ALASKA'S NEW OIL FED IS
FXPLOITED IN AN INTERVIEW
The following article, from the pen i
of Denis Donohoe, which appeared in '
the San Francisco Examiner of April '
5, will be of interest to Cordovans, in <
spite of slight inaccuracies and exag
gerations. It appears under the head- i
ing, “Alaska’s New Oil Field Causes i
Boom at Cordova”:
With the navies and merchant ma- ]
rine of every nation in the world 1
^glamoring for fuel oil in this year of <
increasing scarcity, the search for new
oil fields on the Pacific coast is not i
confined to California.
From time to time paragraphs have 1
appeared in this and other newspapers 1
regai’ding exploi'ation by this or that ]
company for oil in the republics of
Colombia, Peru and Chile. Also on
the Pacific coast of Mexico, in Cen
tral America, and even in China.
Yesterday John E. Barrett, founder
of the town of McCarthy, Alaska, and
a pioneer of the big Alaska copper
belt, reached this city with the story
of the wild rush of prospectors into 1
the only known and wholly undevel
oped oil field of Alaska, which followed
the news by cable that the President
had signed the oil land leasing bill.
Cover* Vast Territory
^According to the Geological Survey
reports and maps which Barrett
showed yesterday at the Palace hotel,
this known oil field of Southern
Katalla, through the Iliamna district,
miles along the coast, in some in
stances practically at tidewater, from
Aatalla, through the Iliamna district,
to Coal Bay, including Yakataga
beach, where oil was first discovered
by an Ohio prospector named Will
iams, in the late ’80s.
At Coal Bay an area twenty-five
miles long by eight miles in width is
studded with oil seepages and gas
emanations, but the only producing
well in the whole district is in the
neighborhood of the Martin river, not
far from Katalla.
One of the most remarkable discov
eries recently made by these oil boom
ers, Barrett says, il a pond or small
dry lake of practically solid paraffine.
wen renown 10 inaians
The Indians, it seems, knew of the
existence of this lake for countless
^generations, and have been quarrying
the paraffine out and using it for win
ter fuel, in a region where wood is de
cidedly scarce.
This lake of solid paraffine covers
more than one hundred acres, and the
prospectors who are working upon it
are digging it out with hot shovels.
In the Katalla district, which ex
tends from Martin river through the
Yakataga Beach country to Icy Bay,
on the south, is the only producing
oil well in the whole of this vast
area.
Before all the oil lands of Alaska
were tied up from location and ex
ploration by presidential decree, a
concern called the Chilkat Oil Com
pany obtained a patent to a fractional
holding near Katalla,
This patented ground contains only
thirty-five acres, but the well upon
this tract lies only three miles from
*the ocean, and produces fifty barrels
of oil a day.
No Oil Sand Struck
>In drilling this well, which is a
shallow one—less than 1,300 feet deep
—no oil sand was encountered, but
the geologists explain that in all prob
ability the oil seeps through a shale
formation from the oil sands below.
This oil, like all oil found thus far
in Alaska, possesses a paraffine base,
and the oil produced from this single
well is of 44 degrees gravity Baume,
with an extraction of about 00 per
cent of gasoline
The oil is decidedly green in c )lor
and very fluid. Barrett showed a sam
ple of the oil which he had taken him
gelf from the well.
The Chilkat Company has erected a
•mall refinery, where it extracts the
gasoline and distillate from this oil
for local consumption at Cordova, the
railroad terminal in the neighborhood
*of the field.
The residue is being stored for fu
ture treatment, laboratory tests hav
ing shown that the entire residue is
available for high-grade lubricants,
gasoline, paraffine, etc.
Railroad to Tap Field
A branch railroad has been project
ed from the Copper River & North
western railroad into the Katalla oil
field.
This road will start at Mile 39, thir
ty-nine miles east of the deep water
terminal at Cordova, and when com
pleted will extend throughout the
heart of the oil belt and also connect
with the Bering River coal deposits,
wrhich, although not the largest, are
reported to contain the highest grade
mthracite coal as yet found in Alaska,
vith some of the largest coal veins.
Jne of these blanket veins is twenty
)ne and one-half feet thick.
The Katalla field is 130 miles long,
jxtending back from the ocean seven
Dr eight miles.
Owing to the withdrawal of these
ands from entry by the government
n 1909, no wells have been bored ex
:ept on.the small tract as above stated. .
Seepages and gas can be found on
ivery square mile in this territory.
Vluch of the land near Katalla has
)een staked under the new oil leasing
jill, but exploitation is under way for
niles around the one producing well.
Cordova Is Booming
Cordova, the shipping point for the
'ich copper ore and concentrates from
;he Kennecott copper belt, presents
;oday, so Barrett said, the spectacle
Df a frontier town in the throes of a
Dig oil boom.
The hotels and lodging houses are
crowded, and even at this season a
huge colony under canvas encom
passes this busy shipping point on
Prince William sound.
This is the second big boom that
Cordova has enjoyed in its brief his
tory as a municipality, the first follow
ing the opening of the railroad into
the copper belt and the discovery of
a number of small high-grade gold
mines in the tributary country sur
rounding the town.
Today Cordova has nine salmon can
neries, three clam canneries and eight
fox farms, where blue, and in one ni
stance silver gray foxes are bred as
a commercial undertaking for their
pelts
Now comes this oil boom, with
prospectors and promoters flocking in
by every steamer.
SHOE REPAIRING
DIMON NICKALOFF
Currier Building,
C Street. P. O. Box 988.
Ootimo Cigars
Pepp and “Juno”
GUS GELLES, AGENT
JUNEAU, ALASKA
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1 The very latest g
B thing in
; vercoats j
| Regent iF |
i and we have it at the
| Right Price
CLAYSON I
i
Plant the seed of thrift in the springtime t|
11 of your life, that you may gather the fruits
11 of success at harvest time and enjoy them j
in the golden days of your life. j ]
l| A SAVINGS BOOK IS A THRIFT GAR- 11
1 DEN. PLANT TODAY ||
The ’irst Bank of
|| Cordova
|1 UNITED STATES DEPOSITARY ROR POSTAL SAVINGS FUNDS M
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| ' Jnlock j
I Alaskan 1
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| With a practical, unselfish and fair |
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I administration to labor and capital I
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! (MAS. E HERRON i
I OF ANCHORAGE AND JUNEAU I
I 1
1 - FOR I
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( Republican Nati< »nal |
Committeeman
I I .
i I
Primary Election April 27, 1920
I I
£5r;”] TIMES ADS FOR SURE RESULTS