Grand Alaska scenery and a sense of adventure are combined in any excursion to the historic mining towns of McCarthy and Kennicott. Both are located deep in the heart of Wrangell-St. Elias National Park and Preserve, the largest national park in the U.S. at 13.2 million acres and a crossroads of mountains. Within the park the Wrangell, Chugach and St. Elias Ranges merge to create an alpine paradise that includes 9 of the 16 highest peaks in the country.
In McCarthy, visitors will find lodging, restaurants, basic services, the interesting McCarthy-Kennecott Historical Museum in the former railroad depot and outfitters that will take them on a range of activities from glacier walking and whitewater rafting to flightseeing trips into the alpine heart of the national park. Taxi vans will also drive them 5 miles up the mountains to Kennicott. A virtual ghost town perched above Kennicott Glacier, the town is still an amazing sight. Steadily being preserved by the National Park Service, rangers lead visitors on tours past the huge mill, where the ore was crushed and the copper concentrated, and other buildings, including bunkhouses, a train depot, worker's cottages and power plant. All of them are painted in red and surrounded by towering peaks, making the entire area a photographer’s dream.
To reach the area you depart the Richardson Highway at Mile 82.6 and follow a 92-mile route that begins with the 32-mile, fully paved Edgerton Highway. At the village of Chitina you can either choose to continue east along the McCarthy Road or you can hop a short, scenic flight right into McCarthy. If you choose to drive, the rough dirt road follows the abandoned Copper River & Northwest Railroad bed that was used to transport copper from the Kennecott mines to Cordova.. The first few miles offer spectacular views of the Chugach Mountains with peaks averaging 7000 to 8000 feet and at Mile 17 the McCarthy Rd crosses the Kuskulana River Bridge. Built in 1910, this historic railroad bridge spans 525ft across an impressive gorge that rises 238 ft above the river.
Within 60 miles of Chitina, the McCarthy Road ends at a footbridge across the Kennicott River and a short walk away is the tiny town of McCarthy, population 53. After copper was discovered in the area in 1900, a group of wealthy investors formed the Kennecott Copper Corporation (named when a clerical worker misspelled Kennicott), built the Copper River & Northwest Railroad including its famous Million Dollar Bridge, established the company town of Kennicott and from 1911-38 made more than $100 million mining some of the richest copper veins the country has ever known.
Since no gambling or drinking were allowed at the company town, McCarthy quickly sprang up nearby as a place where miners would find 'wine, women and song,' in its saloons, restaurants, hotels, pool halls, stores, and, yes, a red light district. A number of the buildings from that era are still in use and listed on the National Register of Historical Places. Together McCarthy and Kennicott make for Wrangell-St. Elias National Park’s most intriguing destination.