Kennicott, Alaska
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Kennicott Mines
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The 14-storey Kennicott Concentration Mill (to the right), the mines are 5 miles up in the mountains to the east/northeast. Also pictured - foreground (left to right): power plant, machine shop, floatation plant, ammonia leaching plant (world's first); in the trees to the right - general manager's office (log cabin portion was first building built in Kennicott)
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| Location | Valdez–Cordova Census Area, Alaska |
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| Nearest city | McCarthy, Alaska |
| Coordinates | 61°29′10″N 142°53′19″W / 61.48611°N 142.88861°WCoordinates: 61°29′10″N 142°53′19″W / 61.48611°N 142.88861°W |
| Area | 7,700 acres (31 km2) |
| Built | 1911 |
| Architect | Kennecott Mines Co. |
| NRHP Reference # | 78003420 |
| Significant dates | |
| Added to NRHP | July 12, 1978 |
| Designated NHLD | June 23, 1986 |
Kennecott, also known as Kennecott Mines or AHRS Site No. XMC-001, is an abandoned mining camp in the Valdez-Cordova Census Area in the U.S. state of Alaska that was the center of activity for several copper mines. It is located beside the Kennicott Glacier, northeast of Valdez, inside Wrangell-St. Elias National Park and Preserve. The camp and mines are now a National Historic Landmark District administered by the National Park Service.
It was declared a National Historic Landmark in 1986.
In the summer of 1900, two prospectors, "Tarantula" Jack Smith and Clarence L. Warner, a group of prospectors associated with the McClellan party, spotted "a green patch far above them in an improbable location for a grass-green meadow." The green turned out to be malachite, located with chalcocite (aka "copper glance"), and the location of the Bonanza claim. A few days later, Arthur Coe Spencer, U.S. Geological Survey geologist independently found chalcocite at the same location.
Stephen Birch, a mining engineer just out of school, was in Alaska looking for investment opportunities in minerals. He had the financial backing of the Havemeyer Family, and another investor named James Ralph, from his days in New York. Birch spent the winter of 1901-1902 acquiring the "McClellan group's interests" for the Alaska Copper Company of Birch, Havemeyer, Ralph and Schultz, later to become the Alaska Copper and Coal Company. In the summer of 1901, he visited the property and "spent months mapping and sampling." He confirmed the Bonanza was, at the time, the richest known concentration of copper in the world.
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