Kennecott, Alaska

The most remote and the most dramatic. Kennecott is a red copper company town beside the Kennicott Glacier inside Wrangell-St Elias National Park, and its 14-story timber mill is like nothing else in the West. Copper ore first left by rail in 1911, and by the time the operation closed in 1938 it had produced ore valued at $200 million in the money of the day. Getting there is the adventure: the McCarthy Road is 59 miles of narrow gravel with no fuel along it, so fill up at Chitina, then a footbridge and 5 miles more by summer shuttle or on foot. Plan on staying at least a night. Parts of the site are still private, so keep to park land and respect the signs.