Various Places of Interest: Alaska Edition
Here’s
a list of places that I’ve read about recently, and found
intriguing.
1.
Kennecott Copper Mines
The
Kennecott Copper mines in Alaska were a copper mining system, and
mining town that started in the early 1900’s and ended in 1938. The
system had a near 200 mile rail system to transport the ore to the
coast of Alaska. Initially named after a spelling error (Technically
Kennicott is the correct way of spelling), the mining town’s
community was tight knit, and even having movie nights twice a week.
Majority of the people that worked in Kennecott were from outside of
the area, and would send money back to their families. At its peak,
the mine produced 200 million dollars worth of copper.
Today,
many of the buildings in Kennecott are in disrepair, having been
abandoned for decades. The National Park Service owns the mines, and
work with a local community called ‘Friends of Kennicott’ to
identify buildings that will be stabilized.
Today,
you can visit the town and participate in a ‘walking ghost tour’
in Kennecott. There are various exhibits to look at too, such as the
General Store and Post Office, tunnels of the mining operations, and
the General Manager’s office, which is the oldest building in
Kennecott. The tourist season runs from Memorial Day to Labor Day,
and is closed from Fall-Spring.
2.
Nome Gold Mines
Though
current mining activity in Nome is minimal, Nome is a historic mining
site in the state of Alaska, with a gold rush from 1899-1909. In
September of 1898, three men dubbed as, “The Three Lucky Swedes”
(Jafet Lindeberg, Erik Lindblom, and John Brynteson) found gold on
Anvil Creek. Word of this made far reaches and by 1899, Nome’s
population was 10,000. That same year, gold was found on the beaches
of Nome, which spurred even more people to show up to the area. In
the 90’s, the Alaska Gold Company operated an open pit and surface
gold mine with about 100 employees. With the mine having been an
active since 1924. The ground is perpetually frozen at the mining
site, so the mining practice was to pump water through the ground in
a network of pipes to thaw it before the big bucket dredges scooped
it up. Alaska Gold quit the dredging process in 1993, though some
gravel is still mined from the open pit. Today, the city of Nome is
about 3800 people.
3.
James W. Dalton Highway
James
W. Dalton Highway, or Dalton Highway, is a mostly gravel road 414
miles long or 666 kilometers. The road starts at Elliot Highway north
of Fairbanks, and ends at Deadhorse. It used to be known as the Haul
Road, or North Slope Haul Road, and was built in 1974. Open
year-round but is not always passable, it lies directly parallel to
the Trans-Alaskan Pipeline. Maximum distance between gas stations is
244 miles.
4.
Permafrost Research Tunnel
A
site for the Army Corps of Engineers, the permafrost research tunnel
was excavated from 1963-1969 for the studies of permafrost, ice
science, and mining techniques for permafrost environments. The
tunnel is 360 feet long horizontally, 49 feet deep, 13-16 feet wide,
and 6-8 feet high. The ice contains history from thousands of years,
including fossils, plant remains, and bacteria. The dates for these
are anywhere between 40-45,000 years old. Microbiologists were even
able to revive a bacteria that had been trapped in the ice after
25,000 years.
5.
Red Dog Mine
Located
in the northwest Alaska area, Red Dog Mine is one of the largest Zinc
mines in the world. The mine has had over 500 million dollars
invested in it to extract about 85 million tons of Lead and Zinc. The
mine is in a very remote spot, with the closest town seeming to be
Kotzebue, which is still 80 miles away. Accounting for 10% of the
worldwide Zinc production, the mine is largest producer of the ore in
the world.
6.
Project Chariot Site
Code
name for an excavation project, Project Chariot was to be where
nuclear bombs would be used to build a harbor on the west coast of
the site. It was originally part of the ‘Plowshare Program’ or
‘Operation Plowshare’, a 50’s plan created by the US Atomic
Energy Commission where it was mandated that non-military uses for
nuclear technology were to be created. They planned to detonate
nuclear explosives equivalent to 160 Hiroshima bombs underground in
Ogotoruk Valley at Cape Thompson, about 30 miles southeast of the
village of Point Hope, a village with an overwhelming Native American
population. The local residents of Point Hope weren’t initially
informed about the project, but once they were they immediately
refused the plan. The Ogotoruk creek was, and still is, a major
hunting and activity site for the town, but despite this, the Atomic
Commission stated that they would have moved villagers to new areas.
The commission wanted to move several villages for the first year
after the blasts, and then create a new settlement next to the harbor
(that they had the blasts at) sending the villagers back to the new
area. Research showed that people of Native background already had
consumed large amounts of radioactive isotopes, as the worldwide
detonations ended up in dust that concentrated in lichens, which is
the food that caribou eat. Since the Natives ate caribou, this is how
they had the isotopes. Cancelled in 1963 due to protesting,
radioactive material had already been brought to the area, and
contaminated the ground. At some point in the future though, the
contaminated ground had been dug up.
[SOURCES]
wikipedia
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