Second to None

 

Alaska is second to none in many ways. Largest State. Largest National Park.  Largest mountain ( in North America ). And maybe a kitchen, second to none, in the backcountry.

Let me introduce you to my friend, Sergio. He’s the head chef at McCarthy Lodge. (You all know that I love to cook.  So it shouldn’t surprise anyone that in my “off-hours” I hang around the kitchen.)

He is a Geologist from Auburn (War Eagle), but then decided to go to school and learn how to be a chef. He graduated from the Culinary Institute of America (CIA) and promptly set his career on fire, cooking around the world, and starting several of his own restaurants.  After graduating from the CIA, he went to work for Whole Foods in New York, where he helped develop many recipes and processes to enhance the Whole Foods kitchen.  Now he owns a couple of restaurants in his homeland of Ecuador, and spends his summers in Alaska enjoying these beautiful mountains and the McCarthy Lodge.  (He’s got to be good to be thousands of miles away and still run his restaurants from Alaska.)

Sergio first came to the McCarthy Lodge 20 years ago, then got busy with Whole Foods, and has now returned to McCarthy Lodge the last couple of years to be their head chef. His sous chef, Sam (and another new good friend), has been at the McCarthy Lodge for the last four years. Between the two of them, they’ve made McCarthy Lodge a destination for fine casual dining and good food throughout the Wrangell-St Elias National Park.

As you can see, our kitchen isn’t the largest. But Sergio and Sam can create magnificent meals with what’s available and from their depth of knowledge of food. They can whip up scratch four-course meals in the matter of no time to serve our visitors staying at our lodge.

Grilled pork chops on a fried grits, salmon, steak with potatoes or rice pilaf, crème brûlée, and banana or brownie sundaes ( using wildfire honey ice cream ) are just a few items prepared daily.  Two of the most ordered items on the menu are the Munster Chicken sandwich, served with Munster cheese and a chicken breast lightly breaded with Panko and deep-fried (and so big that they cut the chicken breast in half and stack it on top of each other), and the beef lasagna.  (And yes, I can verify that the Munster sandwich is fantastic!). And even as the head chef, Sergio is not afraid to get his hands wet.  (No ego here!)

They both also enjoy going fishing .  So on our off days, I have friends willing to go out and try to catch fish with me.  (Sorry, no “good” fishing pics, yet)

But, we do have a big smoker which they use weekly to smoke brisket.  

Sergio and Sam will admit that they do not have a strong feel for smoking and would like suggestions.  The best smoking wood we have is Alder wood.  Pretty mild.  So right now, we are no threat to Al’s brisket (remember, there is no oak, hickory or pecan trees in Alaska).  But, I have purchased a smoke tube and now have oak and hickory pellets to enhance our flavor.  So watch out Al, we are gunning for you and your brisket.  For the 4th of July, we will be rocking the smoker for an All-American BBQ blow out, Alaska style.  I can’t wait.

Who knew that Phase 2 of life would be so much fun.  Being in Alaska, having so much fun, and meeting new friends.   Now all I need is for all of you to come visit McCarthy Lodge.  That’s second to none!

Cu Later

 

Kenn-e-cott   or   Kenn-i-cott

or some even spell it Kenn-y-cott (but I could not find a picture).

Regardless of how you want to spell Kennecott, for a ghost town, it’s a pretty cool place.  And Copper (Cu, as an element) is its claim to fame.  

In 1986, Kennecott became a National Historic Landmark so everyone can see what makes this area so famous, and cool.  But now, some history.

In the 1880s, Jack Smith and Clarence Warner came through the Fourth of July pass into the Copper River Valley area. (The Pass is the “V” in the middle of the picture below.)

They met the indigenous Ahtna (Ah-t-na) people living in the area and saw that they had copper tools and arrowheads. Smith and Warner knew the value of copper and started talking with natives about where to find it.  Eventually, Smith and Warner worked out a deal and traded with the Ahtna’s to acquire the land where the copper was being found.

In the early 1900s, another adventurous mining engineer named Stephen Birch came to the area and saw the quality of copper Smith and Warner were mining.  Birch, backed by the Guggenheims and JP Morgan, started negotiating with Smith and Warner to purchase their mine. In 1906 a deal with struck where Birch purchased the Kennecott mine and surrounding land from Smith and Warner for $1 million (in 1906 dollars).

In 1907, Birch started building the railway to carry supplies to Kennecott, and the copper ore down to the Alaskan coast.  It took four years and $24 million more to complete the 196-mile railway across glaciers, multiple rivers, and steep mountains to finally arrive at the coastal town of Cordova, AK.  You can still see remnants of that railway all along the McCarthy Road. But more about the railway in a later post.

With the railway completed, they could now could start bringing more lumber and materials up to Kennecott to build the mine and infrastructure that was necessary to mine the copper. 

