn49 (Jan 2, 2008)

Kennecott Overview of North end, circa 1980


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## blackburn49 (Jan 2, 2008)

Overview of North Kennecott in 1963:
  click for a very large image: This photo shows several structures that no longer exist and which do not appear in the previous photo.


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## blackburn49 (Jan 2, 2008)

Kennecott Overview, 1964:
  *Addendum to this post:  The Glacier Mine is located directly above the mill*


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## John J (Dec 29, 2007)

Hmmmmm   I went to look up a word  you used in my dictionary and can't find it.   Must be one of them  50 dollar word and I got a  5 dollar dictionary

What is a  ADITS ?  Does that mean mine entrance?


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## blackburn49 (Jan 2, 2008)

And now, back to the Glacier Mine:
previously-shown photo--more to come
 \


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## blackburn49 (Jan 2, 2008)

Posted By John J on 02/25/2008 5:17 PM
Hmmmmm   I went to look up a word  you used in my dictionary and can't find it.   Must be one of them  50 dollar word and I got a  5 dollar dictionary

What is a  ADITS ?  Does that mean mine entrance? 
You got it !


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## blackburn49 (Jan 2, 2008)

The remains of Glacier Mine can be seen from the back of the mill: 
  Above: the view of Glacier Mine
Below: a close-up showing the remaining structure at the mine site
  Judging from the shape and positioning of the building, I believe that this building to house the motor for
the drag line for the surface scoop.


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## blackburn49 (Jan 2, 2008)

_Glacier Mine_ Tram Terminal with Drag Line Building in Background:


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## Semper Vaporo (Jan 2, 2008)

I always thought that living in Alaska you'd have great vistas... too bad you have all those rock mounds in the way. /DesktopModules/NTForums/themes/mls/emoticons/hehe.gif


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## blackburn49 (Jan 2, 2008)

_Glacier Mine_ Operations: 
 







The  Bonanza to  Glacier tram  was operated  between 1920 and 1929,  providing access  for  men who stayed at the Bonanza  main camp to the  Glacier mine  site.  It was also the means to move some  supplies to the site (thus the sling seen in the above photo).


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## blackburn49 (Jan 2, 2008)

Posted By Semper Vaporo on 02/25/2008 6:55 PM
I always thought that living in Alaska you'd have great vistas... too bad you have all those rock mounds in the way. /DesktopModules/NTForums/themes/mls/emoticons/hehe.gif
I love that ! Can I quote you?   /DesktopModules/NTForums/themes/mls/emoticons/whistling.gif /DesktopModules/NTForums/themes/mls/emoticons/tongue.gif


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## blackburn49 (Jan 2, 2008)

_Glacier Mine_: Drag Line building and Tram Terminal: 
  "The Glacier Mine is a mixture of ice, ore from Bonanza outcrop and country rock.  Ice makes up 40 percent of volume of output; ore will assay 2 . 30%.  It is screened at the mine through 1 1/2 " screen, oversize picked and sent to waste dump, under size sent to the mill.  Reject about 50 % last year, average sent to mill assayed 3.28%.  It can be worked 3 months in the year, producing about 30,000 tons mine run rock; cost per ton for 1923 was 70 cents."   --from an inhouse publication:_ General Points of Interest, W.C.Douglass, Supt. 

Note: After the end of operations here in 1929, much of the upper Glacier tram was removed, including, apparently, the tram head. 

_This concludes our brief tour of the Glacier Mine. That leaves just one site to explore.


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## blackburn49 (Jan 2, 2008)

Bonanza Mine c. 1914:

While going through my selection of Glacier Mine photos, I found this one, which is from the same source--a collector of Alaskana who lives in Fairbanks (Candy Waugaman).  This is directly across the hill from the Glacier Mine.  As you look over the ridge, which drops off sharply on the other side, know that it was that cliff face which was the actual discovery vein that is the exposed part of the Bonanza main copper vein which was eroded into the glacier below. That is what made this discovery possible--natural erosion. 

Thus we have the odd situation of a copper company actually mining a glacier. Bet that is a new one to you, too !


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## Semper Vaporo (Jan 2, 2008)

Posted By blackburn49 on 02/25/2008 7:02 PM
Posted By Semper Vaporo on 02/25/2008 6:55 PM
I always thought that living in Alaska you'd have great vistas... too bad you have all those rock mounds in the way. /DesktopModules/NTForums/themes/mls/emoticons/hehe.gif
I love that ! Can I quote you?   /DesktopModules/NTForums/themes/mls/emoticons/whistling.gif /DesktopModules/NTForums/themes/mls/emoticons/tongue.gif



Do as you wish... I'm just jealous is all.


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## flatracker (Jan 2, 2008)

It looks like the area was still in pretty good shape in 1955. (Year I graduated from High School) Little did I even realize, in the furtherest corners of my mind, that something like this even existed. Also like the 1937 picture! Year I was hatched!/DesktopModules/NTForums/themes/mls/emoticons/tongue.gif


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## blackburn49 (Jan 2, 2008)

Posted By Semper Vaporo on 02/25/2008 8:00 PM
Posted By blackburn49 on 02/25/2008 7:02 PM
Posted By Semper Vaporo on 02/25/2008 6:55 PM
* I always thought that living in Alaska you'd have great vistas... too bad you have all those rock mounds in the way. *
I love that ! Can I quote you?   /DesktopModules/NTForums/themes/mls/emoticons/whistling.gif /DesktopModules/NTForums/themes/mls/emoticons/tongue.gif


Do as you wish... I'm just jealous is all.
I just happen to live in the part of Alaska that includes some of the highest mountains in North America. Additionally, to the south is the Chugach coast range and to the north are the Alaska Range, the Talkeetna Range and the Mentasta Range.  It was the breeching of the Chugach Range that made the construction of the CRNW Railway particularly difficult. But the Kennecott itself is set along the southern slopes of the Wrangell Range.

North of the Alaska Range the country becomes relatively flat with miles upon miles of mostly tundra. This is especially true north of the last mountain range--the Brooks, which is very old compared to my area. I was stationed on the North Slope during much of pipeline construction days. Nothing exists up there--not even a tree--to stop the incessant winds.

If you want vistas of nothing at all that is definitely the place to be. No rock mounds. Nothing there. Just tundra and mosquitos for hundreds upon hundreds of miles.


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## blackburn49 (Jan 2, 2008)

Google Earth and the _Kennecott Mines
After spending some time playing around with this 3-D model I was finally able to satisfy myself as far as locating the four main minesites.  Mother Lode and Erie were particularly difficult to locate, but I believe I have them all down correctly.

For reference I have included the location of the mill and the CRNW depot near McCarthy_
  _On the left is McCarthy Creek. Mother Lode had a lower camp on that river bed with a 5,000 foot tram line connecting the two points. On the right is Root Glacier in front of Erie and Kennicott Glacier in front of Kennecott mill site. The two merge just north of Kennecott. _


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## blackburn49 (Jan 2, 2008)

Relative Location of Erie to the two merging glaciers: Root and Kennicott


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## blackburn49 (Jan 2, 2008)

Mother Lode: This mine was located on especially steep terrain. I have flown over the site and seen the remains of the destroyed upper camp strewn for thousands of feet down the hillside. It is so steep it is hard to imagine being able to stand up in places over there.


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## blackburn49 (Jan 2, 2008)

_Erie_: Much like the Mother Lode, Erie is located on next to impossible terrain.
  The elevation from the glacier to the Erie site that I picked out measures out to slightly more than 1,200 feet, just as I suspected.  It still amazes me, considering that I once tried to access this site.


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## blackburn49 (Jan 2, 2008)

The_ Kennecott Mines_: Two Views Looking North
  Views showing the heads of both glaciers. The top view shows the "stairway icefall," which is prominently visible from McCarthy.  

The lower view shows the head of Kennicott Glacier, which is Mt. Blackburn--the tallest of the peaks on the Alaskan side of the Wrangell Range. Behind Blackburn you can see the top of Mt. Wrangell.


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## John J (Dec 29, 2007)

How did they ever know to look there for  Copper Ore?    Were they looking for some other mineral or something.?


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## blackburn49 (Jan 2, 2008)

Posted By John J on 02/26/2008 7:14 PM
How did they ever know to look there for  Copper Ore?    Were they looking for some other mineral or something.?
In fact, that is the REAL story that places me where I am now--a story I will get to soon enough. Looking at the rough terrain as revealed by these Google Earth maps, it is difficult to imagine anyone even prospecting this area.  It _was_ the _copper_ they were seeking. They knew it had to be there because my own great, great grandfather acknowledged that it was there when Lt. Henry Allen asked him way back in 1885.


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## blackburn49 (Jan 2, 2008)

The Kennecott Mines in Line: 
_(See last Google-Earth map above)_
The contact zone which is the usual point where the mines begin runs along a relatively straight axis that includes (1)Erie, (2)Jumbo, (3)Bonanza, (6)Green Butte and the (8)Nicolai.  
Mother Lode (4) does not apparently fall into this axis, but in fact it does. The beginning of the Bonanza-Mother Lode main vein runs parallel to the main Bonanza vein, with one end of it beginning near the invisible axis you see here. The ML camp, however, was located by a separate (not Kennecott) company which was seeking copper following a different theory. In fact, the Mother Lode and Bonanza veins are the same.  There are two other points which are outside of the axis. These are the Regal (5) and the Tjosevik (7). Both of these were copper prospectors, not producers. 
  Click for a larger map of the Nizina District


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## blackburn49 (Jan 2, 2008)

The_ Nizina District _in the Context of Southern Interior Alaska: 
  All of the Nizina District--once an incredibly-rich mining area--now falls within Wrangell St.Elias National Park and Preserve and is thus no longer available for mineral extraction or most any other form of development.  (click)


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## blackburn49 (Jan 2, 2008)

Alignment of the Kennicott Formation:
*refer to previous map showing the Nizina Mining District*
  I have assigned locations for Green Butte and Nicolai Lode based on the data I have available here. As you can see, one can draw a straight line through the mine entry points of Erie, Jumbo, Bonanza, Green Butte and Nicolai--the original discovery claim.  The richest ore, as it turned out, was along the Bonanza Ridge to the left. The linear distance from Erie to Nicolai, as best as I could locate those two points, turns out to be 9.55 miles. Within this area fell all the potential high-grade copper.


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## blackburn49 (Jan 2, 2008)

Chapter Seven, "The Deal," from _Legacy of the Chief--intro_  Skolai Nicolai of Taral 

--the great peacemaker
This is my personal account. We don't know what really happened. All we have are the stories. There is the official history which would make one believe that Nicolai was a fool who traded access to an unimaginable fortune in high-grade copper for a cache of food. 

Then there is_ our_ story--the one handed down over the generations that tells us of the truly desperate situation which Nicolai saw and the deal he felt he had to make for his people--_my_ people-- in order that they could survive. 


What transpired in the small and very ancient village of Taral--now a deserted and forbidden place occupied only by the spirits--could be considered one of the most notorious trades of all times. For it is true that the prospector party who made the deal ultimately made a great deal of money from the Guggenheims. As for the money they made, well, in today's terms it would be in the billions of dollars. 


To this day people do not understand that Nicolai did the best he could possibly do for his people, and in his own way he succeeded. All of the conditions for which he bargained were ultimately granted, although mostly after his death. Nicolai withdrew from everyone after he made this deal. He literally disappeared into the mists of time. The events surrounding his death are mostly a matter of speculation among historians. _They_ are sure he died in 1900. _They_ are wrong. 


Nicolai lived in seclusion in Taral until many years later--choosing to stay completely out of sight because he too feared he had made the wrong choices. He had not. He had done the only thing he could do and he had made a lasting peace in the process --a peace which was unknown among the stateside tribes who mostly were destroyed by the deadly effects of the inevitable encroachment of the European society. Yet Nicolai set the tone for a permanent peace between the interior people and the U.S. military and the people who followed that was honored by _all_ the interior Athabascans. 


In the end, he probably saved his people far more than he ever realized.


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## blackburn49 (Jan 2, 2008)

_
Nicolai had chosen the path for his people. He extracted a small but significant commitment from the whites. Over the years, the Nicolai Prospect would become confused with the great Bonanza outcropping. Some people have come to believe that Nicolai gave away the Bonanza lode. He did not. It no longer matters. The name of Nicolai, tyone of Taral, would live on long after the names of the other chiefs were long forgotten because his name was forever linked with the tsedi. The spirit of Nicolai would never fade away, for he truly was the last great tyone of the Ahtnas. --Johnny Gakona
_


     So it finally came down to this. The three white men who called themselves the McClellan Company, headed by a fellow named Edward Gates, and also including James McCarthy and Art McNeer, appeared at the camp of Chief Nicolai, Tyone of Taral, with their intentions clearly stated. Fourteen years before, Lieutenant Henry Allen found Nicolai in his winter camp on Dan Creek. Nicolai called this land the Tsedi Na. The white men changed that to Chittyna before finally settling on Chitina--Copper River. It was the tsedi. They wanted the copper.



But not just any copper. An abundance of copper nuggets--some of them quite substantial--could be found in the creek bottoms of the glacial steams in the area. This type of nugget was called float by the white men. It is just a showing. Had the metal been gold--a mineral of considerable value--they might have contented themselves with what they could find in the streams. After all, Stephen Birch and his brother Howard did well in the gold-placer business on Dan Creek. But this was copper. The highest copper value was about twenty cents a pound at a time when gold was about twenty dollars an ounce. Typical white men. They wanted more. Copper was only potentially valuable in our remote area as a high-grade metal in massive quantities. 



