Kennecott - A Spelling Error

Though perhaps untrue, there is a rumor that the town of Chicken, Alaska, got its name when the city fathers met and decided to call it ptarmigan after the official bird of Alaska, only to discover that no one present knew how to spell the word. Supposedly someone said, "Aw hell, let's just call it Chicken!"

In a somewhat similar manner, the industrial concern named Kennecott Copper Corporation got its name--it was an error in spelling. Kennecott Copper Corporation derives its name from the old Kennecott Copper Company, one of many owned by the Guggenheim-Morgan Syndicate created in 1905. Also called the Alaska Syndicate, this powerful concern held numerous commercial enterprises in Alaska, including the Seattle-based Alaska Steamship Company.

Kennecott Copper Company owned the copper mines surrounding the town of Kennicott, which was the northern terminus of the Syndicate owned Copper River and Northwestern Railway that ran 196 miles to Cordova. In naming the company, someone replaced an "i" by an "e" and the error stuck.

The town of Kennicott was, in turn, named for the Kennicott Glacier alongside which it sat. Finally, we come to the original source of the name--the Kennicott Glacier was named after Robert Kennicott in 1899. In 1865-66, he was director of the Western Union Telegraph Expedition which had the goal of establishing an overland telegraph route across Alaska to Siberia. As new history books come out, Robert Kennicott must occasionally turn over in his grave at Nulato, Alaska, since about half of those published in recent years refer to him as Robert Kennecott or Robert Kennecot.