Where Past and Present Meet

What minds had dreamed this place, had wandered in search of riches here, and kindled the flame of adventure in arriving in this valley? What manner of men had spent their light in beating back the insects and heat,climbing the hills to investigate?Had the beauty of glacial lakes or u-shaped valley curves gave pause to appreciate the land, or were their minds single in the lure of gold, the only color seen?

We that come later can only guess what was in their hearts, of some who knew the original place. Now roads of dusty past take a thousand people through, who only want a place to get away. Now we come to play and spend the day, well fed with food and drink, without the fear of struggle. The people are softer now, of a race that is supported by the past, who wander about for an hour or two and are gone. But the people who once came here were tough and resolute enough to carve a world from here. I see their ghosts on every hill...

The distant hills

Across the many miles of dusty road we finally arrived at the top, at 3886' of Hatcher's Pass. Still,even here,the hills hemmed us in, inside this gap between the hills.But from this vantage point, far down the valley we saw the overlapping lines of hill, where the waters flowed downward to combine with the main river,gathering force in the hollows at the bottom. And we looked upwards and saw the edge of things. And there the sun and clouds hovered, casting onto the jagged rocks and broken slope small shadow shapes. Then appeared in the the changing light the zig-zag lines of trails hammered out from shale hills, revealing the way up to the tops. Too many people we thought had been here, had dug the hills, and emptied them. tA thousand trips has pounded out flatness into hills and left scars on their brows.

So I said to her that I would be back shortly. I climbed the opposite side instead, one filled with plants and flowers.It was steep here too, but not beaten down. At first the steps were soft, but the higher I climbed the loose remains reappeared. I gripped the hill until I was near the top, among the jagged rocks, along the rust-colored ridge where the snow had lain so deep in May. I had made my own path a pathless way, while my eyes gazed into another place deep within the lower sky, among the clouds that hovered there, in distant colors of shade. From here my view was clear, the air was pure with thought--this moment of reaching the top.

Kennicott and McCarthy area from the Jumbo Mine.

High above the valley a mile up, the copper ore was dug and carried down in buckets, carried on cables connected by wooden towers. The tailings here at Jumbo Mine have filled the hollows of a mountain cirque, and appear from far below as summer snow grow hard. Until 1938, the ore was mined and carried down to be taken by rail to the coast. The logistics of this operation, especially in this remote place, seem incredible for the early 20th century and it's technologies. The men and women were tough, able to adapt to hardships of winter and summer climate in the regions of contrast. Physical hardship paid less for the miners and workers in the mill, but made millionaires even richer in this time.

Kennicott Mill and Buildings

The large build up of glacial morraine makes the works of man seem small. The Kennicott Mine area skirts the vastness of Glaciers, Mountains, and mounds of gravel and ice. Yet here, in austere plain, contained by the walls of stone and ore, the early 20th century civilization of the United States was build on copper. Here vast amounts of this ore were discovered amidst the rugged landscape. The green colored slopes, glinting in the sun, revealed huge amounts of copper. And with rivers and glaciers and mountain barriers, the power of money and reward made possible this remote place to be built.

Chitina and Copper Rivers

Here at the junction of the Chitina and Copper Rivers, the history of man's ambitions is writ in the places like Chitina, McCarthy, Kennicott--all fitted into the historical fabric which brought the hoards of adventurers and seekers of fortune. Now, the main sights are fish wheels, crowds of tourists, and local people living in place of extremes. The Copper Bonanza has long past, the old times now gone, the roads now for common passage--all of the former dreams only dreams, while a new race brings their own sense of history.

The Kuskulana Bridge

Here, in three sections, in the early decades of the 20th century, the Kuskulana Bridge was built. The reason for this immense enterprise was this: the discovery of copper deposits in the Wrangel-St Elias Mountains. During a cold winter this bridge was built for the railroad to connect from the Copper River to the Kennicottt area, in order to bring the ore to Cordova hundreds of miles away. The bridge is 238' above the river, while a dirt road of 61 miles passes through this area, where exists a rugged country of mountains, lakes, and rivers feeding off glaciers near the mines.