McCarthy is 120mi (190km) northeast of Cordova at the foot of the Wrangell Mountains. According to the United States Census Bureau, the CDP of McCarthy has a total area of 148.3 square miles (384km2). None of the area is covered with water. It is connected to the outside world via the McCarthy Road spur of the Edgerton Highway from Chitina, and must be passed through to reach Kennecott, which is also within the McCarthy CDP. Historically, from the end of the road one had to cross the Kennecott River and then a smaller stream using manually propelled ropeways, but a footbridge was built in 1997. Visitors can walk to McCarthy in about 15minutes, although shuttle vans and buses are available during the tourist season from the bridge to both McCarthy and Kennecott.[4] A private service bridge for vehicle traffic was constructed in 2004 downstream from the footbridge, but use is only available to residents, businesses, and the National Park Service for an annual fee.[5]
McCarthy first reported on the 1920 U.S. Census as an unincorporated village. With the closure of the post office in 1943,[9] it did not report on the census from 1950 to 1980, though it unofficially returned 22 residents in 1980. It returned again beginning in 1990 when it was made a census-designated place (CDP).
As of the census[10] of 2000, there were 42 people, 26 households, and 6 families residing in the CDP. The population density was 0.3 inhabitants per square mile (0.12/km2). There were 47 housing units at an average density of 0.3 per square mile (0.12/km2). The racial makeup of the CDP was 100.00% White.
There were 26 households, out of which 15.4% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 15.4% were married couples living together, 3.8% had a female householder with no husband present, and 73.1% were non-families. 53.8% of all households were made up of individuals, and none had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 1.62 and the average family size was 2.14.
Drawn by an increase in tourism since the founding of Wrangell St. Elias National Park and Preserve, a significant portion of McCarthy's summer population resides elsewhere in the winter. This results in them not being counted during the censuses.
In the CDP, the age distribution of the population shows 9.5% under the age of 18, 9.5% from 18 to 24, 28.6% from 25 to 44, 47.6% from 45 to 64, and 4.8% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 46 years. For every 100 females, there were 147.1 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 153.3 males.
The median income for a household in the CDP was $17,188, and the median income for a family was $20,000. The per capita income for the CDP was $16,045. There were no families and 15.2% of the population living below the poverty line, including no under eighteens and none of those over 65.
History
1917 map depicting copper and gold mining in the area. "x" depicts copper while "o" depicts gold.Railroads at McCarthy
For centuries, Athabascans hunted in the area of McCarthy. Chief Nikolai and his band of Athabaskan Natives had a summer camp at Dan Creek, 15 miles east of McCarthy, where they collected copper nuggets from Dan Creek. Their permanent camp was on the Copper River at the village of Taral near Chitina where they fished for salmon.
Copper was discovered between the Kennicott Glacier and McCarthy Creek in 1900, after which Kennicott Mine, Kennecott Mining Company, and company town of Kennecott were created. Due to a clerical error, the corporation and town used the spelling of Kennecott instead of Kennicott, named for Kennicott Glacier in the valley below the town. The glacier was named after Robert Kennicott, a naturalist who explored in Alaska in the mid-1800s.
Partly because alcoholic beverages and prostitution were forbidden in Kennecott, McCarthy grew as an area to provide illicit services not available in the company town. It grew quickly into a major town with a gymnasium, a hospital, a school, a bar and a brothel. The Copper River and Northwestern Railway reached McCarthy in 1911.
The bulk of McCarthy's main road
In 1938, the copper deposits were mostly gone and the town was mostly abandoned. The railroad discontinued service that year. Over its 30-year operation, U.S. $200 million in ore was extracted from the mine, making it the richest concentration of copper ore in the world.
The population of McCarthy and Kennecott fell to almost zero until the 1970s, when the area began to draw young people from the many who came to Alaska in the '70s for adventure and the big money of the Trans Alaska Pipeline project. In the '80s, after the area was designated Wrangell-St. Elias National Park (1980), it began to draw some adventurous tourists to the new national park. The few people that lived there began to provide a variety of tourist services. There has always been at least one family living in the McCarthy area since 1953.
The old mine buildings, artifacts, and colorful history attract visitors during the summer months. The Kennecott and McCarthy area ranks as one of the United States' most endangered landmarks by the National Trust for Historic Places. Emergency stabilization of the old buildings has been done and more will be required.
