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.