Was there a mother lode in the Wrangell Range?



They wanted the source. They knew there had to be one. Where was it? What would it take to convince one of you to lead us to the source?



The lieutenant had once asked. 
“_I see copper everywhere. I see it in the streams. It’s in your bullet casings and your arrows and spears. Is there anything like this in the hills?_” 



The lieutenant held up a piece of rock sitting along the wall inside the tyone’s lodge. It was obviously chipped out of a larger piece. It contained hues of bright green and blue. It was not rounded like those which could be found in the creek beds. 



We used these pieces for arrowheads.



The chief turned toward the hills across the Nizina River. He pointed in the direction of his favorite hunting area toward the north across the Chitistone River.


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## blackburn49 (Jan 2, 2008)

Nicolai’s brother Skilly told us grandchildren this story. Skilly led the U.S. Army party to Nicolai’s camp. He told us that all of the white men turned silent upon watching Nicolai make that simple pointing motion and say those few words. It was as if they had found the location of something holy. When he finally asked Nicolai to describe the place, Nicolai waved him off and told him that it was time to feast. Nicolai sensed that he had just done something he might later regret. He did not discuss the location with a white man again until 1899. 


The lieutenant only wanted to know that such a source existed. He was not a prospector. He was just the head of a small expedition that came to assess the attitude of the Natives toward the government, map the region, and do some preliminary geological investigations. That was the end of that. Or so the chief hoped. 



This early meeting, however, was only the beginning of a series of government expeditions. Then came the small independent prospecting activities fueled by considerable speculation as to the value and location of the copper lodes in the Wrangells. 
    Looking from the CRNW Railway bed across the Copper River to Taral


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## blackburn49 (Jan 2, 2008)

Over the next fourteen years, the legend of a rich vein of copper which was now reinforced by this early encounter between Nicolai and Allen, would grow. Then came the white incursion of 1898-99 by way of the Valdez-Klutina Glaciers. 


Now they were once again at Nicolai’s door at what would soon be the last true remaining Native village in our lower river area from the old days, Taghaelden--otherwise known as Taral. Nicolai was still the supreme chief. After that last embarrassing incident at Tonsina, the people of Nicolai sheepishly began to filter back in, just as Goodlataw had said they would. Fishing and hunting activities resumed with a greater enthusiasm than ever. But it was late in the year. There was so little time and the game remained scarce. The fish stopped running. Starvation appeared to be inevitable unless the game which had been absent all summer suddenly appeared in the frigid depths of the winter.



The timing could not have been better for Edward Gates and the other prospectors. Nicolai headed a group of deathly-appearing people who were beginning to resemble some of those early prospectors who came into Taral half-starved. 
  _ So it finally came down to this. The three white men who called themselves the McClellan Company, headed by a fellow named Edward Gates, and also including James McCarthy and Art McNeer, appeared at the camp of Chief Nicolai, Tyone of Taral, with their intentions clearly stated.   It was the tsedi. They wanted the copper.  --Johnny Gakona_


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## blackburn49 (Jan 2, 2008)

A white man with a cache of food was in a strong bargaining position. Ed Gates and his party laid out their proposal simply enough. They had a full season’s cache of food for their party which they had stashed earlier along the Bremner River. They would consider splitting it up with Nicolai’s people in return for access to the lode which was known only by a handful of Ahtna Natives. 


The first indications of the impending starvation had already set in. The white man diseases were beginning to take their toll as well. The game was scarce and the supply of salmon was nearly gone. The white men had entered the area in force. With them had come an unending supply of alcohol. Even if winter game moved in, little doubt remained as to who would get most of it. The future of the Ahtnas was in doubt. Too much had changed too quickly.



Most of those who had crossed the river to live on the west bank, with the relatively easy access to white men’s goods and especially whiskey, had changed their outlook. The Ahtnas listened to their tyone only when it suited them. His word no longer carried the weight it once had. For many, the old ways of life had become nothing more than a memory. 
  The Nicolai Prospect


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## blackburn49 (Jan 2, 2008)

The future had been laid out for all to see. It was a white man’s society. Life was about grow easier. The time was coming when it would no longer necessary that everyone hunt, trap, and fish as before. The new society had brought in the goods that made life a measure easier as long as money could be obtained. Trapping for valuable pelts and guiding for rich trophy-hunters became more important than hunting and traditional trapping and fishing. Guiding in those early days was particularly lucrative. Many Indians would be able to benefit from their intimate knowledge of the Wrangells and the Copper River valley. 


In Nicolai’s old society, a strict class structure existed. At the very top was the tyone , then came his chiefs, their warriors and their lead hunters. In a class of their own were the solitary sleep-doctors. They were in a world of their own, and would quietly survive the white system which would destroy the tyone.
At the bottom were the young men, followed by the women and children. At least they were valued and protected. They had no voice in the activities of the clan. Several clans existed in the valley. Nicolai’s Raven clan was dominant when Lieutenant Allen first ascended the Copper River. Each clan had its own village or camp and was headed by its own chief. Room existed for only one tyone. He, above all else, represented the past.



  Winter Freighting in the lower Copper River somewhere between Taral and Dan Creek, 1904


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## blackburn49 (Jan 2, 2008)

The old class system crumbled rapidly with the coming of the white man. The women began to see many of their own men as mainly drunk and largely useless. They began assuming more of the traditional male roles in order to preserve their families. In the early days only a few of the women participated in the drinking, but almost all of the men did. In a few generations the women began taking control of the villages. 

 



The villages became more important than the clans. The old clan ways began to disappear along with the elders and their system headed by the tyone.



Despite the worst fears of the tyone, there is something in the nature of being an Indian which just would not go away. The old system was doomed, but the Indians would always be Indians. One day, the pride which was so badly damaged in these early days of the intrusion of the white man, would begin to seep back in. One day, the spirit which was Nicolai would begin to return.



In the winter of 1899 the breakdown of the clan system was apparent everywhere. Much to the embarrassment of the chief, it was equally obvious to the white prospectors. On that particularly fateful day in midwinter, the prospectors simply showed up. They had worked their way up the river ice from the Bremner area to the south.
  The head of Nicolai Creek somewhere above the famous Nicolai Prospect, looking west toward McCarthy-Kennecott
_ Nicolai’s lode_. The tyone had never thought of it that way. This was what those prospectors wanted. They even named the legendary copper after him. The chief had never been all that impressed with what the white men had to offer, though he loved the rifles, the blankets and the rice. He had also developed a taste for the tea. The rice complemented the moose meat and the fish well. Not long ago all this could be obtained by trading in the old way, indirectly through the Eyaks, first with the Tlingits, then the Russians, and finally the early Americans. No more. The merchants had arrived at his very doorstep. The offer was something to consider. James McCarthy insisted that it was a very large cache which they had drug over the pass the entered the Tasnuna River. Half of it could be his for almost nothing but some information.


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## blackburn49 (Jan 2, 2008)

In front of a lodge at Taral 


But Nicolai understood that far more was at stake. Here he was, in the position of those east-coast Indians of so long ago who had been asked to trade a piece of land for a few trinkets. Nicolai did not want to be known forever as the Indian who traded away his land for a few trinkets. He did not understand the white concept of ownership, but he suspected that land was the real issue. There was no way for Nicolai to understand the true value of the copper, but there was no doubt that the white men wanted it badly. He knew that if the white men wanted it that much, there must be something to it, though he did not understand what it was. But it all came down to the land. It was not a good sign. He was no longer in a position to worry about whether some was engii. He had to act.



Nicolai had prepared himself for this moment ever since the Tonsina incident. Now he would use his finest bargaining skills. Doc Billum was known to be a natural trader. Nicolai would have to do better than the Doc. He had known that someday they would come to him, expecting him to simply grant what they asked for very little in return.



“_I know that you are here to stay and that you will not go away. Nor will we go away. We have always been here and we will always be here. One day, you may leave, but we will not. This is the only home we have known. Our ancestors are buried here. This land is our life. It has always provided for us_.”
 


“_It has failed you_.”



“_Only because you white people have driven out the game and trapped the fish at the mouth of the 
great river, leaving little for us_.”



“_How would you know that?_ "




“_I am a sleep-doctor. No one told me, but I know_.



“_You want the tsedi. We have interest in your cache_. 



“_So we have much to discuss. Sit around the fire in the lodge with me, and we will talk. Hanagita, Skilly and Eskilida are inside, as is my son Goodlataw_.”


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## blackburn49 (Jan 2, 2008)

Ed Gates spoke for the group. 


“_We know that your people need food. We have brought our own which we will leave with you as a gift. James spotted the moose downriver, which Art shot. Out dogs dragged the carcass in on the sled_.”



Nicolai and his band welcomed the fresh moose meat, which had become a rare treat under these tough circumstances. Better yet, Ed Gates had packed rice and tea. Tonight all would enjoy a truly great feast--the first one like it in months.



“_My women still live by my word. They have not yet begun to talk back to the men and tell us to fix our own meals. After my son cuts up the meat, my women will prepare the feast while we talk. We accept your gift, but we would have been prepared to share what food we have with you because you have shown up at my camp_.”



Ed Gates appreciated the genuine hospitality and complete lack of hostility of his host, the tyone.



“_You have taught us all that we must work together if we are to survive. We thank you for welcoming us into your lodge on so cold a night_.”



He signaled to a younger member of his party, who pulled something out of one of packs which had 
accompanied the McClellan party.
  _ “We will show you our location if you show us yours. We want the entire cache.” _--Chief Nicolai to Edward Gates


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## blackburn49 (Jan 2, 2008)

It had been a rough trek from the mouth of the Bremner River to Taral. The river ice had helped, but there were several open areas on the river as well as some very treacherous overflows. The chief’s lodge was a welcome sight indeed. It was warm and comfortable, and the hosts were friendly.

Udzisyu brought the men tea. She smiled at all of the men as she poured. The woman was pleased to have so much meat, rice, and tea to prepare. She wanted to honor these men who had taken considerable effort and risk to arrive here in midwinter.

“While the meal is being prepared, I have also brought some tobacco which is our gift to you.” 

It was appropriate. The chief had a pipe. It was time to pass the pipe. These men had come to discuss monumental business. The discussions went on through the night. Although the chief soon realized that the men had only the cache at Bremner to offer, he would make the most of the situation. Nothing quite like this would probably ever happen again. 

Nicolai picked up his tea, as did his brothers and son, who had returned from his job of carving up the moose meat. All of them raised their cups in a salute to the tyone. 
  The _infamous_ Nicolai Lode Claims


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## blackburn49 (Jan 2, 2008)

“Your people have brought us diseases and whiskey, which is like a disease. We did not have these afflictions before you came. Someday you will build your own town nearby across the great river. We will need your help. We want your word that the white man will build a place to save us from those diseases. Our medicine is not for the white man diseases. I am sick in my heart for all the people we have already lost. 

“If you fail, we will come to remind you. We will stay at edge of your camps and your town until you agree to help. We will not threaten you. But we will not leave you alone. You will not be able to ignore us. In the end, you will agree just to get rid of us. It is better to agree now. Then follow your words.” 

Gates was not expecting this. He did not represent any government agency and could not speak for them. But it was clear that the chief had long considered this. It was understandable, when he gave it some thought. 

“I am not a government agent. I can not commit them to anything. But I will do my best to convince them to build an Indian clinic. We will even volunteer our help to build it. It will be up to the government to provide the doctor or the nurse.” 

Nicolai had Gate’s word. There was nothing more to be said about that matter. All he wanted was the word of the white men. He nodded his head in approval and went on. 

“We will show you our location if you show us yours. We want the entire cache.” 

Once again Gates was taken by surprise. The simplicity and obvious equality of this proposal had a certain appeal. But it left him and his party without any assured food for the remainder of the winter. He tried to talk the chief into a split of the cache, but on this matter the chief would not budge. 

In the end, the appeal of all that copper, possibly an entire mountain of it, won out. Gates would find his own food or take the chance of starvation in return for access to this legendary source of copper--Nicolai lode, soon to be the Nicolai Prospect. 

Ed Gates drew a map on the sandy floor of the lodge which showed the location of the cache. Not only was the cache located exactly as Gates had drawn, but it contained a generous measure of tea, coffee, salt, sugar and tobacco as well as other useful supplies, including two rifles with ammunition and several cooking utensils. Nicolai and his small group at Taral would have enough to survive the winter. 

In return, the chief sent the Gates party off to headwaters of Nicolai Creek. His oldest brother Hanagita was the man who would take the honor. This was truly Hanagita’s country. Hanagita preferred to live the life of a solitary Native trapper. He spent almost all his time following the trails of the upper Chitina and Nizina Rivers. This would be the last time anyone ever heard of Hanagita. He had served his purpose and drifted off to an unknown fate. No white man ever set eyes on Hanagita after 1899.
  Map of the Workings of the Nicolai Lode


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## blackburn49 (Jan 2, 2008)

Ed Gates staked the Nicolai Lode, Siwash Jack Lode, Wonder Lode, Surprise Lode, Side Partner Lode, Red Rover Lode and the Last Lode, under the company name of the Chittyna Exploration Company. This is the entity which holds these claims to this very day. The claims were patented in 1904, but that was it. The prospect remained just that. It never became a productive mine. The Gates party had taken a gamble and they lost. But in the process Nicolai and Gates set into motion events which could not be stopped. Like Hanagita, this prospect drifted off into oblivion. It became a place of dashed hopes. As an isolated old camp high in the remote hills at the end of a long goat trail, it became one of the first of many deserted white man failed prospects. 

