Moose Creek near Sutton used to be a busy coal-mining area
The face shovel shown in the drawing is a World War II-era Buckeye “Clipper,” built by the Buckeye Traction Digger Company of Findlay, Ohio. It was used at the Premier coal mine on Moose...
Tagged: mining history
Navy gambled on Chickaloon coal and lost
Chickaloon bunkhouse at Alpine Historical Park Chickaloon is a small community located just off the Glenn Highway, about 75 miles northeast of Anchorage. Prior to Western contact the area was occupied by...
Clarence Berry had major impact on Interior Alaska mining history
Berry Camp along Eagle Creek at about Mile 103 of the Steese Highway Clarence Berry was one of the “Kings of the Klondike,” that small cohort of early gold-seekers who made fortunes in the...
Hi-Yu Mine was one of the Fairbanks area’s most successful hard-rock gold mines
The Hi-Yu mine as it looked in the 1990s About 25 miles northeast of Fairbanks sits one of the area’s most successful lode mines, now abandoned and decaying. The Hi-Yu mine is located...
Old churn drill in the new snow – October 2015
We had some wet white slop fall about a month ago, but today we started getting a proper snowfall, a light dusting of dry fluffy snow. I went out to take photos and saw...
Deadwood Creek mining camp near Central survives as family retreat
Deadwood Creek is a 20-mile-long northeasterly flowing stream in the Circle Mining District. It tumbles down out of the mountains before meandering across flats and emptying into Crooked Creek a few miles east of...
Emil Usibelli and the early years of Usibelli Coal Mine
Bucyrus 20-B steam shovel at Usibelli Coal Mine in 2014 In 1907, at the age of 14, Emil Usibelli emigrated from Italy to the United States. Settling in Washington state, he worked a variety...
Parks Highway spurred changes to Talkeetna and the Talkeetna Roadhouse
Talkeetna Roadhouse as it looked in the mid 1970s When I first visited Talkeetna in the early 1970s it was a sleepy little hamlet. The Talkeetna Spur Road had just been paved, but Talkeetna...
Eagle Creek mining area along Steese Highway – 8-30-14
This photo was taken from the south approach to Eagle Summit, looking southeast towards Eagle Creek. The creek drainage has been mined extensively. The horizontal lines across the hillside are old ditches dug...
Mining remnants still visible in Nome Creek Basin
Dredge buckets sinking into muskeg along Nome Creek The footprint left by mining on the Nome Creek Basin north of Fairbanks appears minimal at first glance. It’s obvious that the creek has been worked,...
