WISE
  • Home
  • About WISE
    • Mission and Goals
    • President's Message
    • Staff
    • Board of Directors
    • Partners
    • Location
    • Policies
    • Donors and Grantors
    • Annual Reports and Newsletters
  • What We Do
    • Education Programs >
      • Aquatic Ecology Camp
      • Alaska Forum on the Environment
      • Changing Seasons
      • Copper River Stewardship Program
      • Outdoor and Wilderness Leadership Skills
      • Earth Discovery Day
      • In-Class Science
      • Science Lecture Series
      • Summer Hikes
      • Wild Plants Workshop
    • Research & Citizen Science >
      • Salmon Blitz
      • Willow Creek Research Consortium
      • Christmas Bird Count
    • Other Programs >
      • 20th Anniversary Challenges
      • Copper Country Discovery Tour
      • Family Ice Fishing Day
      • Project Healing Waters
      • Winter Fun Day
  • Get Involved
    • Employment
    • Volunteer
  • Support WISE
    • Donate
    • WISE Store
    • Take Our Nature Tour
  • Contact Us
  • WISE Blog

WISEfriends Blog

Wanderings- Adventures at Bremner Mine Part II

7/28/1998

0 Comments

 
By Janelle Eklund
​
The soft waning light of the late summer night revealed the lone evening star keeping vigil over the mountain peaks.  We woke to a blue sky as a low bank of clouds moved in from the north. The lower they got the more threatening their look, so we stuffed our packs with rain gear. 
 
We headed for the hill south of camp, stopping to explore one of the mine buildings, which turned out to be the generator shed. For being somewhere in the seventy year old range, it was in good condition.  The glass encased gauges were still all in order, unbroken and even looking clean. We talked about it being a interpretive historical place if it was cleaned up. The Bremner mining operation was established in the 1920's.
 
We slowly climbed up the hill, at times following the old water line leading into the generator shed.  We left our packs in the shed since the clouds started to break up again and it looked to be fair weather.  We stopped many times for Mary to record the vegetation mapping.
 
A waterfall gracefully fell over a stepping stone wall.  Nearby, the water line went through a box type structure.  Peaking through cracks in the boards it was hard to determine its history. Nature was re-claiming the inside - vegetation covered what was laid down over seventy years ago.  The top of the hill gave way to a lush green meadow covered in rivulets of water.  From this vantage point the mountains across the valley seemed bigger.  A pretty picture framed our view.
 
By the time we got back down to our packs it was lunch time so we brought our packs back to camp and ate lunch there.  Lunch was dinner left-over's which was very good.   We shed some clothes as the sun was making its debut again.
 
After lunch we donned our light packs and headed up the mountains to the north.  History lays all over the ground here, from bulldozers to old vintage cars, to cans, to electric poles and lines.  It’s amazing how they got this stuff in here.  We followed the old mining road switch backing across a boulder field and ending up at one of the mining sites. The creek was lined with old electric poles, lines and transformers that looked brand new.  At the top there was more debris and a 1920's truck.  Mary took a picture of me sitting in the driver's seat ready to go.
 
After we reached our destination, the nod monster got a hold of me so I lay in the meadow to write this and absorb the heat from the sun. In the peaceful solitude the whistle of the marmot's echo flowed on air waves throughout the valley. Only its haunting call might tell what it must have been like as miners trudged their equipment up steep rocky slopes. The hard work, hardships, and endurance...all for a yellow rock called gold.  Did they make their fortunes? Was it worth it?
 

Mary climbed further up the rocky cirque looking at vegetation.  I went part way up and watched her skirt rocky ledges until they were too vertical to clamber up.  She wound her way down. We had a snack and headed back to camp.  A lovely light rain shower - the see through type - slowly moved through the valley.  It lay a dewy net for the sun to play with.  Glistening rocks sparkled as the shower passed.  Up through the pass the shower exited and in its departure bowed in a thick bright rainbow.  Beyond the misty sheerness mountains graced the skyline.  We reached camp just as the rainbow faded into the mountains.
 
From my light to yours-
0 Comments



Leave a Reply.

    Picture

    Who We Are

    WISEfriends are several writers connected with Wrangell Institute for Science and Environment, a nonprofit organization located in Alaska's Copper River Valley.  Most of these articles originally appeared in our local newspaper, the Copper River Record.

    Archives

    August 2021
    February 2021
    January 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    June 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    June 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    June 2016
    April 2016
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    October 2014
    September 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014
    May 2014
    April 2014
    March 2014
    January 2014
    December 2013
    November 2013
    October 2013
    September 2013
    August 2013
    June 2013
    May 2013
    April 2013
    March 2009
    September 2007
    August 2007
    May 2007
    May 2006
    May 2005
    March 2005
    June 2003
    September 2000
    July 2000
    July 1998
    June 1998

    Categories

    All
    Alaska Forum On The Environment
    Aquatic Ecology Camp
    Art
    Audubon's Christmas Bird Count
    Bear
    Birds
    Blueberries
    Camping
    Cats
    Changing Seasons
    Chosen Frozen
    Christmas Bird Count
    Clean-up Day
    Copper River Basin Symposium
    Copper River Stewardship Program
    Denali
    Donation
    Earth Discovery Day
    Fish
    Geology Camp
    Giving Tuesday
    Glacier
    HAARP
    Hikes
    Home
    Ice Fishing
    In Class Science
    In-Class Science
    Insects
    Interns
    Kotsina River Cleanup
    Lamprey Lecture
    Lecture Series
    Local Food
    Meadow Jumping Mouse
    Moose
    Natures Beauty
    Neighborhood Nuisance
    Nic'anilen'Na
    Oil Spill
    Owl
    OWLS
    Partnerships
    Plants
    Pop-Up Natural Playground
    Project Healing Waters
    Quinzee
    Redback Voles
    Re-Usable Shopping Bag
    Salmon Blitz
    Skiing
    Snow
    Snowshoe Hares
    Subsistence
    Tolsona Mud Volcanoes
    Tonsina River Trail
    Volcano
    Weather
    Wildfires
    Wild Plants Of The Copper Basin
    Wings Over The Wrangells
    Winter Fun Day
    WISE News
    WISE Thoughts
    Women Of Distinction
    Wrangell St. Elias National Park

    RSS Feed

Picture
About WISE
What We Do
Get Involved
Support WISE 

Contact Us
Policies​
Wrangell Institute for Science & Environment 
www.wise-edu.org
contact@wise-edu.org
(907) 822-3575
​WISE is a
501(c)3
nonprofit
​organization
 
​

Contact Us

Donate
  • Home
  • About WISE
    • Mission and Goals
    • President's Message
    • Staff
    • Board of Directors
    • Partners
    • Location
    • Policies
    • Donors and Grantors
    • Annual Reports and Newsletters
  • What We Do
    • Education Programs >
      • Aquatic Ecology Camp
      • Alaska Forum on the Environment
      • Changing Seasons
      • Copper River Stewardship Program
      • Outdoor and Wilderness Leadership Skills
      • Earth Discovery Day
      • In-Class Science
      • Science Lecture Series
      • Summer Hikes
      • Wild Plants Workshop
    • Research & Citizen Science >
      • Salmon Blitz
      • Willow Creek Research Consortium
      • Christmas Bird Count
    • Other Programs >
      • 20th Anniversary Challenges
      • Copper Country Discovery Tour
      • Family Ice Fishing Day
      • Project Healing Waters
      • Winter Fun Day
  • Get Involved
    • Employment
    • Volunteer
  • Support WISE
    • Donate
    • WISE Store
    • Take Our Nature Tour
  • Contact Us
  • WISE Blog