Nicolai had made his best deal under the most difficult of circumstances. He and everyone else would have to live with it. In the end, after considerable pestering, the whites built the clinic for the Indians at the new town of Chitina, though the chief never lived to see it. The Native clinic that was finally built in 1932 was the last unfulfilled part of the process that culminated in the greatest high-grade copper mine of all time. 

Nicolai had chosen the path for his people. He extracted a small but significant commitment from the whites. Over the years, the Nicolai Prospect would become confused with the great Bonanza outcropping. Some people have come to believe that Nicolai gave away the Bonanza lode. He did not. It no longer matters. The name of Nicolai, tyone of Taral, would live on long after the names of the other chiefs were long forgotten because his name was forever linked with the tsedi. The spirit of Nicolai would never fade away, for he truly was the last great tyone of the Ahtnas. 
  _ Nicolai had prepared himself for this moment ever since the Tonsina incident. Now he would use his finest bargaining skills. Doc Billum was known to be a natural trader. Nicolai would have to do better than the Doc. He had known that someday they would come to him, expecting him to simply grant what they asked for very little in return._ --Johnny Gakona


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## blackburn49 (Jan 2, 2008)

That was it. You just read the story behind the true beginnings of what would become the world's largest copper conglomerate--the Kennecott Copper Corporation.   Who could imagine the humble circumstances in which it would have its genesis ? 







This is an old photo which emerged _after_ I wrote the book. Chief Goodlataw is in the middle. On the left is Cap. The person on the right is unknown--and it was an unknown who played the crucial role of Johnny Gakona in my book-- an invented person who is the best friend of Cap Goodlataw.


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## blackburn49 (Jan 2, 2008)

The story of what happened next that directly resulted in the discovery of the Bonanza lode is well documented. But Nicolai's story remained unknown until I wrote that book except among the immediate family members. But it is not history. It is a story. In my people's culture there are only stories, no history. 

And now, back to the mines . . .


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## blackburn49 (Jan 2, 2008)

The Last of the great Kennecott Mines:
The _Mother Lode_: 
  I have marked the approximate point on the hillside where the upper camp once stood.


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## blackburn49 (Jan 2, 2008)

The straight-line distance from the camp to the base--McCarthy Creek--was approximately 5,000 feet. That was the length of the tram which connected the upper and lower camps.

As you can see, it was _very_ steep terrain !  You can even see a road that works its way up the hill. 
Like most the other images, you may click this to a larger size for a closer look.


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## blackburn49 (Jan 2, 2008)

Historic_ Mother Lode_ Photo c. 1917: 
  Showing the lower camp on McCarthy Creek, the tram line, and the tram terminal at the upper camp.


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## blackburn49 (Jan 2, 2008)

Mother Lode, looking over Bonanza Ridge to Kennicott Glacier


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## mhutson (Jan 2, 2008)

Ron, 
What remains at the Mother Lode lower camp and at the mine? Is the lower camp where the Pilgrim family was living? 

Thanks, 
Mattl


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## blackburn49 (Jan 2, 2008)

Posted By mhutson on 02/28/2008 4:20 AM
Ron, 
What remains at the Mother Lode lower camp and at the mine? Is the lower camp where the Pilgrim family was living? 

Thanks, 
Mattl
I saw pictures which showed that the last building at the lower camp had fallen.  An old 1938 Kennecott report indicated that these lower buildings were already in poor condition. They had not been in use for 21 years by the time Kennecott ceased operation in 1938. 

This was where the Pilgrim family lived.  It was the millsite-designated claim, although the ML company never had the money to build a mill and eventually sold out to Kennecott. Their property has since been transferred to another owner.

The entire upper camp was destroyed while the mines were still in operation in the 1920s.


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## blackburn49 (Jan 2, 2008)

Thanks to the magic of  Google-Earth, I am able to obtain some incredible shots of the terrain that have been enormously helpful in determining the exact relationships of the old locations to their surroundings.  
For Mother Lode to be located anywhere on the east side of Bonanza Ridge, it would inevitably have be built in a slide zone, as was obviously the case here.


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## blackburn49 (Jan 2, 2008)

For your reference, here is the panorama of _*ML*_ I posted earlier. 
Compare this to the Google-Earth images.
    (click)


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## blackburn49 (Jan 2, 2008)

Mother Lode in the context of Nicolai Prospect
  Unique geological conditions existed which made the Kennicott copper formation possible only along the axis from Nicolai in the southeast to Erie in the northwest.  Although the Kennecott engineers, among other  geologists, conducted extensive mineral surveys all over the Nizina and Chitina basins, no similar formations were ever found.  Most of the surveys occurred to the southeast of Nicolai, including one interesting area known as Glacier Creek. Other surveys were done west of the Kennicott Glacier following ridges to the south of Blackburn and Wrangell without finding any economically-available minerals.  This was an ongoing process which began shortly after Kennecott began mining and ended years after Kennecott had pulled out of the region. The last major survey was probably the Hanna Mining activites within the Mother Lode claims themselves as well as to the northeast of those claims between 1969 and 1972.  No findings from that last survey were ever published.


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## ThinkerT (Jan 2, 2008)

This was where the Pilgrim family lived. It was the millsite-designated claim, although the ML company never had the money to build a mill and eventually sold out to Kennecott. Their property has since been transferred to another owner. 


Ah...the 'Pilgrim family saga' - what a long and sorry mess that was. Though less tragic than the character who went nuts in the area back in the 80's and killed half a dozen people. I suspect you know, or knew some of the people involved in both episodes.


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## SlateCreek (Jan 2, 2008)

I know this is a bit off focus, but you had the photo up earlier... the KMR locomotive that became White Pass #4 is apparently for sale somewhere in Oklahoma, either restored, or partially so. (www.steamlocomotive.info has photos of restoration in progress, recently.) Depending on where it goes, it may actually be a "living" history piece again. 

Matthew (OV)


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## blackburn49 (Jan 2, 2008)

Posted By SlateCreek on 02/29/2008 12:52 AM
I know this is a bit off focus, but you had the photo up earlier... the KMR locomotive that became White Pass #4 is apparently for sale somewhere in Oklahoma, either restored, or partially so. (www.steamlocomotive.info has photos of restoration in progress, recently.) Depending on where it goes, it may actually be a "living" history piece again. 

Matthew (OV)
Interesting news, wrong thread. Please refer to the KMR Phase III thread. In fact, I have a post on KMR 4 in progress . . .


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## sschaer (Jan 2, 2008)

ron 

did you ever consider of bringing out another book ? this time with far more pics (and maybe less text) than in the 'legacy of the chief' ?


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## blackburn49 (Jan 2, 2008)

Posted By sschaer on 02/29/2008 1:02 PM
ron 

did you ever consider of bringing out another book ? this time with far more pics (and maybe less text) than in the 'legacy of the chief' ?
Originally I was going to do just that: create a "coffee table" book. That would have been very expensive to print. Now it probably won't happen at all because I simply don't see _sufficient_ demand for it.   Even here, I note that the number of actual responders to the Kennecott thread is _very limited_.  I have, for instance, gone to a great deal of trouble to present two entire chapters from my novel to  give depth to this presentation, but without _any_ comments at all from the MLS members on either of those two chapters despite what I thought was historically and culturally fascinating material.  

I do appreciate those few who have chosen to make the occasional comment, which is the courtesy I try to extend to those who make worthwhile posts or are presenting impressive projects (of which I must say there are many in this MLS.  What an amazingly creative, skillful and knowledgeable membership we have here.  I am humbled by the work I have seen in terms of structures, rolling stock models being built, and some of the figures created for this scale by our very members.

In any case, I am certainly not going to invest any money on a n_ew _book given, among other things,  the lack of feedback I see here (not a good sign). What is really needed is some current event that focuses on Kennecott or its CRNW Railway to create _new demand_ for things  historic or cultural in nature. regrettably, I don't see that happening.   

I could sell some copies  of a coffee table version for the three active months of every tourist season  here in the valley.  But I am_ already_ doing that with my existing novel. It took years to sell out the soft cover version.  The original I did not sell out only because I wanted to hold onto a good number of the hard covers for later sale when the value went up, assuming I live that long.  Given the amount of time involved to sell the copies, whatever limited resources  I have  is best invested elsewhere. 

That aside, this series of threads is worthwhile information to present in this fashion. It does not cost me anything but my time and it allows me to focus on my own projects which is always useful. In another month or two, I won't even have much time for this endeavor. I'll be busy with the business of business. 

What I am doing here is re-creating the best of the elements of the original thread I created here on MLS some years ago with the intention of leaving it permanently in place, assuming, of course, that I am able to maintain my  photos with my existing server (not free). 

Oh yes, the other book I was considering _does_ happen to involve the KMR--an ongoing thread that is nearly completed.   I was prepared to write a historic novel centering on the Klondike  in a similar fashion to the _Legacy of the Chief_. However,  I am no longer seeing favorable circumstances for that to occur any time in the forseeable future.  I don't intend to be a broke author. I have already met a few of those.  Regrettably, I can sell a lot more beer than I can books.


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## Semper Vaporo (Jan 2, 2008)

I try to read all posts on MLS, but I sometimes just kind of skim them because they do not appear to "interest" me.  When you started this post I was just skimming... looking at the photos, but not getting much from it because I wasn't reading the text to understand it.  But several posts ago, something caught my eye and I started to read in earnest.  I have had to go back and start from the beginning to "catch up" (not quite there yet!).

I have been wondering which book you got all the information from... NOW, I see that it is coming, not from someone else's research that you are just "reporting", but that it is YOUR research and I am impressed!  There is an awful lot of work here!  I don't know if it is worth the effort and agony of getting it published as a book on a "for profit" basis, but it certainly is a labor of love for the area and its history and worth every bit of that labor and MUST NOT be lost. 

PLEASE, do keep it organized as if you were going to publish it as a book and make that collection available to the historians of the future.  I am not sure how to do that, other than donating a copy (definitely a "copy") to a State or University library (and maybe the Smithonian) (and of course the archives here on MLS).  Surely there is an Alaska Historical Society that could (and should) archive it.

Thank you for your labor of love in this.  I do find it interesting, even if I don't necessarily comment about it.


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## Torby (Jan 2, 2008)

What book he gets his information from? He *wrote* the book!


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## blackburn49 (Jan 2, 2008)

Posted By ThinkerT on 02/29/2008 12:25 AM
This was where the Pilgrim family lived. It was the millsite-designated claim, although the ML company never had the money to build a mill and eventually sold out to Kennecott. Their property has since been transferred to another owner.
Ah...the 'Pilgrim family saga' - what a long and sorry mess that was. Though less tragic than the character who went nuts in the area back in the 80's and killed half a dozen people. I suspect you know, or knew some of the people involved in both episodes.
I knew two of the survivors of the Lou Hastings massacre. One died tragically in a fire at Kennecott. Ironically, Lou had tried to burn him alive by setting fire to the original Kennicott Glacier Lodge there. The other fellow died in an old folks home a long way away from his chosen home of McCarthy.

I have had some dealings with the Pilgrim (Hale) family. The boys are finally getting adjusted to the real world after years of living under the thumb of Robert Hale.

I also know the fellow who ended up with the Mother Lode property. I plan to go up there with him some time and hike up to the ML upper camp site. What a thrill that will be!


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## Kevin Miller (Jan 5, 2008)

Ron, I for one do not want to clutter up your oustanding posts with unnecessary responses. I enjoy what you have done here at MLS and I am sure by the amount of readers (2709 as I type this) that many others feel the same way I do. Please do not stop posting because of lack of response. I look forward to your stories and histories of Kennicott and I read them every day if I can.


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## flatracker (Jan 2, 2008)

I want to point out something Ron. Look back at all the posts. If you will notice, most are lucky to get a 5% comments re: the number of persons who read the post. Granted some are more, but not by much. Yours has achieved that and more! Many people just enjoy the information, and some don't realize how much work goes into something like you have contributed! Look back at some of the other forums, and you will see what I mean.


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## blackburn49 (Jan 2, 2008)

In 1956 National Geographic ran a story on Alaska that included tourism at _Kennecott_:
*"Kennecott Copper's Ghost Mill Cascades Down a Mountainside:"*
"At its peak in 1916, copper mining earned more than gold in Alaska.  Much of the ore came to the Kennecott mill by aerial cableway from hill diggings.  Here nearly 1,000 miners (sic) hauled out carloads of ore 60 to 70 per cent pure.
"When the ore ran out in 1938, the Kennecott mill and the neigboring town of McCarthy were abandoned.  An Anchorage airline now flies two-day excursions to the area . . . A Model-T converted to rail use transports visitors from McCarthy to the mine over the last remaining segment of a railroad that once ran to Cordova, 200 miles distant.  The Dodge car at left carried President Harding when he toured Alaska just before his death in 1923."

from _National Geographic Magazine_, "Alaska the Big Land," June 1956.


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## blackburn49 (Jan 2, 2008)

The five-mile trip began at the old Mother Lode railroad warehouse in McCarthy:


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## blackburn49 (Jan 2, 2008)

Regrettably, sometime during this period- 1955-57--the Mother Lode warehouse at the McCarthy end of the tracks burned down. There is absolutely no information available on it.  This was a structure that appeared in many of the early McCarthy historic photos.


