Bonanza

This is a documentary about the Kennecott mine near McCarthy, Alaska. In 2007, while I was a teacher at Kenny Lake School, a small number of high school students and I, armed with nothing more than a camcorder (no drones back then for us) and an attitude, and a $3000 grant from the Alaska Humanities Forum, decided to make a documentary about the Kennecott mine. I had fallen in love with Ken Burns's documentaries, and making a film about an important moment in Copper Basin history seemed like a great way to engage students in history. Luckily for me, I was fortunate to have some very talented, and committed students, particularly the executive producer. We really did not know what we we're doing, but we kept plodding away, learning everything about historical research, videography and production along the way. This documentary is our handiwork, and still something that makes me proud. If you were a student who participated in this project, would you please write down a special memory you had in the comments section? Thank you, and soon I will post our other two documentaries on the 1898 Valdez Gold Rush, and the Copper River and Northwestern Railway. #Kennecott, #KennyLake, #KennecottCadre, #Copper, #McCarthy, #Historydocumentary, #KennyLakeSchool, #CopperMine.