1. Wrangell-St. Elias
Kudos to you if you guessed this National Park in Alaska as the largest. At over 13 million acres, the park is the same size as Switzerland, Yellowstone National Park, and Yosemite National Park – combined!
Or if you prefer to do your national-park-size-measuring in units of Yellowstones, that’s 6 Yellowstones for every 1 Wrangell-St. Elias!
Here, three large mountain ranges, the Chugach, Wrangell, and St. Elias converge, leading some to nickname the area the “mountain kingdom of North America.
During the late 1800s, prospectors funneled into the McCarthy / Kennicott area to find their fortune. It wasn’t gold they were after though, but copper.
And life was rough.
The miners lived in communal housing, couldn’t drink alcohol, and their families weren’t allowed to come along.
The old mining town of Kennecott.
There’s a lot more to read about the area’s fascinating mining history at the National Park Service’s website.
