The Kennecott Mines
| ABOVE: Barracks #2--the main one at Kennecott during its heyday. |
|
“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.” |
| BELOW: 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. |