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## blackburn49 (Jan 2, 2008)

The Mother Lode warehouse:
Here you see it in this 1939 aerial of the ghost town of McCarthy on the upper left:
Not much is known about it except it is clear that this warehouse, which is at the end of the CRNW tracks, was used by the old ML company as their transshipment point between the mine which was about 10 miles up McCarthy Creek and the CRNW Railway.  By 1917 it would have been out of use, but may have gained new life for a time when Kennecott picked up majority interest in all the ML properties in the area. 
  On the lower left you see the Mother Lode power plant which was built by that copper mining company to provide power to the ML before Kennecott acquired its 51 % interest in ML.  This power plant, while it still exists, was never used to provide power to McCarthy. After 1917 it was not used again.


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## blackburn49 (Jan 2, 2008)

In the early days of tourism to abandoned Kennecott, the speeder over the rails was the only way to reach the ghost town.  This wonderful period in Alaskan tourism ended sometime after 1957 when Ray Trotuchau took over the property from the Kennecott Corporation. He had the rails torn out and he gated up the town--barring it from visitors-- before proceeding to destroy it.


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## blackburn49 (Jan 2, 2008)

Kennecott in 1955:
one of the McCarthy speeders


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## Torby (Jan 2, 2008)

Love it! 

Is there a flange or something to keep the rear tires on the rail?


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## blackburn49 (Jan 2, 2008)

Kennecott 1955:
A couple of photos from when I first got started on this project:  I probably picked these ones up in 1989. They certainly fascinated me. After all, who would have imagined it would have looked this good back then?


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## blackburn49 (Jan 2, 2008)

Posted By Torby on 03/01/2008 2:43 PM
Love it! 

Is there a flange or something to keep the rear tires on the rail?
Hmmm. I see what you mean. Every one I have ever seen has a parallel axle with flange wheels. There are several of them still piled up at Chitina. I would have to assume the same applies with this one or it wouldn't work for long on that rail.


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## blackburn49 (Jan 2, 2008)

Posted By blackburn49 on 03/01/2008 2:38 PM
In the early days of tourism to abandoned Kennecott, the speeder over the rails was the only way to reach the ghost town.  . . 
  Where are all the "oohs" and "wows?"  The anticipation that goes with this one photo is enough to get my attention to this day. Imagine being aboard this speeder knowing you're going to one of the greatest ghost towns in North America? How can one_ not _get excited in anticipation, even if it is in the past?


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## blackburn49 (Jan 2, 2008)

The sad thing is that I have interviewed a number of people who were there back then  in those early days of the mid-50s and who saw the mill site in all its glory. Some of them even made it to the Jumbo and Bonanza. In those days they were largely intact as well. 

Yet I get the distinct impression that these visitors seem to have missed the true significance of what they were experiencing at the time--as if the entire "wow" factor never even happened. I would give almost anything to have had that opportunity to see it once like it was before it was stripped of much of its essence. Kennecott and its CRNW Railway was an especially unique historic event of epic proportions although a relatively obscure one because other happenings apparently overshadowed it.


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## tmejia (Jan 2, 2008)

Why did Ray Trotuchau take out the rails and destroy the town?

I also thoroughly enjoy reading what you post.

Tommy
Rio Gracie


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## blackburn49 (Jan 2, 2008)

Posted By tmejia on 03/01/2008 4:33 PM
Why did Ray Trotuchau take out the rails and destroy the town?
I also thoroughly enjoy reading what you post. 
Tommy
Rio Gracie
Ray Trotuchau took possession of all surface rights at Kennecott in the late 1950s with the understanding that he would level the historic facility and blow shut the mine adits to relieve Kennecott Corp of_ *liability*_ for the ghost town. This is an early example of what liability laws have cost us.  In another famous example the entire town of La Touche--also owned by Kennecott--was leveled some years later for the same reason. 

Ray's crew succeeded in stripping the roof off of the mill and this building. He also stripped most all the structures of anything of value, including all the brass fittings and copper wire.  Eventually it was the enormity of the project that did him in. Another company bought out his deal with Kennecott and proceeded to destroy several of the management houses before it too found the arrangement too costly to continue.


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## blackburn49 (Jan 2, 2008)

I also know the guy who took over from Ray. He is the one who destroyed the Staff House, Superintendent's residence, Stephen Birch's house on top of the hill and the main Bonanza barracks building, plus one other by accident.  Interestingly enough, he told me that Ray had "destroyed the place." I take that to mean that Ray had turned Kennecott into a junk yard, which is how I have heard it described with trash from the sloppy salvage operation strewn everywhere and buildings left half-ripped apart. 

The whole sorry affair is a shameful one--and one that was never well documented. 

I used that guy's story when I wrote my book. He was in it but under a different name.


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## John J (Dec 29, 2007)

It's a shame that they tore everything up like that.    Had they left the rails in  that might have been a  trip worth taking  today to see it.   It would be like viewing a piece of  history./DesktopModules/NTForums/themes/mls/emoticons/sad.gif


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## blackburn49 (Jan 2, 2008)

Posted By John J on 03/01/2008 7:47 PM
It's a shame that they tore everything up like that.    Had they left the rails in  that might have been a  trip worth taking  today to see it.   It would be like viewing a piece of  history./DesktopModules/NTForums/themes/mls/emoticons/sad.gif
It still is worth the trip.  I don't know of anyplace else quite like it. And the NPS has been putting a great deal of money into restoration efforts up there. That company store I showed in a previous post has a new roof and is almost wholly rehabilitated to become the new visitor contact center.  

In the days when Kennecott was considered for demolition, there was little appreciation for its historical aspects. It was just considered old junk by many.  Unfortunately, the scars of what has been removed, vandalized or otherwise destroyed will never be completely healed.


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## sschaer (Jan 2, 2008)

ron 

how much did change since we've been up there in 2004 ? more destruction or some more restauration done ?


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## blackburn49 (Jan 2, 2008)

Posted By sschaer on 03/02/2008 5:32 AM
ron 

how much did change since we've been up there in 2004 ? more destruction or some more restoration done ?
I missed going there the last two seasons. My plan is to head up there in mid-June and take lots of pictures. A flood in the fall of 2006 caused considerable damage, taking out the National Creek railroad trestle and also, apparently, much of what remained of the hospital. I can hardly wait to check it out.


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## blackburn49 (Jan 2, 2008)

Back to the _Mother Lode_:

Location of the power line from the ML power plant at McCarthy to the upper camp (approximately 12 miles): I made reference to this in my historic novel. The line was only in use for a few seasons before Kennecott took over and re-routed power to the ML through the Bonanza 800 level cross-cut.


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## blackburn49 (Jan 2, 2008)

Up McCarthy Creek Road on the way to Mother Lode: 
  This is the view from the tram head of Green Butte mine looking west, with the lower camp below and the creek in the distance. The road still goes through the lower camp area.  At one time the camp was powered by the ML power line through an arrangement with the old ML company.


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## blackburn49 (Jan 2, 2008)

These were pictures taken a few years ago of my McCarthy models of the ML warehouse and power plant:







Fortunately the power plant still exists and is even as use as a home for a guide service in the area. Because of that I was able to obtain exact measurements for the power plant structure.

After interviewing an old CRNW railroad hand I concluded that the warehouse above was painted in the same color as the power plant below. 







The McCarthy part of the Phase I model is due for extensive renovation beginning sometime this season. I will be placing a new base under it and reworking details on many of the structures.


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## blackburn49 (Jan 2, 2008)

The McCarthy Creek Road:

There were at least two tunnels and about a dozen bridges that the old ML company  had to construct along the McCarthy Creek road in order to gain access to its claims. These tunnels still exist. The bridges do not.


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## blackburn49 (Jan 2, 2008)

Historic Green Butte lower camp--main barracks


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## blackburn49 (Jan 2, 2008)

_Historic Green Butte_, Lower Camp: A closer look at two of the structures shown in previous frame: 
    The lower one is the superintendent's house. Last time I check this one is still standing. The two-story log barrack structure collapsed sometime in the late 1970s.


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## sheepdog (Jan 2, 2008)

Now, I could sleep in those barracks........... But the thought of a trip out to the Out House in -40 weather might give me a little pause....

/DesktopModules/NTForums/themes/mls/emoticons/cry.gif

Craig


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## blackburn49 (Jan 2, 2008)

The Infrared Shot of McCarthy Creek & Kennicott / Root Glaciers
  The Mother Lode held particular fascintation for me because of its relative isolation and lack of information on its disposition since the early days when the upper camp was built.  One of the things I did early in my research was order several infrared images of the area, including t his one, which I have labelled to show relevant mining locations. 

As you can see, the Green Butte is just north of a large rock glacier while Mother Lode is a considerable distance from the GB upstream of McCarthy Creek.

There were rumors of rails that had been spotted from the air here and even of some kind of mining rolling stock. That, of course, really got my attention.  I was never able to find any such rails. In fact, later research conclusively demonstrated that there never had been any surface mining rails in any of the mine sites along McCarthy Creek.  There was a time when the CRNW had considered running a branch line up to the ML, but that never proved econmical. 

I must have spent many hours studying maps and images such as this one pouring over every detail to try to make sense out of this area. To this day I have never found the opportunity to enter this area--one of my great regrets. It remains as elusive and inaccessible as ever.


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## blackburn49 (Jan 2, 2008)

Bridges along the McCarthy Creek / Green Butte / Mother Lode Road
  above: work on a trail near Green Butte
below: typical bridge design along the McCarthy Creek Road


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## blackburn49 (Jan 2, 2008)

Posted By sheepdog on 03/02/2008 5:19 PM
Now, I could sleep in those barracks........... But the thought of a trip out to the Out House in -40 weather might give me a little pause....

/DesktopModules/NTForums/themes/mls/emoticons/cry.gif

Craig
The Green Butte, unlike the Kennecott mines, did not operate in the winter. Too expensive. I agree with you. Been there. Done that.


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## blackburn49 (Jan 2, 2008)

Green Butte Manager's House:

I found a few more current photos of the Green Butte Mine area taken in *1984*. It seems unlikely, given the recent rapid rate of deterioration of historic buildings of this era in this region that this house is still standing. The photos give excellent context to the the structures. The lower one shows a beaver pond encroaching on the cabin.  Although the cabin was probably not  used as a regular residence since 1926 when the mine shut down, from looking at the collection of junk on the porch, it appears a squatter might have lived here in more recent times, although probably not more than seasonally. Conditions in this area in the winter are extremely harsh. To say it would not be an easy life does not begin to describe the amount of energy it would consume just to survive way out here in the winter. 
   
  The orientation is east. You are looking at the waste ore slide area of one of the GB mine adits.


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## blackburn49 (Jan 2, 2008)

The Green Butte Lower Bunkhouse:
Regrettably, over those roughly sixty years between photos this structure did not fare as well as the manager's house 
        As with most all my photos in these threads, clicking onto the image will produce a larger one.


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## blackburn49 (Jan 2, 2008)

Aerial of the lower Green Butte camp on McCarthy Creek:
    click for a larger image showing relationship of the lower camp to the upper camp area.


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## blackburn49 (Jan 2, 2008)

Green Butte Main Upper Camp: 
  Upper camp elevation: ~4,000 feet.  Lower camp: ~2,450 feet.   The lower camp is 11 miles from McCarthy via the McCarthy Creek Road.   The original claims are believed to have been staked by John Barrett, the founder of the town of McCarthy in 1909.  During the years 1922 - 1925 the Green Butte Copper Company, which acquired the property from Barrett, drove 14,000 feet of underground workings but produced only 1,500 tons of high-grade copper in that period. Operations ceased in 1925.


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## blackburn49 (Jan 2, 2008)

Upper Camp: Top Stairwell and Barrack: 
  The upper barrack was in surprisingly good shape when this picture was shot.


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## blackburn49 (Jan 2, 2008)

Green Butte Claims Map
Shows the tramway, McCarthy Creek Road and location of the upper camp.


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## blackburn49 (Jan 2, 2008)

Green Butte Workings:
  The tramway is described as being 2,300 feet long.  
Underground workings consisted of 11,000 feet of drifts and crosscuts on 8 levels, 1500 feet of inclines and 2500 feet of raises, winzes and stopes. The last survey of this mine was taken in 1943. At that time it was reported that the lower one-fifth of the mine was flooded and cosiderable portions of the 100 and 400 foot levels were inaccessible due to caving.  The primary ore was chalcocite--same as Kennecott. It was determined that the visible remaining deposits were not large enough to justify the cost of reopening the mine or of extending its workings.


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## blackburn49 (Jan 2, 2008)

View of GB adit to the north of the tram terminal: 
  When this photo was taken the tram lines were still up.


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## blackburn49 (Jan 2, 2008)

GB Tram Portal, View 2: 
  View looking north toward Bonanza Peak and the Mother Lode properties.
It appears from examing this photo that access to this snowshed cover is extremely hazardous.


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## Torby (Jan 2, 2008)

Don't go out the back way/DesktopModules/NTForums/themes/mls/emoticons/shocked.gif


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## blackburn49 (Jan 2, 2008)

Posted By Torby on 03/03/2008 7:31 AM
Don't go out the back way/DesktopModules/NTForums/themes/mls/emoticons/shocked.gif
Really. They could hardly have found a more precarious location for that adit. Except that the one immediately north of that was described in 1943 as inaccessible except by _r__ope _!


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## blackburn49 (Jan 2, 2008)

Posted By blackburn49 on 03/03/2008 1:38 AM
  View looking north toward Bonanza Peak and the Mother Lode properties.
  Same area as seen by Google-Earth.  The red pin in the distance is Mother Lode upper camp.


