Alaska Mining Tour

THEN AND NOW AT THE GLACIER MINE
NATIONAL HISTORIC LANDMARK
WRANGELL-ST. ELIAS NATIONAL PARK
AND PRESERVE, MC CARTHY, ALASKA

PHOTO GALLERY 4

Perhaps the most unusual of the five mines at Kennecott was the Glacier Mine. It was a surface mine that recovered pieces of ore that had broken off from the Bonanza ore body and deposited in the bottom of the cirque during thousands of years of glacial action. The mine was located between and below the Bonanza and the Jumbo Mines. A branch of the Jumbo Mine tramway was constructed to bring down the ore from the Glacier Mine to the mill.

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This historical view shows the Glacier Mine when it was in operation. The mine winch house is at the lower left. (Photographer, C. Waugaman) This view shows the tramway station with tram buckets in the foreground. The tramway from the Glacier Mine joined the longer Jumbo Mine tramway before the latter reached the mill.	Mine workers are shown picking waste material from the belt so that only the high-grade ore is conveyed to the tramway station. (Photographer, Jean McGavcock Lamb)
This modern view shows the glacial cirque with the remains of the Glacier Mine. The tramway station is at the center of the photo and the mine winch house is higher up on the dumps.	The southwest view from the Glacier Mine waste dumps shows the debris from the Kennecott Glacier in the valley and the mountainous terrain beyond.
The mine winch house has survived the severe winters at high altitudes.	Coils of cable and other artifacts are scattered around the rear of the winch house.
The ruins of the Glacier Mine tramway station and the ore bins behind it are partially buried in talus and waste rock.	A closer look at the tramway station reveals some of the mechanical equipment still in place.

(Photographs courtesy National Park Service)

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