McCarthy – A Step Back in Time

The towns of McCarthy & Kennicott* are the southern entrance to Wrangell-St.Elias National Park, the largest national park in America comprising of almost 22 million acres of wild lands and designated wilderness. The park contains the greatest collection of peaks over 16,000’ on the continent including Mt. St. Elias, the second highest peak in the US at 18,029’. The park also contains the greatest concentrations of glaciers on the continent. Malapina glacier covers about 1,500 square miles, larger than Rhode Island. Wrangell-St. Elias is a wilderness park, and other than a handful of hiking trails, hikers must follow unimproved backcountry routes.   The main visitor center for the park is back in Copper Center, just off the Richardson Highway and from there all they can do is point out the window at the park in the distance. *(There are two spellings, Kennicott and Kennecott. Both are correct but Kennecott generally refers to the mine and Kennicott to the townsite).

McCarthy

Kennicott and McCarthy are both beautiful historic mining towns. Kennicott was a company mill town built up around Kennecott Mine. Most of the miners lived in company housing. Kennicott was a ‘dry town’ and the miners were not allowed to bring their families. Five miles down the line; the town of McCarthy (originally Shushana Junction) began developing. It became the site of the turnaround station for the railroad and it was a miner and railroader town with all the entertainment required of those living on the frontier. It had restaurants, hotels, saloons, pool halls, stores and of course brothels. The two towns coexisted for 27 years until the mine was shut down in 1938.

You can’t drive your car into McCarthy or Kennicott. At the end of the road you enter what is known as Base Camp. There is a visitor center here and paid parking. Here you must leave your car and cross the river on a footbridge.

The pedestrian bridge, the only way into McCarthy

View of Kennicott Glacier from pedestrian bridge

Being cheap and looking for the experience, we parked up by the visitor center, which charges $5.00 per night and walked ¼ mile to the bridge. You can park closer to the bridge at $5.00 per day. There is also a large camping area at base camp. From the start of the bridge to McCarthy is another ½ mile, so if you plan to walk, travel light. If not, there is a regular shuttle service for $5.00 per person 1 way. We chose to walk, part of the experience right? You actually cross two pedestrian bridges on your way to McCarthy and then continue to follow the gravel road into town.

The shuttle depot in McCarthy

McCarthy is everything you would expect of an old frontier town; historic buildings, dirt streets, potholes, mud and water in the streets and a bustle of activity during the summer months. There are a couple of restaurants, a saloon, a hotel, a general store and a few other services available. St. Elias Alpine Guides offers a guiding service including guided backcountry trips, hiking on a glacier, ice climbing and tours of Kennicott Mine. Copper Oar offers river rafting trips, glacier lake kayaking, multisport adventures and flight seeing. McCarthy Air has a storefront in an historic building and they offer flightseeing tours of the area. There is also a museum in the old railway terminal.

McCarthy Air

McCarthy Downtown, dirt, gravel, mud & water!

Old McCarthy General store

Typical McCarthy Residential Street

Old Hardware Store

McCarthy Kennicott Museum

After our ¾ mile slog into town with cameras and an overnight bag, we decided to take a break and stopped at the Roadside Potatohead restaurant for some lunch. This awesome little place is on outskirts of town in a new, but appropriately designed building. They offer espresso, breakfasts, lunches and dinners of basic fairs of sandwiches and wraps. All delicious…and their rosemary garlic fries are to die for!

Potatoehead Cafe

We stayed at the historic Ma Johnson Hotel right in McCarthy. This is a very cool old hotel, built in the 1920’s and nicely restored but keeping much of its original charm with very small rooms and shared bathrooms. In fact this little hotel is listed in National Geographic’s “129 Hotels We Love”. Right next store is the original brothel building with 4 more rooms; we stayed in one of these. The hotel service was excellent and the rooms while very basic were very nice and supplied with robes and slippers and a buffet breakfast was included with the room. Don’t expect all the amenities of a typical hotel room, you are stepping back in time staying here and most of the rooms don’t even have electrical outlets.

Ma Johnsons’s Hotel & the Rose House

Ma Johnson’s Hotel

Ma Johnson’s front desk and lounge

Our room in the Rose House which was the brothel

There is also accommodation in Kennicott at the Kennicott Glacier Lodge and there are some B&B’s.

Since we were a bit early for check in, we left our bags at the hotel and grabbed a McCarthy-Kennicott Shuttle to the Kennecott Mine. Kennecott is 5 miles up the road and the shuttle is $5.00 per person each way. Check out our post on the Kennecott Mine at this link: Exploring the Kennecott Mine

Kennecott Mine Concentration Mill

For dinner that night we made reservations across the street at the McCarthy Lodge Bistro. (Now Salmon & Bear Restaurant).  A Michelin rated restaurant… what, in McCarthy? Yes indeed! They offer two, three course meal options and I have to say, one of the best meals we have ever had…delightful! Before that we stopped for a pre-dinner beer at the attached New Golden Saloon, which also offers more casual dining.

Golden Saloon & McCarthy Bistro

The Golden Saloon

Dinner at the McCarthy Bistro

McCarthy is certainly a different experience, but more than worth the effort to get here and the quirkiness of the businesses. It is an interesting step back in time.

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