In 2014, the TV show Edge of Alaska premiered on Discovery Channel.[11] The show has caused controversy though, as many town residents feel the town is portrayed in a bad light due to the troublesome incidents that have occurred there.
1983 shooting
In an attempt to disrupt the Alaska pipeline,[12] 39-year-old Louis D. Hastings killed six of the 22 residents of McCarthy on March 1, 1983 with a .223Ruger Mini-14 rifle.[13]
Hastings had received psychiatric care as a child in Atlanta, Georgia which detailed parental "insensitivity", and what Hastings later dubbed "a dysfunctional family" noting his parents both fought to be dominant.[14] Both his parents were also mental health patients.[14] He was inconsistent in his school grades, excelling one year and failing the next.[14] He identified as very shy and lacking social graces, noting that in college he only went on one date and it was likely because she'd mistaken him for someone else.[14]
Hastings identified with nihilism, stating that "human life just isn't very meaningful" but cared greatly about the environment.[14] He was employed by Stanford University in California for five years.[15]
He dropped out of university, and worked as a freelance computer programmer for several years before moving to Alaska.[14] Hastings told Dr. Martin Blinder "I wanted to go where the air and water were still clear, where there were still hills on which man had not yet set foot. I wanted to be part of the earth's quietude. I wanted to return to nature, to pristine beauty. The Gulf of Alaska would be my Walden Pond."[14] He lived in Anchorage, but spent a year moving back and forth to McCarthy.[16]
In Alaska, Hastings married an Aleutian wife but the marriage faltered after six months as his business also began to fail.[14] He began planning his attack, which he foresaw as needing to hijack a gasoline truck and drive it into the critical Pumping Station #12 where he'd set it alight hoping to congeal the viscous oil flow and permanently clog the pipeline.[14]
It was important to Hastings that his body be consumed in the blaze and never identified as he didn't want family to know he'd been the perpetrator.[14] It was to avoid identification of his remains, that he set out hoping to kill all the other residents of McCarthy and then attack the regular mail plane and use it to dump the 20+ intended corpses in a crevasse, so his own body would be assumed to be missing alongside them and would not be considered related to the planned coming explosion.[14]
Hastings made a short list, later found in his cabin, reminding himself to bring his silencer, his Ruger-14, flares, clothing and ammunition.[17]
When Hastings arrived at Christopher Richard's cabin at 8:30am, he was invited in for coffee but shot Richards in the neck and near his eye - causing Richards to stab Hastingsin his left leg while Hastings begged "Look, you're already dead, if you'll just quit fighting I'll make it easy for you". Richards survived and ran out of the cabin to wave down a neighbour to bring him to the airstrip where he hitched a ride on a departing plane to Glennallen where he reported the shooting. An unknown resident also phoned in an emergency to State Police.[18]
At some point, Hastings killed Harley B. King whose snowmobile was marked with bullet holes on the trail leading to the airstrip.[19]
Hastings killed Les and Flo Hegland who owned the cabin near the airstrip, and Maxine Edwards' body was found in the same cabin. Hastings hid in the cabin awaiting the mail plane and shot at anyone approaching the airstrip.[18] At some point Hastings had also killed Tim Nash and Amy Lou Ashenden Nash,and their bodies were recovered at the airstrip where he intended to load the corpses.[12][19][14]
Hastings wounded Donna Byram in the arm when she ran out to warn the mail plane not to land.[18] Hastings then took a snowmobile headed for the highway hoping to hijack the necessary gasoline truck even without the McCarthy murders completed.[14] But a police helicopter intercepted him before he reached the highway; according to Hastings it swooped low and fired several shots at him causing him to surrender - police only stated that he was captured "without incident".[14][18] The Associated Press ran a photo of a police officer seated next to one of the corpses in the snow.[20] Police seized his computers, which contained a list of approximately 200 public officials, police officers and others - leading to speculation it may have been a hit list.[15]
There was a three-day hearing on Hastings' mental health with the defence unsuccessfully presenting Dr. Joseph Satten to support a finding of mental insanity, and the State relying on Dr. David J. Coons and Dr. Irvin Rothrock.[21] In July 1984, Hastings was sentenced to 634 years in prison after changing his plea to no contest to six counts of murder and two counts of attempted murder on the day his trial had been scheduled to start, although he later unsuccessfully tried to withdraw his pleas citing ineffective counsel.[22][21]
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