McCarthy Lodge

The wilderness towns of Kennecott and McCarthy

Surrounded by the highest concentration of mountains and glaciers in America!

Stay in a restored ‘Living Museum’ Hotel or maybe the famous madame’s home?

Activities unique to McCarthy: Wilderness Hikes including Mining Sites, Glaciers, Ice Caves; Alpine Flightseeing and Packrafting

McCarthy and Kennecott are located four miles apart in the center of Wrangell St. Elias National Park. Of these surprisingly well-preserved ghost towns, Kennecott was the “Company Town” while McCarthy was the “Sin City” for the working class. These towns were inseparably tied together back in the copper mining days and they are still inseparable today.

Kennecott is where you will want to spend the day exploring the National Park Service’s historic Kennecott Mill Town and enjoy hiking on the glacier. The National Park Service has done remarkable work in preserving and protecting this amazing historical site. McCarthy is where you will want to spend the nights celebrating at the Golden Saloon or enjoying an intimate dining experience at the Salmon & Bear Restaurant at the McCarthy Lodge. The last saloon in a National Park, The Golden has plenty of outdoor dining tables too; or watch the small Alaskan bush-town go by from the porch of the Ma Johnson’s Hotel. Services such as ATM, groceries, liquor store, gift stores, accommodations and restaurants are in McCarthy.

McCarthy was once the largest city in Alaska. Every luxury was available in this remote outpost, including a dressmaker’s shop, several hardware stores and many “fountains and pool halls” – the perfect place to get a drink during prohibition. McCarthy Lodge Resort is locally owned and operated. One of the most unique aspects of McCarthy is that it is the very last bush community still located inside a National Park.

New for 2023 in McCarthy:

McCarthy Center and the Park’s FREE Copper Town Shuttle Service!

The first free shuttle takes you to the Updated McCarthy Center. Here you’ll find Nugget Liquors, Mercantile, Ice Cream Shop, Espresso and Deli, prepared foods, fresh produce and much more, to begin your walk around McCarthy. Your next Free Copper Town Shuttle leaves for Kennecott from McCarthy Center every hour. The Shuttle service is provided free of charge thanks to these businesses: McCarthy Center Stores, The Salmon & Bear Restaurant, Golden Saloon, Ma Johnson’s Historical Hotel, The Kate Kennedy House, Lancaster’s Backpacker Hotel, Nugget Liquors, Mountain Arts Gift Store, and the McCarthy Lodge.

Golden Saloon Music Celebrations

Every Weekend
Enjoy open Mic Thursday, and Live Music every Friday and Saturday night from Memorial Day to Labor Day.

The Kate Kennedy House:

A fully restored 1920s Sears Catalog Home

Recently on the 10 most endangered Historic Buildings in Alaska list (Alaska Preservation Society), this home belonged to Kate Kennedy, the Madame of McCarthy. Kate’s “1920s Modern Home” is now ready for you to enjoy! This fully restored two-bedroom home features a modern bathroom including spa shower, 1920s electric lamps, working Victrola, solid oak furniture and many more historic details throughout. One of the antique autos from the McCarthy Lodge collection will be made available to you with a driver if you’re lucky enough to occupy Kate’s Home. Contact McCarthy Lodge and Ma Johnson’s Hotel for more info.

Backpacking Fresh Grab ‘n Go

In the heart of Wrangell St Elias, McCarthy has a remarkably creative and enjoyable food scene. Check out the new Grab & Go options for your day hike.

Prepared Foods

Pick favorites from the new prepared foods section of the grocery store. Creating your own picnic on the glacier? Borrow a thermal picnic backpack to keep your hot, hot and your cold, cold.

Nugget Liquors

Add a can or box of wine (or bottle if you’re ok with the extra weight). Or perhaps a Cutty Bang? (aka Cocktails To-Go, with mixers, liquor, ice and cup)! Full Wine, Cold Beer and Liquor selection.

Wrangell-St. Elias National Park

There are many things to do in Wrangell St-Elias, especially for the adventure-seeking traveler. While not everyone will scale a few mountain peaks, or hike across one of the 150+ glaciers, or explore an ice cave with one of several experienced guide companies, you can actually take quite a few amazing hikes of all levels of ease or difficulty. Alpine hiking is a very popular activity and many possibilities abound in this portion of the Park, including trails above the Kennecott Mill Site. You can also be flown out to any number of alternative destinations for a trek lasting from a few days to several weeks.

