National Park Theme Week .4 Wrangle St. Elias -- The Plant / by Dave Hileman

The town of Kennecott derived from the copper mining company is now a part of the National Park. The railroad was built to here to haul the copper ore to the shipping areas on the coast. That RR is the base for the road into the park today. There were several mines but they all fed to this 17 story plant that dominated the town and the only way in or out was the railroad. The small structure in the foreground of the first photo was the station.

assayers office and lab

Ore from several mines was conveyed to the top of the processing plant

Entering the plant at the 17th floor

Looking south along the road that was the railroad line

End product loaded onto the railroad cars