Kennecott Reopening

In Alaska, 195 mi. up the winding Copper River Valley, is Kennecott, a raw mining town sprawled on the edge of what was once the richest copper mine in North America. Alexander Baranof, first Governor of Russian America, bought copper from the Kennecott district Indians in the 18th Century to cast a bell. A hundred years later two grizzled sourdoughs stumbled upon what looked like grass on the mountainside at Kennecott, found pure copper ore. A taciturn young engineer named Stephen Birch bought their claims. With backing from Daniel Guggenheim, a railroad was pushed up the Copper River Valley, and the Kennecott mine opened in 1911. The first year of operation (1912), more than $20,000,000 in copper rolled down the rails to Tidewater. In 1915 Kennecott Copper Corp., a holding company, was organized to take over the mine from which it is named. Although Kennecott Copper acquired vast holdings in Utah, Arizona and South America, the Kennecott mine was for years one of its richest properties, producing nearly $100,000,000 worth of copper. But as the price of copper fell, old Kennecott became unprofitable. In 1932 it was shut down.

Last week every newspaper in Alaska headlined an announcement by Kennecott's President Earl Tappan Stannard that the Kennecott mine would reopen this week, hiring 250 workmen. Copper prices are not much better than they were when the mine was closed but President Stannard felt he could make his profit from the mine's byproducts, silver & gold.

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