Encompassing over 13 million acres, Wrangell-St. Elias is known as “America’s Mountain Kingdom” with more mountains, glaciers and wildlife than anywhere else on earth. Most visitors spend two or three nights in McCarthy, and everyone wishes they had more time here. The Park is crossed by four major mountain ranges and its coastal mountains are the world’s tallest; in fact, over half of North America’s 16 tallest peaks are right here. This is the place where you will experience true wilderness away from crowds, in an authentic bush community. Few Alaska travelers discover Wrangell St-Elias National Park as it’s not on the well-worn path, like Denali. If you’re’ looking for an authentic remote Alaskan experience, read on:

McCarthy

McCarthy’s location was chosen in anticipation of where the railroad would have to cross the Kennecott Glacier face. McCarthy quickly became a primary freight and passenger drop, and the mining support town of gambling, moonshining and ladies of the night.

McCarthy’s growth was based on gold strikes and other mining enterprises. Because everyone had to pass through McCarthy, it was a great location for a sin city and the good time girls arrived to set up shop. Many of the women of the line were highly respected in the community and known for their charity work and good deeds. It’s interesting to note that no church was ever established in the early days within the precincts of the town and though many citizens were teetotalers, the bootlegging and still operations remained rampant all through the Prohibition years.

Antique autos from 1920s and 30s Alaska dot the downtown main street. A Friday night softball game at the ball field is a local favorite pastime. There’s a small but remarkable food scene in this wilderness setting. The McCarthy Lodge is “The most remote Foodie Destination in the world.” (Grubstreet). The Michelin Guide recommends McCarthy Lodge in their “Must Sees Alaska” Guide, (both printings 2013, 2017). Outside Magazine calls McCarthy “The #2 Kickback Town in North America.”

The 2023 Culinary Team at McCarthy Lodge

McCarthy Lodge’s fine dining showcases local steak and seafood at the famous Salmon & Bear Restaurant inside the McCarthy Lodge, featuring Kenny Lake raised yak and red angus dry aged in house. World-famous Copper River red salmon is not to be missed. The team creates a culinary adventure to showcase the best of Alaska’s natural bounty, foraging and fermenting in our wilderness setting. McCarthy Lodge is one of only a handful of original Alaskan roadhouses still in operation today. If there’s one celebration dinner in your Alaska vacation, you’ll want to check out the menu and wine list posted daily at the lodge! Keep in mind all dining is casual in McCarthy but the Salmon & Bear at the McCarthy Lodge is the only intimate (but still casual) dining available. All other dining in the park is on picnic or group seated tables. Guests at the Ma Johnson’s are guaranteed a private table at the Salmon & Bear. If you’re a fan of dining as an expression of travel location, you should pre-book, especially in July and August.

Reservations: (907) 554-4402.

The Salmon & Bear 2023 culinary team is led by Executive Chef, Joshua Slaughter. Bakery & Pastry, Shaya Bredstein; Wine Director, Donald Wolcott; Sommeliers, Megan Gertz, Neil Darish.

The menu includes organic fresh produce and forest foraged ingredients, locally farmed products such as red angus, duck, pork and eggs, as well as wild caught Copper River red salmon, halibut and sable. The Salmon & Bear’s curated wine selections earned the establishment the coveted Wine Spectator Award Of Excellence 2020, 2021 and 2022. Awards for 2023 will be announced in July.

The Golden Saloon is the local’s weekend music venue, and the bar is where you’ll meet locals and old timers from McCarthy. The Golden Saloon is the longest running business in McCarthy, resurrected in 1953 and again in 1973. During the day and early evening, dinner and entertainment is family friendly. Enjoy Tuesday Trivia, Wine Wednesdays, Thursday Open Mic nights, and bands every weekend. There is always something happening at the Golden Saloon!

Accommodations in McCarthy

Guests at the McCarthy Lodge Resort are housed in one of three unique properties. Ma Johnson’s Hotel is a fully restored living museum. Guests enjoy an authentic period boarding house accommodation, with nice touches like bathrobes, slippers and handmade soaps. Breakfast at the McCarthy Lodge is included with your stay at any of the McCarthy Lodge’s three accommodations (Ma Johnson’s, Kate’s or Lancaster’s). The Kate Kennedy House is a two-bedroom 1920s ‘modern’ home, perfect for the higher end traveler looking for sublime originality and authenticity. For budget travelers, Lancaster’s Backpacker Hotel offers less expensive accommodations in a newly renovated hostel style building with simple, private rooms. Lancaster’s Backpacker Hotel can store unneeded baggage for visitors traveling on to spectacular backcountry destinations.

Kennecott Mine and the Railroad

The engineering effort at the turn of the century to develop Kennecott’s mines and a railroad to transport ore across mountains, raging rivers and moving glaciers was unprecedented. At 14 levels, the mill building is still the tallest wooden structure in America. An entire steamship was hauled in pieces from Valdez and reassembled on the Copper River.

Kennecott’s high-grade copper ore was utilized by the Ahtna native tribes. The Ahtnas had been successful in keeping the Russians out of the Copper River valley and their culture intact, at least until the advent of the Gold Rush.

