Kennecott Mill Mine Tour Visitor Experience Review
The Kennecott Mill Mine Tour is one of the best activities you can do when in Wrangell St. Elias National Park. Check out this review and in-depth visitor experience. It provides details on what to expect and why this tour is so cool!
Background
Kennecott Mines National Historic Landmark is located inside Wrangell-St. Elias National Park, just a few miles from McCarthy, Alaska. Technically Kennecott (also spelled Kennicott) is it’s own town, separate from McCarthy, but the only infrastructure in this town is the Kennecott Copper Mine and Mill Town Buildings, Kennicott Glacier Lodge, and authorized guide service companies like St. Elias Alpine Guides.
The history of Kennecott Mines and the town, which is now essentially a ghost town, is super interesting. The mine and mill town sprung up in 1900 with the discovery of copper ore. The Kennecott Copper Corporation (which became the Kennecott Minerals Company), served to extract the ore from the mountain, and then process the ore into copper. Between 1911 and 1938 there was close to $200 million worth of copper produced from the Kennecott Mine.
Because of the super remote location inside the heart of Alaska, the town of Kennicott was company owned and self contained. Anywhere from 200-300 people worked in the mine operation and they lived in Kennicott with their families. Kennicott had it’s own hospital, school, store, and even an ice rink!
How to Get to the Kennecott Mill Mine
The Kennecott Mill Mine is located deep inside the heart of Wrangell-St. Elias National Park, which is the largest national park in the United States. There are three main ways you can get to Kennicott, and none of them involve driving directly to the town.
If you are staying at Kennicott Glacier Lodge, you can literally walk to the start point of the tour. The distance is less than a hundred feet to the guided tour office and gift shop. If you are not staying at Kennicott Glacier Lodge, you will need to get to McCarthy and then take the McCarthy shuttle to the start of the tour. The nearby town of McCarthy provides frequent shuttle services to Kennicott (Kennecott) because vehicles for tourists are not allowed.
In order to get to McCarthy you can either drive the 60 mile, very bumpy, gravel road. Most vehicles will not be able to safely make this drive and rental car companies typically don’t allow McCarthy Road access. If you have a rental car, you can take a bus from Chitina to McCarthy.
If you don’t mind the expense and/or don’t want to spend most of your day driving on the bumpy road to McCarthy, there are a few air taxi services you can use. There are a few main air services for the park and depending on where you are coming from, there are numerous air taxis to Kennicott from Anchorage, Glenallen, or Chitina. Another popular air taxi option, especially if you are coming from Anchorage or Glennallen is the Copper Valley Air Service.
When we visited we booked a flight with Wrangell Mountain Air. The entire trip was about 30 minutes and even though it’s not billed as a flightseeing tour, the flight is incredibly scenic.
Buildings You Can Visit Without a Tour
The National Park Service operates the Kennecott Mill Town and Mine. They have been restoring the town and the buildings since 1998 and Kennecott is considered one of the best examples of 20th century copper mining to date. Some of the historic buildings and area are accessible without a tour. If you are visiting Wrangell St. Elias National Park and have an hour or so, but not enough time to do the official tour, you can still tour these buildings. Public buildings are typically open from 9am until 5pm every day.
The historic buildings you can tour without a guided tour include the General Store, Post Office, North Sacking Shed, and the General Manager’s Office. The General Store has exhibits that tell the story of the town and what life was like for its inhabitants. At the North Sacking Shed you can see a scale model of the mining operation as it would have looked when the mine was operational. The General Manager’s Office is the oldest building in the town and has more exhibits on what life was like for the residents.
What To Expect On the Tour
The only way to enter and tour the 14-story concentration mill, which is the largest building in Kennecott, is through a guided tour with St. Elias Alpine Guides. St. Elias Alpine Guides has exclusive rights to conduct tours and the guides are experts on what it was like to live and work in the mine and the town.
The Mill Town Tour is a 2-hour walking tour which gives visitors exclusive access to the mill building, as well as other areas that are not open to the public.
There is a fair amount of walking on the tour, including a relatively steep ascent at the beginning of the tour and climbing stairs and ladders throughout the mill building. Since the Mill Building is a historic site that is still under renovation, everyone must wear a hard hat, closed toed shoes, and weather appropriate clothes (if it’s raining you will get a little wet at some point).
Life in the Mine
Throughout the tour you will get a really great idea at what life was like as a mining engineer. You also get a detailed look at the gigantic scale of its operation. Also, when you get to the top of the Mill Building, the mine overlook has spectacular views! Bring your Camera!
This tour, even though it is physically active, is suitable for most ages and abilities. Due to the ladders and stairs it is not wheelchair or stroller accessible though. And kids should be able to navigate the stairs safely on their own.
During the tour you will get a really in-depth overview of what it took to get the ore out of the ground and process it into copper that could be sold. The actual rooms you can go into vary based on the renovations being done and the conditions of the mill building. That being said, we saw pretty much every step of the mining and processing operation.
I really appreciated the stories the guides told of the miners and their working conditions as well. This was a very hard job and their were tons of casualties and fatalities. The human stories really added a layer of significance to the already impressive tour.
When the mine and mining town were abandoned, they were really abandoned. There are so many artifacts of tools that were actually used to process the ore and turn it into copper.
Tour Logistics
As of 2025, Admission cost for the tours are $34 for adults and $17 for kids ages 12 and under. Infants ages 2 and under are free. This cost does not include tips.
Tours start late May and run through Labor Day Weekend, unless the weather dictates that the season ends sooner. The 2-hour tour runs every day during season at 930AM, 130PM, and 330PM.
Tips for the Tour
I will not lie, I was nervous about the initial mini-hike up the hill. I am a pudgy middle-aged Mom and at the time of our Alaska trip, I was suffering from an injury. But I am happy to say that the hill is totally doable, as long as you can physically walk. The guides know that some folks will need to go slow and they are very patient.
Definitely ask questions and listen to the guides. They are experts on the history of the historic landmark and they have so many personal stories of the people who lived and worked in the mines.
Pack your lunch and snacks. Apart from some sundries at the Gift Shop, there isn’t much else in Kennicott itself. One exception is you can make a reservation to eat at the Kennicott Glacier Lodge. The Lodge serves breakfast, lunch, and dinner to its guests, but provided there is dining availability, anyone can eat there. The food is absolutely delicious! Kennicott Glacier Lodge recommends visitors make reservations for dinner.
If you are not staying at the lodge, the town of McCarthy has numerous restaurants that are delicious. Check out The Potato or The Meatza Wagon, which are local favorites.
Other Activities in Wrangell St-Elias National Park
You can easily spend an entire day (or more) in this area of Wrangell St.- Elias National Park. There are numerous flight seeing tours throughout the day with Wrangell Mountain Air, which is the excursion of a lifetime. St. Elias Alpine Guides offers half and full day tours. One of the most popular options is to combine the Kennecott Mine Town Tour with a Half-Day Glacier Hike onto Root Glacier.
You can take a full, half, or multi day rafting trip with either St. Elias Alpine Guides or Kennicott Wilderness Guides. Both tour operators offer ice climbing, guided hikes, ice cave exploration, kayak or float trips, and even options where you fly in and do any combination of those activities.
Pin For Later!
