From the
National Park Service Northeast Region

Sandy Walter, Acting
Regional Director

11/7/2006

Alaska Region Winner
Kennecott Mines
Valdez-Cordova County, Alaska
Photographer: Scott Henrickson

A vestige of an early 20th-century copper mining camp, Kennecott represents the mining techniques of the era. The mines here were among the nation's largest and contained the last of the great high-grade copper ore deposits of the American West. The world's first ammonia-leaching plant for extracting concentrations of ore from low-grade ores was designed and first successfully used on a commercial scale at Kennecott. The camp is little changed since its 1938 closing.

Kennecott Mines are part of Wrangell-St. Elias National Park. For more information, please visit:
http://www.nps.gov/archive/wrst/kennecott.htm