John McPhee

Encounters with the Archdruid

Part 1, A Mountain

Annotations

• Pages 3-75, Glacier Peak Wilderness. This site, sponsored by GORP ("Great Outdoors Recreation Pages") provides a description of the Glacier Peak Wilderness Area including size, geography, wildlife and snowfall.
• Pages 3-75, Copper Mining. The subject of copper mining comes up often in these pages. There are a number of sites devoted to the subject. The history of the Kennecott Copper Corporation is available on one site. Another site provides the history of copper mining at Bingham Canyon, Utah -- one of the largest in the world. Alaska's Copper River Valley is the subject of this WEB site. It provides the history of the copper mining towns of McCarthy and Kennecott -- including pictures of mining buildings -- and includes more material on the Kennecott Copper Corporation. This site provides an economic history of the Utah economy with a discussion of the state's natural resouces and mining history (copper, uranium, coal, crude oil and natural gas). For general information, see The Copper Page and Uses of Copper Compounds and this site on the history and chemistry of copper.
• Pages 3-75, geology. Go to this site for questions and answers about geology in general.
• Pages 3-75, More on Copper Mining -- plus a lake and a dam located near the Glacier Peak Wilderness. Jennifer Thompson writes: "Here are some links to some cool images":

Image of a Copper Mine

Bingham Canyon Mine, UT

Lake Chelan, WA

Grand Coulee Dam

Italian Copper Institute

• Page 4, the Wilderness Act. McPhee mentions that Glacier Peak is a wilderness area designated under the provisions of the Wilderness Act (of 1964). He gives his interpretation of the act, suggesting that -- with the exception of "the mining exception" -- it is even more restrictive in limiting human activities in wilderness areas than the National Park system. The Utah Wilderness Education Project has put together a WEB site that deals with many of the complexities of modern wilderness policy in the United States. Topics include grazing, water, recreation, and preservation. This page in their site provides an introduction to the Wilderness Act of 1964 and suggests that the legislation may have been less generous to the natural environment than McPhee suggests. Click here to read the text of the act itself as preserved on the Utah Wilderness Education Project site.