Vital Coal Reserves Sought Here
Bureau of Mines Coal Probe Assures
Valley Key Role in Alaska's Future
Summer finds few consumers
worrying very much about coal
even in Alaska, but the Bureau of
Mines, looking into the future
when Alaska will support a pop
ulation considerably in excess of
its present 150,000 and a booming
industrial development besides,
is far from complacent about the
Territory’s coal resources.
Las week, up in the Wishbone
Hill area behind the Jonesville
mine a long two-inch core of the
earth’s insides almost 1000 feet
M of it, laid out in 30 foot lengths
gave graphic evidence of the
Bureau’s intensive efforts to lo
cate new coal resources for Alas
ka.
The core came out of location
II where drilling operations were
recently completed by the Pen
nsylvania Drilling Co. contrac
tors in the five-year project of
the Bureau’s Region I. the Alaska
Region, under Sinclair H. Lorain
in Juneau. Robert May is the pro
' ject field officer supervising
1 operations in the Matanuska Val
£N ley District.
- Drill Down 2100 Feet
“Drilling is a long, grueling
process”, May explained last
week as he reported completion
I of location II in this, the third
summer of the project. The sea
son is short for drilling opera
tions-usually less than six months
a year. Location II required drill
ing through 1,250 feet of conglo
merate (cemented gravel) before
diamond drill operations could
begin. A churn drill was used
to go through this tough area.
After that the diamond drill pro
bed the earth to the 2100 foot
* level to search out coal deposits.
Piece after piece of the long core
was brought up and carefully
tagged with its exact location.
The core revealed coal beds
starting at the 1,670 foot level.
It wasn’t solid coal from there to
the 2,100 foot level, layers of gra
nite-like substance were sand
wiched between the layers of
coal.
Just looking at the coal and
feeling it between his fingers,
May opined that it might be a
high grade of bituminous coal.
But the Bureau of Mines isn’t
satisfied with a mere “look-see”.
The coal-bearing parts of the core
must be carefully wrapped(for
the hard cores crumble rapidly
when exposed to air) and sent to
the Bureau’s Central Experiment
Station laboratory in Pittsburg
for careful analysis.
Must Find New Reserves
The purpose of these drilling
operations and the analysis which
follows is to locate bituminous
seams and correlate them with
known seams in existing mines.
Once these relations are known,
it is possible to calculate tonnages
available. The bureau, May says,
is interested only in increasing
the tonnage of coal in Alaska.
Choice of the drilling locations
naturally falls on sites where
there is the most reasonable ex
pectation of finding it.
The location of more bitumin
ous coal deposists is imperative
J to Alaska’s future development.
Already stepped-up military op
erations in Alaska require a gen
erous helping from the known
reserves. Last year over a half
million tons of coal from Alaskarf
deposists were consumed in the
Anchorage area, acording to May.
Reserves are dangerously low,
and the importance of develop
ing new reserves increases in
this area as the Eklutna Project,
with its promise of cheaper and
more abundant power, rings up
the curtain on industrial expan
sion.
Last week drilling was already
going on at location No. 12. Here
again it may be necessary
to go down almost 2100 feet. The
amount of conglomerate deter
mines roughly the depth of the
drilling. Usually the diamond
drill operations bore through
about 1,000 feet. In locations un
capped or only briefly capped by
this cemented rock formation,
it is not necessary to go down
much further. Drilling in such
locations can be completed in a
shorter length of time.
Coal deposits around the Mat
anuska Valley are of relatively
recent origin, geologically speak
ing. According to May, most of
this was laid down prior to the
time of the glacier. The age of
the coal deposits is perhaps mil
lions of years more recent than
the deposits in the eastern part
of the United States.
Coal Outcroppings
Working with the Bureau of
Mines to correlate findings with
the *?ientific investigations of the
U. S. Geological Survey is Don
Ford who works out of the Sur
vey headquarters in Palmer.