This is the remnants of the first building built at the Kennecott mine. It was the lumber mill! Unfortunately, they used soft spruce wood, which does not last very long, to build the lumber mill. You can see a planer and old generator used at the lumber mill still sitting in what’s left of the building. Once the lumber mill was built, they brought lumber made of the harder Douglas fir trees up from Cordova to build the actual mine and all of the buildings. That’s why the original buildings are still standing, and are in such good shape, compared to the lumber mill

This is a picture of the 14-story, 34,500 sq ft processing facility at the Kennecot mine.  

I was able to take a tour inside this building starting from the top, following the process down throughout the building.  There were actually 4 mines where they extracted the copper ore.  They trolleyed the ore from the mine into the building, crushed the limestone to get to the copper, and by the bottom of the building, they bagged it into 140 pound bags to throw onto the train.

Here is a picture of the Lincoln-log interior structure used for walls and support within the mill on the various floors of the building.

The brown building on the left was the hospital.  While the red building in the middle was the worker’s bunk house, and the red building on the right was a guest house for visiting business men or family.  There was also a fantastic waterfall in between the buildings.  (These are the same buildings but from different angles.)

The copper was shipped from Cordova to Tacoma, Washington, where it was smelted into a refined product. The copper mine was in production from roughly 1911 until 1938 when it became cost prohibitive to mine any more copper due to the market price of copper.  Kennecott was a revolutionary mine utilizing many new methods to extract as much copper as possible. It is said that they were able to extract 98% of the copper that they mined.  

At the height of operations, more than 600 people from over 20 countries worked at Kennecott.

In roughly 25 years, the Kennecott mines produced 46 million tons of copper, yielding $100 million profit (roughly $2 billion today).  They also were able to extract 9 million ounces of silver, from the same mines, generating another $100 million of profit.  It is said that 1/3 of the world’s copper was mined from the Kennecott mines.  Any way you crush it, the Kennecott Mine helped put this area on the map, and the world.  

You should really come see it yourself.

Momma is Right!

 “My momma always said, 'Life is like a box of chocolates.  You never know what you're gonna get.'"

Forrest Gump’s momma appears to be a pretty good philosopher, and have good taste in chocolates.  Grammie, my momma, has the propensity to buy a box (or two) of Russell Stover’s chocolates every once in a while.  My favorites in the box are the Coconut Creme, Raspberry Creme, and Caramel Nougat pieces.

Speaking of (coco)Nutty things happening, here is a nutty update regarding McCarthy.  Right before I left for McCarthy, I found out that the Finance Director that hired me had been fired!  Now I’m the only finance person here.  Good thing I know Quickbooks.  Wait, they really don’t use QB?

Now what about those raspberries?

I have to blow some in the ex-directors way for not really understanding the position.  (Remember, she was hired late last summer, and I found out that she actually did not spend much time in McCarthy.). When I was hired, I was told that I would be flying to Anchorage twice a week to get mail, deposit money, and possibly pick up groceries.  Wrong!  Instead, I get to drive to the McCarthy airstrip on Monday and Thursday to pick the mail up.  It’s not that bad.

So, I guess I’ll give the ex-director a partial raspberry for that statement.  However, it does leave me wondering where/how I’ll get a haircut now that I’m not going into Anchorage all of the time.  Will COVID hair return?

Yuck!  Let’s hope not.

So, what’s good?  Caramel Nougat, and everything else.  First off, I am getting out into the great outdoors multiple times a day walking.  Yes, RM, I am carrying my bear spray and emergency backpack in case something happens.  (I’m such a Boy Scout)  Since arriving, I am averaging over 14,500 steps a day!  That’s not bad for a guy that has spent years sitting in a chair looking at a computer screen.  If this keeps up, I’m going to have to buy a replacement pair of shoes. 

Oh boy, I also just realized that in many of the pictures I post, it appears that I’m wearing the same outfit.  I swear, I do have and wear other clothes.

Another good part of being here is that the other people here are super nice.  They remind me of people from the Midwest.  They smile, look you in the eye, and always say “Hi, how are you doing”.  And while Martha is having fun with Pico and Rio, let me introduce you to one of my neighbors in the Pink house.

This is Nora, and she lives across the hall from me.  She’s no Rio, but she provides me a little joy every day.  Of course, there are about 10 other dogs around here, but  Nora is the sweetest.

Another sweet thing is the weather is starting to change.  It still is in the mid to upper 30’s most mornings when I am walking.  But in the afternoon, it will warm up to the high 50’s/low 60’s.  This has impacted the trees and foliage all around us.  Here are the trees along the road where I walk.  These pictures are taken about 1 week apart.  You can see how everything has budded out and is in bloom in that time period.

Spring has sprung, but the snow is still here.  I’m sorry it took me so long to post again.  I’ll try to do better this week. 

Take care!