The mountains just northeast of the mine site display a well-defined contact line at about 6,000 feet, where the light colored Chitistone Limestone and the darker Nikolai Greenstone meet. Geologists surveying the area in 1899 cited that interface as a primary source for copper ore. The following year, Jack Smith and Clarence Warner prospected the east side of Kennecott Glacier armed with the Ahtnas’ and geologists’ stories and spotted green cliffs of oxidized copper high on the mountainside. Seeking Alaskan investment opportunities for the wealthy Havemayer family, mining engineer Stephen Birch purchased shares of their resulting Bonanza Mine Outcrop claim. “Mr. Birch, I’ve got a mountain of copper up there. There’s so much of the stuff sticking out of the ground that it looks like a green sheep pasture in Ireland when the sun is shining at its best.” (Prospector Tarantula Jack Smith to Stephen Birch in 1900)

The “Alaska Syndicate” with J.P. Morgan and the Guggenheim family, was formed to build the mines, mill works and railroad. The corporation constructed 196 miles of railroad from Kennecott to the port of Cordova, and also maintained a steamship line to transport ore to Tacoma, Washington for processing. Between 1911 and 1938 when operations ceased, over $200 million worth of copper was shipped on the Copper River & Northwestern Railroad. By 1915, when the enterprise was renamed the Kennecott Copper Corporation, the company was well on the way to becoming a multinational giant.

Kennecott Copper Corporation employed over 600 people. About half worked at the mill site where crushing, sorting and shipment occurred, and another 300 lived up the mountain at the mines, reached by an extensive tram system. There are over 80 miles of tunnel honeycombing the mountain. Kennecott was a self-contained company town, complete with power plant, homes for the managers, modern hospital, company general store, gymnasium, schoolhouse, recreation facilities, bunkhouses and Kennecott Dairy.

With the acquisition of the site by the National Park Service in 1997, many buildings have been restored using locals for the construction crews.

Two or three nights?

With so many activities inside Wrangell St-Elias National Park, you wouldn’t want to forget about setting aside an additional day or two for world-class hiking. Here are just a few of the local, self-guided hikes you can easily access from McCarthy & Kennicott: Root Glacier, Bonanza Mine Trail, McCarthy Creek, Toe of the Glacier and many more. If you’re a hiker, you’ll want to book three nights in McCarthy!

Getting to Kennecott/McCarthy

NEW in 2023: Scheduled Anchorage to McCarthy Shuttle service with www.OverFlowTransit.com

This new service is locally owned and operated. Providing scheduled service May through September, the van shuttle departs Anchorage every Monday and Friday for McCarthy. Departs McCarthy every Sunday and Thursday to Anchorage. Book online!

Driving or flying into McCarthy is by rental car, van shuttle service, or air taxi.

You will want to spend a few days in McCarthy and Kennecott to fully experience America’s largest National Park.

The McCarthy Road is one of America’s Great Drives. From Chitina, you enter through a short split-rock ‘tunnel’ and from that moment on the views are world-class all the way to McCarthy. One of Alaska’s most scenic backcountry roads, it is famous for many unusual sights including the Gilahina Trestle and the Kuskulana Bridge. It is possible to view Alaska Dall sheep, mountain goats, moose, black and grizzly bear, fox, wolverine, tundra swans and other waterfowl along this route. For avid fisherman there are many lakes available from Glennallen to McCarthy for trout, salmon and burbot.

Staying at or below the 30-mph speed limit is key. The first third of the McCarthy Road is hardtop, the last 40 miles are gravel. You will be driving along the route that was previously the train-track bed for the CR&NW Railway. What you aren’t likely to see anymore is a railroad spike, something that destroyed a fair number of tires prior to their removal years ago. The 1.5 million leftover spikes were removed by the state in 2006.

While any car could make it down the McCarthy Road, not all car rental companies allow their cars on gravel roads. Alaska 4X4, Midnight Sun Car Rental, A1 Car Rental, Levi’s Car Rental and Go North Alaska Travel Center allow their vehicles to travel the McCarthy Road.

The Drive to McCarthy:

From Glennallen: 3 hours

From Valdez: under 5 hours

From Anchorage: 7.5 hours

From Fairbanks: 8 hours

From Denali: 10 to 12 hours, depending on route.

Flying into McCarthy is an amazing option allowing you to sightsee massive expanses of mountains and glaciers. Wrangell Mountain Air has regular scheduled flights from Chitina three times a day. You can arrange charters and bush-plane flights from Glennallen, Anchorage or Fairbanks. There is also a twice-weekly mail plane from Anchorage. If you have your own private plane, you can land at the McCarthy airfield.

Additional information can be found at: www.MaJohnsonsHotel.com