Ford is interested in receiving
information about any outcrop
^***********************^
*
Partners Prospecting
For High Grade Coal
At Old Baxter Mine
The Bureau of Mines wasn’t
doing all the prospecting for coal
in the Matanuska Valley last
week. Just a few short miles out
of town on the south bank of the
Moose river, two enterprising
Alaskans were taking turns on
night and day shifts prospecting
on the site of the old Baxter
Mine, located between the old
Premier and Buffalo mines about
four miles from the highway.
The partners are Owen Shearer
and Warren Rice. Shearer has
been working the mine for a year
and Rice for the past five months.
They sub-lease the mine property
from Mrs. Harold Sogn. whose
father held the lease on the old
Premier Mine as well as the Bax
ter Mine. According to Shearer
the old prospectors came in “hit
and miss” to get coal needed by
the Railroad.
“But they missed a lot of it,” he
says. “It will take a good year to
find out what we’ve got there.”
Right now they have a cross
cut and have already penetrated
three or four good veins. The
veins run four and a half to six
and a half feet in depth. The coal
is a very good grade of high test
bituminous. It averages 14,000
pings noticed by residents of the
Matanuska Valley. Such informa
tion is of invaluable importance
to trained workers in the field,
and, perhaps, to the future of
the Valley.
With its agriculture already
well established intensive devel
opment of its coal deposits may
well make the Matanuska Valley
a vitally important spot in the fu
ture development of Alaska.
***********************.*
*
Sic
8|C
*
sic
sk
sk
sk
sk
sk
sk
sk
sk
sk
sk
sk
sk
sk
sk
sk
sk
sk
sk
sk
sk
Pai/yffUM
YES, modern dairymen as well as other farmers, demand
electricity. These farmers know the conveniences and prof
its that come with electric farming pays for the low cost
of electricity over and over again. We'd like to serve you,
too. See us soon for further details.
Matanuska Electric Association, Inc.
Your REA Electric Co-Op in Palmer
"Serving the Valley Since 1942"
PALMER, ALASKA
&#***********#*********************###*********#$
************************^
BTU and is very low on ash and
soot.
“We’ve got the best coal in the
country”, Shearer claims.
The coal lies in a V on either
side of the river. In order to make
headway with their tunneling
operations. Shearer works days
and Rice works nights. There’s
only room for one person to work
in the tunnel. Blasting goes on
most of the time. The men have
run into some faults but not many
At present, Shearer and Rice
keep busy driving gangways, cut
ting rooms and mandrafts. All
this work has to be done before
they can think of hiring men and
beginning large scale production.
The two men themselves will be
producing some coal in about 30
days—25 to 30 tons of it per day.
A business concern in Anchorage
will take all they can produce.
The income will help pay ex
penses while they continue to
probe their mine and get it ready
for production.
Shearer has been an Alaskan
12 years. He worked for Cap La
throp in the Healy River Coal
mine. Before coming to Alaska,
he worked in mines in Utah, Wy
oming. and Canada. Rice is a hard
rock miner. Coming to Alaska
from Idaho in 1947, he has work
ed on the tunnels at Ship Creek
and Valdez and was also a fore
man at Independence Mine. He
drove the gangway at the Jones
ville Mine. Shearer and his wife
live in a house on the mine prop
erty; Rice lives with his family
in Palmer.
LITTLE SUSITNA LODGE
Watch for Arrow Sign, Mile 50,
on Glenn Highway.
|7 MILES FROM PALMER ON
1 ■ WILLOW CREEK ROAD
BAR — - LIQUOR STORE
MEALS — SANDWICHES
CABINS
HUNTING — FISHING
WINTER SPORTS
• 24 - HOUR SERVICE •
THE HARD WAY?
Then listen! Stop in and let us show you
how you can maintain a checking ac
count without it costing you.
OHE CEHT!
MATANUSKA VALLEY BANK
Palmer, Alaska
Open Friday Evenings—5 to 7 P. M.
2 PER CENT ON SAVINGS