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## blackburn49 (Jan 2, 2008)

Google Earth views from opposite direction looking south toward GB from ML:


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## blackburn49 (Jan 2, 2008)

Green Butte upper camp view of rock glacier off of Porphyry Mountain:


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## blackburn49 (Jan 2, 2008)

Google-Earth Overview of GB-ML area along McCarthy Creek:


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## blackburn49 (Jan 2, 2008)

All of this brings me back to my initial comment to John J's question: 
_ John J, I did not forget your question:"Speaking of Mines. When was the last time any one has been down in the Tunnels of the old copper Mine? Most of them should have caved in by now maybe?" 

_Below you see my projected location of the 1600 Mother Lode adit.  I do not know the exact location because I have never been there and the spot has been deliberately left unmapped (publicly-accessible maps). 

This adit is the only known access into the main workings of Kennecott.  It enters Mother Lode on the 1600 level of the Mother Lode 26 degree main incline (a workings map will be provided here) which brings one into the main working area of Mother Lode and gives access to what remains of the rest of the adjacent Kennecott underground workings.

The 1600 level adit was the subject of a big court battle between the US Park Service and the aforementioned Pilgrim family with the NPS alleging that certain members of the Pilgrim family trespassed upon closed NPS property. 

I was an expert witness in that court battle because no one else knew the historic layout of underground Kennecott and adjacent Mother Lode like I do. 
  The steep trail you see on this Google-Earth image is a cat trail produced by the former owner of this property who purchased all the old patented ML claims from the State of Alaska back in the early 1970s. This included all the underground workings plus the mill site properties laying right on McCarthy Creek. 

He blazed in a new trail that shows up on all the more recent aerial surveys. They were not the original trail, although he probably followed a similar path to the historic one. The new owner wanted to gain access to both the mine's interior and to the upper camp. 

I only know from the workings maps the approximate location of the 1600 level adit. I also know that it was in the next gulch over from the Mother Lode (Potter) Gulch were the upper camp was located. Bassed on that and other information I have gleened, the mark I have placed on this image is my best-guess as to the location of this one remaining entry point into the mine workings. 

Presently this access point has been secured and it IS on NPS property. Anyone attempting to gain access to the workings here would have to secure permission of the NPS.

However, the actual workings and most of the 1600 level tunnel is the private property of Ray Kreig, who recently took over ownership of the claims, including the underground workings, from the Pilgrim (Hale) family. 

--more to follow--


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## blackburn49 (Jan 2, 2008)

The Underground Connection: Bonanza to Mother Lode: 

Originally, Mother Lode existed as a separate set of mining claims, staked by Ocha Potter near the turn of the century. Over the years Mother Lode attracted some big investors, but it remained consistently undercapitalized. The company did not have the resources to build it own dam (the preferred alternative for power generation) or its own mill. Nor was it able to convince the CRNW to build a spur line out to the ML property. 

Instead it hauled in the copper over a winter trail while ML company proceeded to build a more suitable access road. Ore was dropped off at the ML warehouse at McCarthy, but once there it faced the exhorbitant rates of the CRNW, which was owned by the operators of Kennecott. Talk about unfair competition !

ML could have attracted more money had it found its own "mother lode." Instead it was working the Marvelous claims along the north canyon wall of Potter Gulch where the upper camp was located. The veins were high-grade but of insufficient quantity to attract much investment. The real value of ML lay some 400 feet directly below the upper camp. The old company began driving a vertical tunnel in that direction in the hopes of finding a rich vein which would justify the continued existence of the property and all the investment that had gone into it, but it never quite made it before disaster struck in 1917.

In that year a series of avalances took out the aerial tram linking the upper and lower camps. At this point the ML financial resources were exhausted. Kennecott was ready to step in to buy out a majority interest in that company under the new name Mother Lode Coalitions Company--MLCC.  In turn it would put in the money necessary to develop the ore that Kennecott already knew existed under the upper camp.

It  was in 1914 that one of its engineers figured that out. He had finally figured out a workable theory as to the origins of the copper veins. Having done that, he realized that the Bonanza vein most likely extended well underneath the ML upper camp. He drew a diagram showing what he believed to be the existence of a massive vein there. And he was right.

Kennecott immediately began driving a tunnel at the 800 level to connect the two upper camps and provide power from the mill site to the upper camp it had now acquired.  It also continued driving the Bonanza incline right up to the limit of the Mother Lode property. Then it ran a cross cut over to a more favorable postion and proceeded with a new incline--the new Mother Lode main shaft--at a 26 degree angle. The top of this incline was at the 1250 level. It was also close to a point that intersected with the vertical shaft which had started at the 600 level in the Marvelous workings and had finally reached the Kennecott workings. Kennecott eventually continued that double compartment vertical shaft down to the 1400 level where it ended. 

Bonanza Surface Camp
  Mother Lode Upper Camp


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## blackburn49 (Jan 2, 2008)

"The Mother Lode Mine suffered serious reverses form the slides. The men live in the tunnels for a couple of days when the slides were booming around the bunkhouse. Their tramway and power lines were badly wrecked. 

"New capital was needed for repairing the damage and for further exploration, and a deal was made with Kennecott." (who already knew the value of what they were about to acquire --RS). 

"Kennecott agreed to advance up to a certain sum for exploration work, for which they would receive a 51 per cent interest, and they would have operating control. 

"A new three-compartment incline with modern hositing equipment had reached the 1,200 level of the Bonanza Mine by 1919, and after this deal had been concluded, the Bonanza and the Mother Lode Mines were connected by driving a 1,200 crosscut." 

"The only ore available for shipment from Mother Lode at that time was some milling ore, about 5 per cent copper, from the old dumps. While this was being recovered with slushers, crosscutting was underway on the lowest level, in what we considered the favorable horizon. In a few months time we had developed favorable widths of chalcocite, and the new company, the Mother Lode Coalition Mines Compay, paid a ten cent per share dividend on 2,500,000 shares at the end of the second year. 

"The Mother Lode became a very profitable mine, and as mentioned above, its ore body eventually connected up with one of the ore bodies which was developed by the Bonanza-Jumbo crosscut to make the great Bonanza-Mother Lode Vein." 

--William C. Douglass, Superintendent   Henceforth all Mother Lode ore would be processed through the Kennecott mill, accessed through the Bonanza mine to the Bonanza aerial tram.


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## blackburn49 (Jan 2, 2008)

Thus, Kennecott acquired what is said to the the only vertical shaft on the property.
The is not quite true, depending on how you define it, but the Mother Lode vertical shaft was the only one designed to be a man-way, complete with elevator and adjacent stairs. 
  This is a photo of a sign that actually was in the Mother Lode mine--probably at the 800 level near the vertical shaft entry point at that level.  The vertical shaft extended from the 600 level to the 1400 level. The depth of the ML ultimately extended to the 2,800 level with Bonanza main adit being the 100 level.


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## blackburn49 (Jan 2, 2008)

Map showing relationship of ML to Kennecott claims:
  Blue lines: incline shafts.  Green line: 1250 crosscut.  Red line: ML claims bounary
Red arrows point to location of mine camps.


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## blackburn49 (Jan 2, 2008)

Pausing to change the slide tray . . . 







I couldn't help but notice that the room is awfully quiet. While I am changing out this tray, now would be an excellent opportunity for me to take your questions and comments . . . 

Remember, part of your grade is determined by class *participation **! 

*Let's see . . .   I have not seen any questions or comments on  

                         1) the Nicolai lode discovery story
  2) Green Butte mine
                       3) this latest  segment on the ML

(subtle hint)


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## blackburn49 (Jan 2, 2008)

Posted By blackburn49 on 03/03/2008 3:40 PM
Let's see . . .   I have not seen any questions or comments on  

                         1) the Nicolai lode discovery story
  2) Green Butte mine
                       3) this latest  segment on the ML 


How about my employment of    4)   the Google-Earth software? Now that's become a useful tool !

I leave you with these thoughts while I take a break before the next segment.   We're almost done here with this presentation.


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## Guest (Mar 4, 2008)

I couldn't help but notice that the room is awfully quiet. While I am changing out this tray, now would be an excellent opportunity for me to take your questions and comments . . .

well, we are all sitting with round eyes and mouth wide open... 

as far, as it concerns me, just go on telling what comes to your mind. i like it all. 

and put a lot of photos from people and buildings in (not so subtle hint)


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## John J (Dec 29, 2007)

In the picture looking donw at the mill.    The one before the  Stignal list,  Looks like one of the buildings has  SKYLIGHTS.  Did some of the buildings have glass on the roof  to take advantage of the long  daylight?


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## Torby (Jan 2, 2008)

Quite the opposite of the guy claiming to "read" the girly magazine, I have to admit to just looking at the pictures/DesktopModules/NTForums/themes/mls/emoticons/blush.gif


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## Granitechops (Jan 19, 2008)

Hi Ron
Thanks for this very interesting thread.  I have not read all of it, too much to digest at one sitting.

It took me back to the 50s when I was 8 or 9, we  used to snoop around the old disused tin mines in Cot valley & Tregaseal around St Just. Cornwall
 
We also used to go 2-3 miles out of town towards Penzance to a disused china clay pit cant remember what its called now 

we used to walk along the top of the settlement tanks?  along 9" wide walls 

Old enough to be aware of the dangers,    but not old enough to appreciate the consequences, but neverthe less interesting even to a child 

Regards
Don

PS anyone know of the oldest tramways in America? probably  in mines , did Kennnecott have such, I would have though so but much earlier than that, not photos but older engravings , wood cuts etc


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## Kevin Miller (Jan 5, 2008)

I'm still here reading and learning. I can even click on and enjoy the larger pictures now that I have temporary DSL. DSL is only temporary though while we are in Seattle getting my wife's treatments.


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## blackburn49 (Jan 2, 2008)

Posted By Kevin Miller on 03/04/2008 8:19 PM
I'm still here reading and learning. I can even click on and enjoy the larger pictures now that I have temporary DSL. DSL is only temporary though while we are in Seattle getting my wife's treatments.
There are plenty of low-resolution large images behind most of my posts, whether or not I indicate "click," they are usually there. And it is well worth the effort to view them.


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## blackburn49 (Jan 2, 2008)

Just because I turned the lights on to change the slide tray doesn't mean you can get up and leave. I'm not done yet !


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## bearswood (Jan 2, 2008)

I have looked at every picture, copied some for references and read every word. One picture is my desktop picture. Keep it coming. There are no mines in northern Indiana just quarries and sandpits. Oh yeah corn!! Next trip to Alaska we are flying and driving. You never know we may end up in Copper Creek.


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## ThinkerT (Jan 2, 2008)

Blackburn...your three threads here have a combined total of not quite 10,000 views...more than all the other threads on the first couple pages of this subforum combined. So, yes, you do have a rapt audience.


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## flatracker (Jan 2, 2008)

If I posted every time I saw something I liked or was interested in, I'd be booed out of this thread!/DesktopModules/NTForums/themes/mls/emoticons/crying.gif

I  really did like the pictures of the "McCarthy speeder" , along with some of the pictures of the mine in 1955. Of course Goggle Earth clarifies where things were and helps show everything in perspective to each other and where the mountains and rivers play their part. It helps understand the dangerous undertaking of getting the ore mined and transported. I never knew anyone used buckets on tram lines to move ore, as it didn't seem they could move enough to make it pay. Always learning!

Just a SUPER thread! What else can I say?


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## blackburn49 (Jan 2, 2008)

WC Douglass, the superintendent during the 1920s, created this sample crosssection of what he considered the typical Kennecott workings in the mid-levels.

This strongly resembles the upper Mother Lode workings from the 1000 level on down.  Some of the largest open working areas (stopes) existed there.  What you are looking at is the incline shaft with stopes and broken mining material in the process of the "shrinkage method" of mining whereby the bottom of the ore occurence is first established. Then mining is begun from the bottom, working up. Material is built up but only withdrawn enough to keep a good working area open until the upper level of the ore vein is determined to be reached. Then the loose material is mucked out from the top down. Sometimes this means scooping out an area that is three levels high--300 feet. Thus you can imagine the size of the largest worked-out stopes that once existed within the Kennecott underground mine system. 
  (click)


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## blackburn49 (Jan 2, 2008)

The _Bonanza-Mother Lode_ Projection:
Here it is: the layout of the main mine system on the Bonanza end viewed as a cross-section.
  This map includes both the Bonanza and Mother Lode inclines, the major stopes, and the vertical shaft. 
(click)


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## blackburn49 (Jan 2, 2008)

Mother Lode Segment: 
  This includes the upper Marvelous workings, the vertical shaft and the 26 degree incline shaft. (click).


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## blackburn49 (Jan 2, 2008)

_ML_ Upper Levels: 
This is our area of greatest interest
  Showing the 1252 stope--possibly the largest underground working area in all of Alaska. 
This was the largest stope in the mine system. It is what kept the Kennecott Alaska mine operating at a profit in the final years.


