On the Way to Kennicott, Alaska

One day, we decided to check out the small historic town of Kennicott, Alaska.  There is a copper mill/mine there.  It was closed down in 1938, and time has sort of ground to a stop since then.  There is some restoration going on there, but it’s not all rebuilt.  Also, as an interesting side note – the town is spelled Kennicott, but the mill is spelled Kennecott.  The owner of the copper mill was named Kennecott, but when the town was registered, it was accidentally misspelled as Kennicott.  Rather than go thru the trouble to get the spelling corrected, they left is as is!  But, for now, let’s take a look at the road to Kennicott.  It’s 60 miles of a very, very rough dirt road!

 

This gives you an idea of what you’ve got in store for you right at the beginning of the drive!  It’s a one lane slot cut into the rock, and is just wide enough for 1 vehicle to fit in it at a time!  Originally, I believe this was created for the railroad to pass thru, but the railroad is, for the most part, gone, with just some sections of track remaining.

 

Isn’t this a great view?  It’s the Kuskulana Bridge, built in 1910.  It spans 525 feet, and is 238 feet high.  This bridge has been restored so that it’s now safe for cars to travel on it.  However, don’t try to walk on it – it’s only wide enough for 1 vehicle, and 238 feet is a long way to fall!

 

I just love the rusty look to this entrance to the Kennecott (mine spelling).  The rust is natural, I’m fairly certain, and I love the look!

 

One of the first things I saw walking down main street Kennicott was this cool little bird house – or at least it has the front façade of a birdhouse!  If you look closely thru the “door”, you can see thru the back to the trees.  I guess the tree itself provides the back of the house – or most of the back.  I just love the feel of this image, tho – very natural.

 

Jeff & I thought this little bloom reminded us of the movie “Wall-E” where the green plant is growing out of an old shoe.  No old shoe here, but a very rusty container of sorts with rusty steel cables or something around it!

Enjoy!

Welcome to Kennicott

At the end of a very long, very rough dirt road, lies the town of Kennicott.  There are some very cool buildings in various states of disrepair – take a look!

 

Now, I now live in a small town, but Kennicott is absolutely tiny by comparison to my little home town in New Mexico!  Kennicott does not have any water wells or amenities of any sort.  However, Alaskans are a hearty group – thanks to generators, the town does have toilets with indoor plumbing, electric lights, etc.!  However, the town in dependent on a stream that runs thru the area for the water that they use.  It’s a charming little town – however, I would not want to arrive back from a trip (perhaps 1 LONG day or overnight) to find that I forgot one ingredient I needed for dinner!  My creativity would be put to totally new uses!!

 

I would have totally missed this if not for Jeff.  These are the old water pipes that were used for the copper mill/mine and town.  The interesting thing about these pipes is that they are made of wood!  They are wrapped with steel cables – I guess to keep them together.  I know this isn’t a cool photo for photographic purposes, but the makeup of the pipes warranted a posting.

 

I’m not certain, but I think this was probably some sort of residence for the workers in the copper mill/mine.  I really like the impression of a somewhat wavy foundation – and actually, it probably wasn’t an impression.  Back in 1936, there was a huge flood that runs by this building (it’s actually in the forefront of this image, but out of sight) and covered quite a bit of it.

 

There is work being done to reconstruct much of the copper mill/mine area of Kennicott; however, it’s a slow process and this building has most definitely not been rebuilt yet!  I do love the look of the worn wood and the inadvertent sky lights!

 

This is a house on the other side of the stream that I mentioned above.  This one will make another appearance is some creative digital collages that I did, but for right now, enjoy it in “reality”.  I love the tone of the wood, tilt of the windows and the front porch and “deck” on the side of it.

 

This is the stream that I mentioned a couple of times in this posting.  It looks rather peaceful now, doesn’t it?  I really liked the gentleness of this image and decided to convert it into a photo painting.

Enjoy!

Moraine Landscapes

There was a moraine in Kennicott that was really sort of surreal.  Just to let you know, I did not do anything special or different to the following images – this is truly the way it looked!

 

The moraine is the brown area in the foreground of the image.  It is basically dirt and debris from the glacier that has made its way to the surface.  Underneath the brown is the white snow/ice of the glacier.  I found the moraine to look sort of like a painting, even in reality!

 

I love the partial shell of an old building in the foreground of this image.  There’s an interesting layer of texture – the rough of the building, smoother greenery, then the ruggedness of the moraine, then the rolling smooth surface of the pine trees in the foothills of the mountains, and then, finally, the rough mountain tops.

 

Finally, I like this image for putting things into perspective.  Imagine living in a town that not only looks out toward the mountains, but has a glacier in between!  You can actually see some of the glacial snow in patches toward the back of the moraine.

Enjoy!

 

Old Railroad Trestle on Road to/from Kennicott

As we drove back from Kennicott, we noticed an old railroad trestle that we somehow missed on the drive in.  This is not being maintained at all, so eventually, it will fall apart (and down) and be gone forever.  I’m glad we got to see it while it’s still here…..

 

As we passed the bridge, there was a small sort of back road that went under the bridge.  Altho the road didn’t look like something we wanted to drive under, it certainly was easy access for me to be able to capture some cool images.  In this image, you can see the weathering of the wood and the intricacy of the trestle structure.  You can see the bridge is beginning to fall down – it curves and then just…..ends.  I don’t believe that this railroad trestle was used since the copper mine was closed, so there’s no danger to anyone, unless you happen to be standing under it when it does! 

 

I definitely didn’t want it to collapse at this point!!  I was standing directly under it.  I really liked the pattern of the structure built to hold the tracks and trains, both empty and full of copper.  You can see that some of the railroad ties have fallen from the bridge…..and that the clouds lifted to reveal blue skies!

 

As we left the area, I noticed this wonderful setting for a photo…..and a painting!  After I saw the image, I thought it would make such a lovely painting, I couldn’t resist!

Enjoy!