Album: Radovan Camp, Wrangell-St. Elias National Park and Preserve, Alaska

Wrangell-St. Elias National Park and Preserve

In 1908, Martin Radovan arrived in Cordova, Alaska, with thousands of other workers to help construct the Copper River Northwestern Railway stretching 196 miles from the port of Cordova to the bustling mining town of Kennecott. After the railway was complete in 1911, Martin stayed in Alaska and worked a number of mining related jobs before prospecting for copper in the Glacier Creek Mining District, which is now located within Wrangell-St. Elias National Park and Preserve. Martin gained notoriety as a prospector when he laid claim to the Binocular Prospect, a copper outcrop situated high on the face of a cliff overlooking a glacial cirque. While others attempted to reach the outcrop and failed, Martin managed to access it by following a precipitous route along the cliff wall. Martin spent nearly his entire adult life carefully and meticulously scrutinizing every inch of the contact zone, often skirting along ledges cut along the vertical cliff faces and digging tunnels in the rock at elevations up to 7,000 feet completely by himself until he was into his early 90s. Although the Binocular Prospect never produced any ore, Martin never abandoned his dream of finding his ‘Copper Mountain’. To learn more about the incredible life of Martin Radovan please explore ‘Martin Radovan: A Prospector’s Life,’ by Katherine Ringsmuth, Daniel Trepal, and Logan Hovis of the National Park Service: www.nps.gov/…/…/martin-rodovan-a-prospectors-life.pdf