Our second trip to Kennecott Mines National Historic Landmark and Wrangell-St. Elias National Park.
In 2007, I made the decision to pack up everything I had and take a job in Alaska working a rotational job in Prudhoe Bay, Alaska. I didn’t know anyone, and had no idea what I was getting into. I moved from an office job in Seattle to a field-based job in the arctic. I can say, without a doubt, it absolutely was the best decision I ever made. And not only for myself, but for others I have met along the way, there is an enduring mystique about the land that is still dubbed: The Last Frontier. Wherever I go, I get peppered with questions about what it is like to live and work in Alaska. Some of my novels are based on adventures I have had along the way, but others are based here in the 49th State. While I have lived here almost 13 years now, I am amazed at how much I still don’t know about one of America’s youngest states.
My Alaska Adventures have become the inspiration for so much of my writing (as you’ll see below), and yet I am blown away by how much I don’t know.
A particular piece of writing advice that writers hear time and time again is:
WRITE WHAT YOU KNOW.
I think we can all agree that this is a bit misleading, and really, not very well defined. My perspective is that it means to write from your life’s experiences and passions. When George Orwell wrote the War of the Worlds, I don’t think he knew first hand anything about alien invasion, but he understood people. Ernest Hemmingway wrote incredible novels based on his life experiences as an ambulance driver during WWI. Charlotte Bronte wrote passionate Gothic Romance based on her hardships and privations as a child raised in a poor, rural English parish in the mid-1800’s.
Historical Fiction has always intrigued me, as well as historical non-fiction. It is fascinating to read about characters from the past and imagine what their lives must have been like. We can’t really KNOW what it was like to live in their time and walk in their shoes, but we can research and Imagine.
In my quest to write a series of both contemporary and historical fiction about Alaska, I have been visiting some of the lesser known historical sites. This trip, we went back to Kennecott, AK. This copper mine in Wrangell-St. Elias National Park operated from 1911-1938. It produced 200-300 million dollars’ worth of copper and silver (4.5 tons of copper ore). Owned by the Kennecott Syndicate, a corporation formed between the Havemeyer, Guggenheim, and J.P. Morgan Families, it operated 363 days a year. A 96-mile long railroad project costing $23 million was built from Cordova to Kennecott to bring the ore to market. Deemed the Can’t Run and Never Will Rail Road (Copper River Northwestern Railroad—CRNW RR), it ran until 1938, until the mine was shut down.
My series a Copper Year is set in the roaring 20’s. It’s a story about a young woman who survived the horrors of WWI France and travels to Kennecott to work as a nurse. The novels are about her journey from Europe, across America to Alaska. It then will detail the life of a single, female nurse in a camp dominated by men. The societal expectation being that she wouldn’t stay single long. She would find a good husband and settle down, putting her career aside to raise a family (apparently, they had a rule that once a woman got married, she could no longer work). No one really takes into account if that is what she really wants.
This story was inspired by two ideas. One my own work experience as a woman in engineering working almost always only around men. Then also my research into the archived pictures of Kennecott. While most of the women who got married were named in the photographs, the unmarried nurses were just labeled “unknown nurse.” It was a symptom of the time in which they lived. They weren’t considered a critical part of the story until they found a man to marry. Otherwise, they merely faded into obscurity. This gave me the idea for creating a romance around one of these “unknown women.”
Part of my research has been to dig into not only the photo archives and written history, but to take actual trips out to Kennecott and do tours to learn what life was like for the people who lived and worked at the mines. It is fascinating to learn about day to day life at the mining operation. The park rangers give daily talks about camp life and the people who lived here.
We have also taken multiple tours of the Concentration Mill, Power Plant, and Leeching Plant. These tours can be booked through St. Elias Alpine Guides. They do a great job explaining some of the back history of Kennecott and the purposes of the various buildings.
While my story A Drink of Darkness is currently set in Dawson City, I plan on expanding the series to Kennecott eventually (rap wood it gets that far). In this case, I will have my immortal vampires Eve, Bianca (and others) who masquerade as “Ladies of the Night,” showcase the rowdy town of McCarthy. Sitting at the toe of the root glacier, 5 miles away from Kennecott, it was also the turnaround point for the CRNW Railroad. Kennecott was a “Company Town,” owned by the Syndicate, with strict rules, and technically dry. McCarthy was a boomtown that sprung up to cater to the whims of the working men. Complete with bootlegging and brothels, a man could work months for his pay check, walk to McCarthy, then be back at the mines in a week or two, having blown it all.
My contemporary horror novella (currently available on Amazon), The Dark Land is also set in the area. This novel was inspired by the remote wilderness areas of the park, and local Athabascan Legends.
Thanks for reading. Stay tuned for more book reviews and Alaska adventures!