McCarthy Power Plant

McCarthy Power Plant
Location At McCarthy Creek, McCarthy, Alaska
Coordinates 61°25′57″N 142°55′30″W / 61.43250°N 142.92500°WCoordinates: 61°25′57″N 142°55′30″W / 61.43250°N 142.92500°W
Area less than one acre
Built 1917
Governing body Private
NRHP Reference # 79003752[1]
Added to NRHP April 26, 1979

The McCarthy Power Plant is a historic power plant building in the small community of McCarthy, Alaska, in the heart of Wrangell-St. Elias National Park and Preserve. It is a three-story wood frame structure with a clerestory roof, located on the banks of McCarthy Creek. It was built in 1917, after the arrival of the Copper River and Northwestern Railway in the area kicked of a building boom. The coal-fired power plant was built to provide electricity for the operation of a tramway and other facilities of the Kennecott mines. Most of the transmission lines and the tramway were destroyed by avalanches in 1919, and other changes made soon afterward made the power plant unnecessary, and its turbine was moved up to Kennecott.[2]

The building was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1979.[1]

See also

References

  1. 1.0 1.1 "National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places. National Park Service. 2010-07-09.
  2. "NRHP nomination for McCarthy Power Plant". National Park Service. Retrieved 2014-12-19.