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## blackburn49 (Jan 2, 2008)

Map of the workings of the Bonanza-Mother Lode :

Looking at these same workings from the top, this is what you see: 
  (click)


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## blackburn49 (Jan 2, 2008)

_Confused? 
Bon-ML workings_: Look at that same map with the main tunnels identified:


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## blackburn49 (Jan 2, 2008)

Proflie view showing main tunnels: Bonanza ML upper levels
150 level Bonanza main adit
Bonanza 33 degree incline
800 level to Rhodes tunnel to ML suface camp
1250 level X-cut
ML vertical shaft
ML 26 degree incline
1600 level to suface tunnel


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## blackburn49 (Jan 2, 2008)

The ML vertical shaft elevator: 
  Taken from a University of Alaska-Fairbanks field trip to Kennecott, Sept 1938--one month before closing.  By this time the ML operations had already ceased.  It appears that the sign on the upper right (above) could be the very one pictured below:


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## blackburn49 (Jan 2, 2008)

ML incline shaft: 
Check this one out: a recent photo of the upper ML  incline shaft with a personnel-carrying skip intact. 
Note the copper ore in evidence everywhere overhead and on the sides.


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## blackburn49 (Jan 2, 2008)

Main adit: upper ML camp: The Rhodes Tunnel snowshed:
level 800 Bonanza or roughly 5,200 feet elevation.


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## blackburn49 (Jan 2, 2008)

Upper ML Camp: 
  Main barrack to tram terminal: this facility was eventually built up to accommodate 75 men


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## blackburn49 (Jan 2, 2008)

Although pictures such as this one are often identified as the _Mother Lode Mine_, 
it is important to make a distinction between the surface camps and the mines themselves. After sometime in the early 1920s, all the men were moved from this camp over to Bonanza where it was safer to live and more convenient for Kennecott to operate. 
  This camp sits on the edge of a rock glacier and near the head of a valley that is prone to avalances, 
making it a very unsafe location indeed. Not only that, this camp is quite some distance from Kennecott and even Bonanza.


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## blackburn49 (Jan 2, 2008)

Close-up of the main ML barrack:
I believe this one was built by Kennecott after it acquired the ML properties to continue operation
on the ML side of Bonanza Ridge until they were ready to move the men over to Bonanza. At the same
time they ran new power lines through the 800 level tunnel, thus elminating the need for using the old ML Company power station at McCarthy.


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## blackburn49 (Jan 2, 2008)

The parallel inclines reveal the "strike" of the copper veins:


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## sheepdog (Jan 2, 2008)

Wow! Those are great pictures Ron! That last map erased a lot of the confusion I had from the previous mine maps. Makes a lot of sense now! Thanks again.

Now, a question from the slide show peanut gallery. /DesktopModules/NTForums/themes/mls/emoticons/tongue2.gif

Being a Manufacturning Engineer with a lot of exposure to facilities design... What do you know of the 'John' facilities for 75 men. And where did they get their water? I would not think anything coming out of the mine was drinkable.

I'm thinking that every tram load of ore going down was followed with a tram load of fire wood/food/water etc going up. Any tibits of info on that subject?

/DesktopModules/NTForums/themes/mls/emoticons/whistling.gif
Craig


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## blackburn49 (Jan 2, 2008)

Posted By sheepdog on 03/05/2008 3:28 PM

Being a Manufacturning Engineer with a lot of exposure to facilities design... What do you know of the 'John' facilities for 75 men. And *where did they get their water*? I would not think anything coming out of the mine was drinkable.

I'm thinking that every tram load of ore going down was followed with a tram load of fire wood/food/water etc going up. Any tibits of info on that subject?


Craig
* Check this out:  *This is a water tank on 30 inch rails found on the 1600 level of Mother Lode. They had a water dam somewhere there, which makes sense because the tunnels going in both directions were inclined in the direction of the ML incline shaft. Water was collected down here and brought to the surface for_ all _the mines in this area.  Addtionally, water was collected from above the surface camp elevations and piped to Bonanza and Erie, and probably Jumbo and Mother Lode as well.

There were steel tanks designed for fluids found at the base of the mill tram end, but my guess is that these were used to haul bunker C oil, although it is not far-fetched to assume that water could also have been hauled from the mill end as well.

The mill, by the time it was well into winter, had its own water supply problems, even though it was drawing from three sources: Bonanza Creek dam for the industrial water, National Creek dam for domestic consumption and a well near National Creek, probably for additional industrial use in the mill, power plant or water flotation / ammonia leaching plants.    (click)


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## blackburn49 (Jan 2, 2008)

Posted By sheepdog on 03/05/2008 3:28 PM
What do you know of the 'John' facilities for 75 men. 
The known locations of lavatories of two of the camps, including the relatively-large Jumbo, suggests that all lavatory facilities were separate facilities outside the main camp buildings. Additionally, lavatory stations appear to be located throughout the main system, according to some relatively recent* visitors.
















_* **The last time that I am aware that anyone visited the mine interiors, with the exception of some members of the Pilgrim family, was about year 2000. The NPS has succeeded, apparently, in blocking access to the underground areas since then._


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## blackburn49 (Jan 2, 2008)

Posted By sheepdog on 03/05/2008 3:28 PM

I'm thinking that every tram load of ore going down was followed with a tram load of fire wood/food/water etc going up. Any tibits of info on that subject?

Craig
All the cook stoves required a supply of coal which would have come up the trams. The boilers apparently all required bunker "C" which was also hauled up the trams in those special steel containers. All four camps were heated by the boilers by means of radiant heat.


Obviously the trams were kept busy supplying the mines that had a typical load of 200 to 250 miners stationed up there at any one time, distributed between the various operating sites.  As long as there was ore going down, supplies and men could travel up.


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## blackburn49 (Jan 2, 2008)

Here is the heating plan for Bonanza:
This was probably typical of all the camps.


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## blackburn49 (Jan 2, 2008)

As a supplement to the above plan, here is
the _Bonanza main barrback layout:_
    The line on the right is, in all probability, a water supply line connected to water in the 300 level above the adit level, which was the highest point in the mine. The higher the level, the wetter it was. During late spring-early summer, water would have been dripping through these upper levels at an impressive and annoying rate.

In the drawing above is a "snow tank," obviously for melting gathered snow for domestic water purposes in addition to the other supply sources. My guess is this was in conjunction with some kind of lavatory set up that was peculiar to the Bonanza barrack, which was the most advanced one of all the camps.


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## sheepdog (Jan 2, 2008)

Hmmmmm...... Those 'facilities' do not seem to be heated..... And that chute coming out of what looks to be a septic tank would not be something I would want to get very close too.... 

250 men...... -40 temps... Oil, Water, food, sewer..... That is a big logistics problem all by itself.

/DesktopModules/NTForums/themes/mls/emoticons/crying.gif
Craig


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## Guest (Mar 5, 2008)

do you know, how these cars have been moved?
was there some kind of loco, or were they lowered in the inclines with cables from a stationary mashine?

korm
.


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## blackburn49 (Jan 2, 2008)

Posted By kormsen on 03/05/2008 5:23 PM









do you know, how these cars have been moved?
was there some kind of loco, or were they lowered in the inclines with cables from a stationary mashine?

korm
.
Here is the profile showing the top of the Jumbo tram:







The motor would have been located near the very top of the elbow.  Hoists were two each 85 horse power motors, 2200 volts (that's what it says, but keep in mind that power going up to the mines was sent at 10,000 volts).  These operated at a speed of 600 feet per minute. 

The Jumbo skip had a campacity of 4 tons, 80 cubic feet. The Bonanza skip capacity was 3 tons, 60 cubic feet. It was probably the same for the ML one.


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## sbaxters4 (Jan 2, 2008)

Ron, 
I was just back reading some of the posts you made over the last couple of weeks while I was out of town. I REALLY enjoy your posts and couldn't agree more with you on the overwhelming importance and beauty of the whole mine area. The picture that caught my attention the most was the rare color one from 1955. What a beautiful picture of the mine site and town. It almost looks like it was still in operation or could have been restarted again at a moments notice in that photo! The one of the speeder crossing the trestle headed towards Kennecott is impressive too. 

I also couldn't agree more with those who are saying that you must find a way to preserve all this great research and history, both the photos and written information, for the as long as possible. There has to be some orginization or group that would be willing to use it to pass on "The Legacy of the Chief" to the future. PLEASE don't let it pass into the mists of time along with the railroad and Chief Nicoli.


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## blackburn49 (Jan 2, 2008)

Posted By sbaxters4 on 03/05/2008 6:06 PM
Ron, 
I was just back reading some of the posts you made over the last couple of weeks while I was out of town. I REALLY enjoy your posts and couldn't agree more with you on the overwhelming importance and beauty of the whole mine area. The picture that caught my attention the most was the rare color one from 1955. What a beautiful picture of the mine site and town. It almost looks like it was still in operation or could have been restarted again at a moments notice in that photo! The one of the speeder crossing the trestle headed towards Kennecott is impressive too. 

I also couldn't agree more with those who are saying that you must find a way to preserve all this great research and history, both the photos and written information, for the as long as possible. There has to be some orginization or group that would be willing to use it to pass on "The Legacy of the Chief" to the future. PLEASE don't let it pass into the mists of time along with the railroad and Chief Nicoli.
When I first started this research project, it was difficult to find much of anything.  There were some impressive original photo collections and some good documentation in the archives of the University of Alaska-Fairbanks and additional  resources in other museums and libraries throughout the state and also in the University of Washington, but it took years of persistence to finally come up with something that pulled all of this together so it made some sense. 

All of this material exists elsewhere, although not in one place. The collections have gotten better, although no one has come up with a comprehensive explanation of the type I have provided here.  That is the element which makes my contribution unique.  The best way to make this permanent is to publish a detailed book with the photos on this very subject, but I no longer have the resources to do that.

I am considering donating what is here to the local museum of which I am now vice-president of that board. I have offered to donate the use of a section of my property for a long-term lease of one dollar as long as a new structure is built on it suitable to house collections such as this one. However, I am not so sure the rest of the board quite gets it, if you know what I mean.

The most frustrating recurring issue for me--and it certainly exists here as much as elsewhere--is that so few people seem to grasp the_ larger picture_.  Everyone has their specialty--their comfortable compartment from which they may contribute impressively. But as far as something which ties it all together--and that always means a_ historic _perspective, _plus_ a willingness to just jump in and_ go for it _despite what others might think or say--well, that is another matter entirely.

To me it is never enough to fix something. I want to make it better (even if I risk wrecking it in the process). So I see it with this project. If it is to be done, it is to be done _right_.  We will see. I am working on that too.


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## Guest (Mar 6, 2008)

thank you. got me some nice ideas, how to show the innards of a mine as well. 

korm 
.


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## blackburn49 (Jan 2, 2008)

Posted By kormsen on 03/05/2008 7:41 PM
thank you. got me some nice ideas, how to show the innards of a mine as well. 

korm 
.
I would think that the information presented here about historic Kennecott would be invaluable used in that manner since the Kennecott engineers engaged in very standard mining practices of the day. And this appears to be one of the better-documented mining companies--definitely so for historic Alaska.


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## blackburn49 (Jan 2, 2008)

Posted By sheepdog on 03/05/2008 5:22 PM
Hmmmmm...... _*Those 'facilities' do not seem to be heated*_..... And that chute coming out of what looks to be a septic tank would not be something I would want to get very close too.... 

250 men...... -40 temps... Oil, Water, food, sewer..... That is a big logistics problem all by itself.

/DesktopModules/NTForums/themes/mls/emoticons/crying.gif
Craig
Heated outhouses?  Probably not.  And, yes, it had to be quite a logistics problem. The entire camp load--upper and lower--sometimes approached 600 people. And in the winter after 1931 there were no supply trains. Now _that_ had to be interesting living. I bet that first train in was the biggest event of the year after July 4th and Christmas (their two recognized holidays). 

Oh, that chute heads toward one of those several-hundred foot drop-offs. Nothing down there but slide material and some scrub brush.


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## blackburn49 (Jan 2, 2008)

Posted By John J on 03/04/2008 4:28 AM
In the picture looking donw at the mill.    The one before the  Stignal list,  Looks like one of the buildings has  SKYLIGHTS.  Did some of the buildings have glass on the roof  to take advantage of the long  daylight?

Those were vents. Several of the industrial buildings had them. However the power plant did have skylights of sorts: 
    Skylights in the Kennecott powerplant:  In September-October 1938 the turbines and generators were removed from this building but the four Erie boilers remain.


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## bvdrr (Jan 3, 2008)

Ron,I was wondering if some of these photoes where taken by company photographers? In one photo I noticed at the bottom it said"  Means Photo".Was this a local photogapher? There seems to be so many photoes it just seems wonderfull that something grand was documented so completely.
                                                                   Fred/DesktopModules/NTForums/themes/mls/emoticons/tongue.gif


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## blackburn49 (Jan 2, 2008)

Posted By bvdrr on 03/05/2008 9:38 PM
Ron,I was wondering if some of these photoes where taken by company photographers? In one photo I noticed at the bottom it said"  Means Photo".Was this a local photogapher? There seems to be so many photoes it just seems wonderfull that something grand was documented so completely.
                                                                   Fred
I suspect that a great many of the photos seen were officially commissioned. Kennecott had rather tight control over its properties. One could not just walk in there. I don't know about the Means photos, but possibly so. He was out of Valdez. 

The CRNW Railway had its own official photographers during the construction era. I will be presenting some of those in an upcoming thread.


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## blackburn49 (Jan 2, 2008)

But I also have a lot of photos originating from people who had lived at Kennecott. Those taken after 1938, of course, are not official ones.


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## blackburn49 (Jan 2, 2008)

ML Incline: The stairwell (looking down)
  Much of the wood in the mine system is now in an advanced state of deterioration.


