History of Coal Mining in Matanuska Valley

The earliest Euro-American explorations for coal in Alaska were conducted by the Russians before Alaska was sold to the United States in 1867.  After 1867, American scientific exploratory groups that were sent north to Alaska by Congress indicated in their reports that coal was present.

In 1894, the Indians gave prospectors and traders their earliest knowledge of the occurrence of coal in the Matanuska Valley.  In 1898 an exploratory group from the War Department commanded by Captain E.F. Glenn, and including geologist W.C. Mendenhall was sent to the region and spent the summer exploring the Matanuska drainage.  They discovered coal of “very fair, steam-producing quality” in sediments of the Matanuska.  The expedition guide, Mr. Hicks reported local up the Chickaloon River and a bed six feet thick up Coal Creek.  Further exploration was recommended to determine the value of these beds.  Having been given the go-ahead to complete the railroad, the AEC set up their main camp at Ship Creek.  Two thousand people showed up to work and their camp became a town, later to be called Anchorage. From Ship Creek, the workers began laying tracks to the coal fields.  The tracks reached Chickaloon by October of 1917.  Narrow gauge spurs were built to link each of the mines with the main railroad.  In January 1918, the junction at the Eska Spur and the main branch was renamed Sutton after a local homesteader.

The Eska Mine was purchased by the AEC in order to supply the railroad with coal to power the locomotives and for further construction of the rail line. Eska was mined extensively between 1917 and 1918 for these purposes. Meanwhile, little coal was being mined at Chickaloon; however, shaft drilling and tunneling was taking place there.

The Navy’s interest in using Matanuska Coal was rekindled during WWI.  In 1920, the Navy received a one million dollar appropriation from Congress for the purpose of coal mining development at Chickaloon.  The money was put toward developing the town, sinking more mining shafts, hiring more workers, and building the massive coal washery at Sutton.  Although the coal had been determined to be of high quality, it had to be washed to remove the impurities before it could be used.  Thus, nearly half of the million dollar appropriation was used for the construction of the coal washery which was completed in 1922.