McCarthy, AK | village

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McCarthy is an unincorporated community in the Valdez-Cordova Census Area of Alaska, located along the Edgerton Highway. It is near the Wrangell Mountains at the confluence of the Kennicott River and McCarthy Creek, in the moraine of the terminus of the Kennicott Glacier. The population was 51 as of 2009. It is also known as Shushanna Junction.

See: www.commerce.state.ak.us/dca/commdb/CIS.cfm?Comm_Boro_N...

McCarthy developed as a lively mining town in the early 1900's, and grew to 800 residents before the mines closed in 1938, leaving it nearly abandoned with less than a dozen permanent residents.

McCarthy is connected to the outside world via the McCarthy Road spur of the Edgerton Highway to Chitina, and must be passed through to reach Kennicott, a destination of tourists seeking access to Wrangell-St. Elias National Park and Preserve.

McCarthy was the location of a murder spree on March 1, 1983, when resident Louis Hastings stalked and killed six of his neighbors, wounding two others. murderpedia.org/male.H/h/hastings-louis.htm

In 2014, McCarthy was featured in the reality series "Edge of Alaska" on the Discovery Channel