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## blackburn49 (Jan 2, 2008)

The icing problem: 

Immediately after the underground mine system was abandoned it began icing up on the upper levels and has worked its way down to the 1600 level at both ends of that long adit. The upper tunnels such as the 150 Bonanza and the 180 Jumbo main adits have been iced in for years. Some of the tunnels along the cliff face between Bonanza and the Glacier mine remained open because moving air could get to them, but these access points have now been closed by the NPS, which owns those grounds.


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## blackburn49 (Jan 2, 2008)

_Erie Mine_ 100 level adit, photo taken within the last ten years:
  The Erie has been icing up for years, but has never really completely closed by ice. Persons who have gain access from this end have had to crawl in for quite some distance over a substantial ice flow before entering the area where it was possible to stand up. That area is partly flooded, but was still usable a few years ago.


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## blackburn49 (Jan 2, 2008)

And so we come back to the original question which started  this thread. It started with this statement: 
_
John J, I did not forget your question:

"Speaking of Mines. When was the last time any one has been down in the Tunnels of the old copper Mine? Most of them should have caved in by now maybe?"


And the answer is . . . 

(may I have the envelope, please) _


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## blackburn49 (Jan 2, 2008)

_Before I deal with the answer to John J's inquiry . . . _

I worked up this map, using one provided by the Historic American Engineering Record (HAER), which provides historic data for the National Park Service, to show the approximate elevations of the various mine main adits as well as selected aerial trams landing point elevations.

What I found in the process of doing this is that HAER had misplaced the Erie adit. They have it at a much higher elevation than is actually the case. I have relocated that adit to fit the data I have. 

  (don't forget to) click this
The figure for Kennecott represents the approximate rail bed elevation, although that is a little low, but I am trying to be consistent with the HAER map. The low end of the tram at the top of the mill is close to 2,200 feet.  The other locations appear to be correct.


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## blackburn49 (Jan 2, 2008)

John J's question:   "Speaking of Mines. When was the last time any one has been down in the Tunnels of the old copper Mine? Most of them should have caved in by now maybe?"

The first part of the answer is: In the last three years or so the NPS has closed access to the Kennecott Mines tunnels. As near as I can determine, last access was gained sometime between 2003 and 2005.

As for the conditions of the tunnels and what is reasonably accessible . . . 

Coming up, the rest of the answer.

Meanwhile, based on what you have read so far, what do _you_ think?  

Serious, welll though-out responses would be appreciated.


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## ThinkerT (Jan 2, 2008)

The ice in the tunnels is something I didn't think of but really should have occured to me, especially after an incident last year. 

I live close to a former military base, most of which is now given over to other uses. In a couple places, the old buildings still sit way off in the woods by themselves. Last summer, out of idle curriosityI hiked out to one of these buildings - an old wellhouse - and poked around a bit. I pulled back manhole cover, and found myself staring straight down at a sheet of ice...in July. I've also had to contend with frozen ground putting in foundations in June. 

Further north - like around Blackburns part of the world - in many places, the ground is permanently frozen the year round below a certain depth. (this was a major headache with building the transalaska pipeline). 

I really should have figured that out.


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## Semper Vaporo (Jan 2, 2008)

Posted By blackburn49 on 03/08/2008 5:14 PM
John J's question:   "Speaking of Mines. When was the last time any one has been down in the Tunnels of the old copper Mine? Most of them should have caved in by now maybe?"

The first part of the answer is: In the last three years or so the NPS has closed access to the Kennecott Mines tunnels. As near as I can determine, last access was gained sometime between 2003 and 2005.

As for the conditions of the tunnels and what is reasonably accessible . . . 

Coming up, the rest of the answer.

Meanwhile, based on what you have read so far, what do _you_ think?  

Serious, welll though-out responses would be appreciated.  


Woe, that kinda locks me out... my well thought-out responses are usually not very serious.

Question: You said that now the mines are abandoned they are filling with ice.  What kept them from filling with ice before the abandonment... was it a maintanence function to remove it, or did the constant use keep it from collecting?


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## blackburn49 (Jan 2, 2008)

Posted By Semper Vaporo on 03/08/2008 7:08 PM


Whoa, that kinda locks me out... _*my well thought-out responses are usually not very serious.*_

Question: You said that now the mines are abandoned they are filling with ice.  What kept them from filling with ice before the abandonment... was it a maintanence function to remove it, or did the constant use keep it from collecting?
Dear non-serious responder, 

Oh, nevermind. This isn't Dear Abby. Anyway . . . 

Excellent question. The upper parts of the mine system were often somewhat foggy and icy, according to an account I read from one who had worked there in 1931.  In the years 1932,3,4 and part of 5 the mines were closed, which had to create quite a problem keeping them workable. 

The mines required air that ran through various adits from the +300 level (above Bonanza on down. The points that I know were used for ventilation were the 600 and 1600 level adits. The 1600 level is 22,500 feet, extending from McCarthy Creek all the way to Erie. 

There are doors at all of the adits, but certain ones had to be kept open, including those listed for adequate ventilation which kept ice formation at a minimum.  This was enhanced by the presence of large fans placed in strategic areas of the mine system.  

To this day an NPS mine expert admitted to me that the 1600 level McCarthy Creek adit and the Erie adit  had to be kept open to enable flow-through or they would ice-shut. In fact, for years the 1600 adit door had been closed and it had iced shut.  The Hanna Mining Company which came in about 1969 had to spend some time clearing that entry point and the one at Erie in order to gain access into the mines.

By that time the main upper level adits at Bonanza and Jumbo were long-since iced shut and beyond any reasonable hope of working through to an access point. 

Undoubtedly the men who were left behind during mine closure had to pay attention to the ventilation problem at this mine which consisted of (by my estimate) 52 miles of workings. The NPS puts this number closer to 70+., but it does not add up according to the engineering reports I have right here.


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## blackburn49 (Jan 2, 2008)

Jumbo Mine Pano

So what do you think?
Kennecott tunnel system: Open or not? If so, where?


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## John J (Dec 29, 2007)

My thought is..... If you put water in a bottle and put it in the freezer it gets hard.   You can not crush the bottl with  your hands.   So there fore  If the  tunnels  have iced up.   The ice has taken  the place of the timbers that  shored up the roofs.   There fore the mine can not  cave in.  

I am surprised  to hear about the ice.   I thought the warmth of being underground would  keep the ice out.   You read  about people who built houses under ground or you go to a  cave or cavern and they say it's a constant  70 degrees.   So I figured  that is what happened there.   Hmmmmmmm


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## blackburn49 (Jan 2, 2008)

Posted By John J on 03/09/2008 4:39 AM
My thought is..... If you put water in a bottle and put it in the freezer it gets hard.   You can not crush the bottl with  your hands.   So there fore  If the  tunnels  have iced up.   The ice has taken  the place of the timbers that  shored up the roofs.   There fore the mine can not  cave in.  

I am surprised  to hear about the ice.   I thought the warmth of being underground would  keep the ice out.   You read  about people who built houses under ground or you go to a  cave or cavern and they say it's a constant  70 degrees.   So I figured  that is what happened there.   Hmmmmmmm
Most of the tunnel system was at the balance point of 32 degrees, according to Loy Green in an interview I conducted with him about ten years ago. Loy was the cook for Hanna Mining. Back in '69 Hanna entered the mines by bringing a helicopter to the drop their personnel off on the flat roof of an abandoned structure:








Then they broke through the semi-closed Erie 100-level adit and worked their way up the main 1600 crosscut tunnel toward the Mother Lode property.  The tunnels had a mix of ice and water at this level.


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## blackburn49 (Jan 2, 2008)

That course of action suggests, of course, that Hanna had already checked out the other old barracks sites and had not been able to gain access. In fact, every relatively recent report I have confirms that all the main adits at Jumbo, Bonanza and Mother Lode had already either collapsed or had been iced-over to an unknown depth.

This makes sense since the upper levels always had water problems that would ultimately mean ice formation problems as well. 

Attempts to access the Bonanza via the tunnel behind the ore bunker only led to the open areas above the 600 foot cliff that overlooks Glacier mine site.  There was no entry point to the main haulage tunnel, which was the incline shaft.


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## blackburn49 (Jan 2, 2008)

The answer to John J's question is . . . I have drawn up this map showing the two access points as they existed a few years ago and the areas that are still potentially available (in red)  within the mine system.  There may be real problems with the lowest level--the 2500 crosscut. It was never vented to the surface at that level and sections of it, if not all of it, may be flooded. However, in the early 70s the previous owner of the ML told me he had walked the ML incline all the way to the bottom and it was all accessible at that time.

On the Erie side I have never found anyone that has located or accessed the Erie incline, and I have to assume it is either iced-in or collapsed near the 100 level. 

One can make it to the top of the ML incline, but access to the 1250 crosscut is blocked by water. Since that incline is titled in favor of the Bonanza--that is it loses elevation as it approaches the Bonanza incline--it is flooded.  I have found no one that has been in the Bonanza incline since the 1950s. A person I did interview who entered that section back then told me that they could only go so far due to lack of oxygen, which tells me that the lower end had already been blocked. 

In recent years the Independence 600 level adit was accessible, but it, too, apparently no longer allows access to the Bonanza incline for which this 600 level adit was a ventilation shaft. I believe the NPS has blocked access to this portal.

The known ventilation shaft above the Bonanza main level--the 300 plus level ventilation shaft--was not found by the NPS.

Over on the Jumbo side, a hole of unknown depth was found and blocked. My guess is that this was the top of a stope that had collapsed in and was extremely dangerous.  The NPS blew that one shut. 

The Erie side now has bars over it to prevent access and that end of the 1600 crosscut may now be flooded.

The Mother Lode upper level was accessed by the 800 level adit which collapsed many years ago. Above it at the 600 and 400 levels were more entry points into the Marvelous workings. None of these lead anywhere anymore and thus access into the upper workings of the ML are wholly blocked.

Inside the ML, access to the vertical shaft is still possible. That is a raging cascade of water and is undoubtedly extremely dangerous. 

Access to the Jumbo incline from the 1600 level has been attempted, but I have found no one who has made it all that far up the incline and I have no reports there except that apparently the same water problems exist and I would consider this area as particularly hazardous.
  Red= accessible or questionable
Blue= not accessible areas


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## sbaxters4 (Jan 2, 2008)

Along with the loss of the railroad and the at least partial destruction of the Kennecott site itself , I find the information that the mine workings being in such poor shape quite saddening. The history of that whole project is incredible and it like so much elsewhere in our country is now mostly lost to time and the destruction by men uninterested or unconcerned by what they were doing. Only thanks to the incredible amount of work by Ron has any of the history reached out of the wilds of Alaska. 

Ron, In my figuring there is almost no mine workings that are accessible any longer and any of those areas that are in some small way, have been closed at least to the point of barricades, by the NPS. I'm guessing that even though the NPS is working on restoring some of the mill buildings they will not be working on opening any of the workings for tours or to even allow any admittance. Here in Minnesota the Tower/Sudan mine on the Iron Range is still open and they give quite lengthy tours into the mine itself. I believe that the major difference is that a seperate part of that mine is still in operation. 

For the rest of you out there that have been following this, if you thought that this was fascinating, try reading his book... Legacy of the Chief. Some of the content here has been covered in the book but there is much here that has added to my understanding of the workings there. The story draws you in and take a hold on you that evan after you have finished the book you still can't shake. I finished the book almost six months ago and still can't get enough of his posts on this piece of history. 

Thank you Ron for all that you have done with this and I hope it continues and that I find a way to get there to meet you some time soon.


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## John J (Dec 29, 2007)

This has been great 

Thanks Ron  for taking so much time to answer my question.    I really enjoyed reading this.   

It's a shame that everything was left to  fall apart.

My last trip to  Silverton  My sister and I  took a mine trip in one of the  old  silver mines.   It was fun.

The Gost Town  combined with a  train trip could have been turned into a great  Tourist  Trap     Attraction.


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## SteveC (Jan 2, 2008)

Ron

Thanks for taking the time to share with us the vast amount of information and understanding that you've acquired over the years. I know that at times it may seem on the surface that there are not many that are interested in what you've done, because of the low number of replies to your postings. However, I believe that in part that impression may be the result of just how great of a job you do in imparting your knowledge in writing to others. Which in my case anyway, most times as not leave me in awe of the subject covered and the skill with which you breath life into the story.

While I realize that much of the "views" numerical count is the result of repeated visits to any of your topics by the same individuals, returning for the latest update. I don't think you'll find any other topics other than maybe David Fletcher's MasterClass series that come anywhere close to the readership of your topics. This holds true in both the old forum software archived topics and the current implementation.

As for your question regarding the current status of the underground workings of the Kennecott Mines, personally it comes as no surprise that much if not all has become inaccessible, even discounting the efforts of the National Park Service. The one thing that I've repeatedly observed when investigating various areas of human endeavor, is regardless of how monumental certain achievements of man might seem to us. The reality is that Mother Nature still sits in *"The Catbird Seat"* and if not for individuals such as yourself, all of mans self-proclaimed greatest achievements would remain as barely discernible blips on her timeline.


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## sschaer (Jan 2, 2008)

unfortunately i'm currently in new zealand. following your posts on a 56k line is quite time consuming. 



i wonder if there's any change to become access to the mines. either from the current owner or nps. 
i also wonder what kind of equipment one would need. 


ron, 
somehow i have the feeling that you've been inside the tunnels........


