I can no
longer remember the source of the photo above. This image 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 Barrack #1 on the left is still
standing. It was pictures like this that served to awaken my
curiosity about the long-abandoned remote Kennecott sites.
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 small holes would open up and air would be blasting through those.
Curious, indeed.
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.
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.
