Mountain Treasures: Kennecott, Alaska and Iceberg Lake
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Technology
Traditional and modern technologies, together, enabled the lucrative exploitation of the copper at Kennecott. Electric motors, mining, civil, and electrical engineering, mechanical and chemical ore concentration, horse and wagon, dog team, steam powered electric generators, trains and river boats, and line shaft power were used to exploit the extremely valuable but otherwise inaccessible copper ore. Growing commercial and domestic use of electricity demanded a reliable source of copper for wire and electrical appliances including motors. During the first world war the military needed copper for munitions and other materials. In the concentration mill, the machinery ran on the old and noisy line-shaft system – belts and pulleys - used in factories of the day and powered by electric motors. Reportedly, the mill could be heard about six miles away in McCarthy. The electric power plant at Kennecott ran diesel engines and steam turbines housed in a soaring wood-framed atrium. An ammonia leaching plant built in 1922-1923 to recover the last few percent of copper was state of the art and first used commercially at Kennecott. Arc welding was in its infancy in the early 1900’s so joining two pieces of metal involved prodigious amounts of rivets. These are evident on practically all the large metal objects throughout Kennecott.
Gravity
The mines and mill ran on the creative use of gravity. The aerial tramways were propelled by the heavy descending ore bucket train; the mill depended on the ore falling through several stages of crushing and water fed concentrating before reaching the bottom level where it was bagged for shipment to the smelters in Tacoma, Washington.
Money
Developing a mine takes money, a lot of money. A mine, deep in the Wrangell mountains and far from any existing modes of transportation, takes a lot more money. But the copper prospect at Kennecott was so rich that the wealthy east coast Guggenheim and Morgan families were willing to fund the high start-up and operating costs of the mines. In 1915 they created the Kennecott Copper Corporation that was vertically integrated from their mines at Kennecott, to their 195 mile-long Copper River and Northwestern Railway, to their Alaska Pacific Steamship line, and finally to their ore smelters in Tacoma, Washington. By 1938, when the mines played out and closed, the Syndicate had realized a profit of $100,000,000 over the years the mine operated.
Labor
Mining was hard and labor-intensive. Roughly 570 miners, mill workers, and surface staff worked at Kennecott. Most of the miners were European immigrants. The pay was relatively good for the time but the strenuous work and often harsh conditions led to significant turn-over of the laborers. Miners earned $5.25 a day and skilled mill workers earned $5.50 daily. The miners lived in bunkhouses high on the mountains where access was by a strenuous uphill four-mile hike or by risky rides in the aerial tramway ore buckets. The Corporation provided them a range of basic amenities: steam heated bunkhouses, laundry services, decent food, modest entertainment, and a well-equipped hospital. In return managers expected hard, repetitive, and often dangerous work and would brook no complaints or labor organizing. The Kennecott Copper Corporation vigorously fought any injury claims arising from accidents.