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## ron736 (Jan 2, 2008)

Hi Ron, 
I went back to review and all your photos are gone. What happened? 
Ron Knepp


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## blackburn49 (Jan 2, 2008)

Posted By ron736 on 04/02/2008 4:51 PM

Hi Ron, I went back to review and all your photos are gone. What happened? Ron Knepp


I forgot to mention that most of these images are once again available.  I had to go back and re-create some folders on my server. For those of you seeking to save any of these maps or historic photos--many of which are linked to larger ones--I suggest you grab them while you still can !  This also applies to the KMR thread.



--Ron


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## John J (Dec 29, 2007)

Is there a way to save this whole thread to my Hard Drive? I reall like reading it over and over.


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## blackburn49 (Jan 2, 2008)

Posted By John J on 05/16/2008 5:43 PM

Is there a way to save this whole thread to my Hard Drive? I reall like reading it over and over.


Hopefully someone with expertise in this area can come up with an answer for you.


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## KYYADA (Mar 24, 2008)

You could save the individual screens using print screen and then copy to paint and save...naming one two ect....


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## Semper Vaporo (Jan 2, 2008)

Click "Reply" and then make sure the checkbox under the text area is checked... next to "Show Replies". Then WAIT AND WAIT AND WAIT for all the replies to show up below the text area. Then either Print it to a file or type ctrl A and Ctrl C and then paste the result into Word or some processor. 

The only problems are that the replies are in reverse order and there might be some images that don't show up.


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## KYYADA (Mar 24, 2008)

Go to some geology professor or such and try to see if there has ever been a seismic survey of the area. That should show you the contact zones for the shafts. I am reading now where it is a national park....check with the USGS or park service and see what they say. Gold usually runs in association with copper and they usually didn't bother to recover it back then. Greenstone is also another major gold bearing rock. Ever wonder why it is a national park???? HAHAHA


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## SteveC (Jan 2, 2008)

Posted By John J on 05/16/2008 5:43 PM

Is there a way to save this whole thread to my Hard Drive? I reall like reading it over and over.
John

Just a FYI, if you copy all of the topic into MS/Word what you'll wind up with is a document with approximately 430 pages (i.e. U.S. 8-1/2" x 11") in the raw form (i.e. as copied in from MLS), with a file size of 28.6MB


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## blackburn49 (Jan 2, 2008)

Posted By SteveC on 05/17/2008 1:01 PM

Posted By John J on 05/16/2008 5:43 PM

Is there a way to save this whole thread to my Hard Drive? I reall like reading it over and over.

John

Just a FYI, if you copy all of the topic into MS/Word what you'll wind up with is a document with approximately 430 pages (i.e. U.S. 8-1/2" x 11") in the raw form (i.e. as copied in from MLS), with a file size of 28.6MB


Time permitting, I may take this thread and cull it of all the excess baggage and then place it on my website. If so you will have available a streamlined version that keeps all the images used here but with a much small file size.



Since I am now about to enter my one busy season (well I hope it will be busy anyway !) such a project will have to remain on hold. If I make a final decision to proceed, I will announce it on this thread somewhere down the line.


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## SteveC (Jan 2, 2008)

_Posted By: *blackburn49* on 05/18/2008 11:53 AM_ 
_Posted By: *SteveC* on 05/17/2008 1:01 PM_ 
_Posted By: *John J* on 05/16/2008 5:43 PM_

Is there a way to save this whole thread to my Hard Drive? I really like reading it over and over.
John

Just a FYI, if you copy all of the topic into MS/Word what you'll wind up with is a document with approximately 430 pages (i.e. U.S. 8-1/2" x 11") in the raw form (i.e. as copied in from MLS), with a file size of 28.6MB
Time permitting, I may take this thread and cull it of all the excess baggage and then place it on my website. If so you will have available a streamlined version that keeps all the images used here but with a much smaller file size.

Since I am now about to enter my one busy season (well I hope it will be busy anyway !) such a project will have to remain on hold. If I make a final decision to proceed, I will announce it on this thread somewhere down the line.
Ron

I've already copied down all 21 pages of the topic into an MS/Word document, which is how I know how many pages and what the resulting file size is. When copied down and placed into an MS/Word document the content gets imported in a table format and a lot of useless stuff comes along for the ride, e.g. all the info in the _Author_ cell for each reply & all the _Users Signature_ logos etc. etc.

Anyway, I'm currently in the process of editing the raw import content, extracting the basic information (e.g. User ID, date posted, & message area content) from each reply in sequence, which should reduce the number of pages and file size. Of course the large images that were available on-line will be lost, however, keeping all of the interaction in tact should provide some added value.

Not that the preceding will be as good as a first-source narrative written by an accomplished author. After I get the editing finished I plan on putting the result into a PDF file format, at that time I'll provide you a copy to place on your server if you like.:


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## sheepdog (Jan 2, 2008)

I just can't get enough of this history. Ron needs to have a show on the history Channel. The Kennecott Mines is someplace I would really like to visit and I would also like to share a beer or six with Ron and his buds. 

Great stuff Ron! Please do not stop. 

Craig


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## blackburn49 (Jan 2, 2008)

Posted By SteveC on 05/18/2008 2:00 PM

I've already copied down all 21 pages of the topic into an MS/Word document, which is how I know how many pages and what the resulting file size is. 




Could you save me a word version of that? And see if you can save the internal links to the images (most all the images include links to larger versions). Thanks. --Ron


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## blackburn49 (Jan 2, 2008)

Posted By sheepdog on 05/18/2008 2:42 PM

I just can't get enough of this history. Ron needs to have a show on the history Channel. The Kennecott Mines is someplace I would really like to visit and I would also like to share a beer or six with Ron and his buds. Great stuff Ron! Please do not stop. Craig


It appears that the NPS does not acknowledge that I even exist. Kennecott is now on their property and has been since 1998--two years after I moved here from Fairbanks.  Even though I am the foremost expert on the subject, film makers of documentaries come and go that use Kennecott as part of their story or background but I never hear about them until after they have left. And, of course, not only are key points of this marvelous history missed, they inevitably fail to capture the true essence of Kennecott.


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## SteveC (Jan 2, 2008)

_Posted By: *blackburn49* on 05/18/2008 3:31 PM__Posted By: *SteveC* on 05/18/2008 2:00 PM_

I've already copied down all 21 pages of the topic into an MS/Word document, which is how I know how many pages and what the resulting file size is.
Could you save me a word version of that? And see if you can save the internal links to the images (most all the images include links to larger versions). Thanks. --Ron
Ron

Yeah, no problem, the links automatically come in with the copy process. I'm a bit fuzzy on exactly what you want, I understand you want an MS/Word file, but containing what;[*]The raw MS/Word file as copied in from MLS...or[*]The extracted contents, containing all replies, in sequence, in total...or[*]The extracted contents, with only your replies in sequence.[/list]


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## blackburn49 (Jan 2, 2008)

Posted By SteveC on 05/18/2008 10:52 PM





Ron

Yeah, no problem, the links automatically come in with the copy process. I'm a bit fuzzy on exactly what you want, I understand you want an MS/Word file, but containing what; 

[*]The raw MS/Word file as copied in from MLS...or 
[*]The extracted contents, containing all replies, in sequence, in total...or 
_*The extracted contents, with only your replies in sequence.*_ 
[/list]


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## blackburn49 (Jan 2, 2008)

I am going to take the thread and alter it slightly into a flowing narrative. Actually, that will mean considerable editing since it will have to stand alone without reference to MLS.  I will start with the original question and take it from there and see what happens. That is probably the version JohnJ would prefer since it will only contain the essential essence of the thread.


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## SteveC (Jan 2, 2008)

OK Ron,

Here's the link to your requested file.

*Ron's Topic Extract File, MS/Word Format*
_(Page count 320, File size 16.2MB)
(Left-click to open, Right-click to download)_


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## silverstatespecialties (Jan 2, 2008)

WOW, I'm breathless after absorbing all the pages in this thread! I'm a big fan of the Copper River & Northwestern, the Kennecott Mines, as well as the myriad of other mines using railroads throughout Alaska & the Yukon. 

BUT, to this point, NOTHING has had the impact that this thread has on me...the 3-D topography maps add what nothing & nobody else has been able to do: add a true sense of breathtaking scale to any discussion of the Kennecott Mines & the CR&NW. 

You, sir, are an artist and a craftsman; now I finally begin to understand the true scope of what these early pioneers faced in Alaska, and I am well & truly humbled! 

Thank you!!


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## blackburn49 (Jan 2, 2008)

Posted By SteveC on 05/20/2008 4:42 PM

OK Ron,

Here's the link to your requested file.

*Ron's Topic Extract File, MS/Word Format*

_

_


Steve: Thank you so much for producing this thread in document form. I have extracted it for use in my website.


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## blackburn49 (Jan 2, 2008)

Posted By silverstatespecialties on 05/20/2008 10:04 PM

WOW, I'm breathless after absorbing all the pages in this thread! I'm a big fan of the Copper River & Northwestern, the Kennecott Mines, as well as the myriad of other mines using railroads throughout Alaska & the Yukon. BUT, to this point, NOTHING has had the impact that this thread has on me...the 3-D topography maps add what nothing & nobody else has been able to do: add a true sense of breathtaking scale to any discussion of the Kennecott Mines & the CR&NW. You, sir, are an artist and a craftsman; now I finally begin to understand the true scope of what these early pioneers faced in Alaska, and I am well & truly humbled! Thank you!!


Thank you so much for the great compliment. I am also considering adding the chapter to this thread (directly from my book but with additional images) in which the historic geologist Wesley Dunkle explains this unique copper occurrence.


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## blackburn49 (Jan 2, 2008)

Posted By sheepdog on 05/18/2008 2:42 PM

I just can't get enough of this history. Ron needs to have a show on the history Channel. The Kennecott Mines is someplace I would really like to visit and I would also like to share a beer or six with Ron and his buds. Great stuff Ron! Please do not stop. Craig


Craig: I have to agree that this topic deserves far better treatment than it has commanded so far. It _does_ need to be on the _History Channel_. You never know. It could _still_ happen.


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## SteveC (Jan 2, 2008)

_Posted By: *blackburn49* on 05/21/2008 12:28 PM_
Steve: Thank you so much for producing this thread in document form. I have extracted it for use in my website.
No problem Ron, more than glad to do it. Just a small attempt at saying thank you for the time and effort you've put in, sharing your knowledge with all of us here.


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## flatracker (Jan 2, 2008)

Samething SteveC said....with heartfelt THANKS!


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## Torby (Jan 2, 2008)

This guy could have a series on the history channel. He has enough material.


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## blackburn49 (Jan 2, 2008)

I just obtained a new photo of CRNW Engine #70. The Copper River & Northwestern operated five of these 95-ton Mikado engines. This one was built and delivered in 1915 (click for much-larger image):


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## Semper Vaporo (Jan 2, 2008)

I do like a Mike!


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## blackburn49 (Jan 2, 2008)

Posted By Semper Vaporo on 06/04/2008 2:11 PM

I do like a Mike!


I have always considered this to be my favorite of all the locomotives. Nothing has changed my mind since I first saw one of these in a photo in 1995.


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## flatracker (Jan 2, 2008)

That's always been my favorite too. It's big enough to be impressive, but not so huge as to be overpowering. I don't know what else it was that impressed me so much, but whatever it was, it sure hit me just right.


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## unknown_soldier90 (Jun 11, 2020)

Hello, does anybody have the word document with the pictures included? 

They are all gone (


Greetings from Germany,
Constantin


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## Mike Paterson (Dec 27, 2007)

I see the last post is 2008 and none of the pictures are viewable.
Let me update you that in 2018 my son spent a year as a part of the video team that video this area for a reality TV program. It feature was self sustaining for a year. The video teams visited the area quarterly and stayed for 2-4 weeks. The personal photos he brought back of the area did kindle a strong interest to learn more. I wish I had seen your postings prior to his time on the site.


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## Pete Thornton (Jan 2, 2008)

unknown_soldier90 said:


> Hello, does anybody have the word document with the pictures included?
> 
> They are all gone (
> 
> ...


I suggest you send a private message to the author (blackburn49) and the anyone on the previous page who indicated they read the document. (SteveC and silverstatespecialties who was active 1-20-2020.) Looks like the Photobucket account was closed.


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## blackburn49 (Jan 2, 2008)

It has been so long I forgot how to use this forum. I was just now able to log back in. My regards.


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## Dave Meashey (Jan 2, 2008)

It is good to see you posting again. Most of the "old gang" now hang out at Large Scale Central. You may want to pay a visit over there.

Regrettably, the database folks here lost the access to most of our photographs well over a year ago, so that started a mass exodus. Some of us still visit here, but it is no longer the primary posting place.

Best wishes, David Meashey


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## blackburn49 (Jan 2, 2008)

blackburn49 said:


> John J, I did not forget your question: _"Speaking of Mines. When was the last time any one has been down in the Tunnels of the old copper Mine? Most of them should have caved in by now maybe?"
> 
> _


_

Last year two men rappelled from the 600 level--the top of the vertical shaft--to the 800 level, which leads to the main adit for the upper ML camp. What they found was that the tunnel leading out was blocked by ice and collapsed rock--as expected--at about 1000 feet from what used to the main entrance._


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## blackburn49 (Jan 2, 2008)

Dave Meashey said:


> It is good to see you posting again. Most of the "old gang" now hang out at Large Scale Central. You may want to pay a visit over there.
> 
> Regrettably, the database folks here lost the access to most of our photographs well over a year ago, so that started a mass exodus. Some of us still visit here, but it is no longer the primary posting place.
> 
> Best wishes, David Meashey



Thanks. I have gone ahead and set myself back up over there too.


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