The next 42 miles had a lot of washboard and pothole sections, but it was considerably better than the first 17 miles. At the parking lot we saw this beautiful glacier, which was not many miles away. We signed up for a mine tour; and while waiting for it to start. we had lunch and spotted this little Wilson's Warbler. It kept flitting around in the tree and chirping. I think it wanted to feed it's young and did not want to go to the nest while it was being watched. After several pictures, we left it alone.
Copper was discovered near Kennecott Glacier in 1900 and was one of the richest copper deposits ever found. It was 1911 before they were able to transport the ore out of this remote location. They had to lay over 100 miles of railroad track through mountains and across streams, where trestles were washed out with the spring breakup of ice. The mine was in operation from 1911 to 1938. The first train out was filled with $250,000 worth of copper. When the mine closed, the workers had mined and concentrated at least $200,000,000 worth of ore. Kennecott had grown into one of the largest mineral companies in the world. Most of the property is now owned by the National Park Service. We visited Kennecott's huge, open-pit copper mine near Salt Lake City last summer.
When we were almost back to the paved road, we had stopped for a possible picture. A van stopped and the lady got out and told us there had just been a landslide between us and the paved road. They were the 20th vehicle that we had met during the 56 miles we had traveled on the way out. They doubted we would be able to get through before the road department came out the next morning to clear it. When we got there, we found a lot of material similar to peat moss with a lot of limbs, rocks and roots covering the road. Behind us was a car with a couple from Germany. John had a small shovel; and with the help of the man from Germany, they were able to clear enough of it to get through. This area was on a high bluff, which isn't evident in the picture.