6 
 
 3 , 
 
 History of the Location of the 
 
 o " 
 
 4 
 
 Bering River 
 Coal Fields 
 
 By the Publicity League of Katalla 
 Katalla, Alaska 
 
 January \ i 1912
 
 History of the location of the . 
 BERING RIVER COAL FIELDS. 
 
 BY THE PUBLICITY LEAGUE OF KATALLA. 
 
 Endorsed by the 
 
 CHAMBER OF COMMERCE, OF KATALLA, ALASKA. 
 CHAMBER OF COMMERCE, OF CORDOVA, ALASKA. 
 
 The first attempt to locate coal in the Bering 1 River coal 
 fields was made in 1897, when prospectors looking for oil in this region 
 were guided by the natives to the veins of coal outcropping upon the 
 steep slopes of the mountains not more than twenty miles back from 
 1lie coast. 
 
 At this time the general mining laws were in operation in Alaska 
 but Iliere was no law which permitted the location of coal land. Prior 
 to 1JM)(), when Congress first attempted coal legislation for Alaska, 
 those who sought to locate coal lands, held the belief that title could 
 be acquired under the general mining laws. 
 
 In June, 1900, Congress passed an act entitled "An act extending 
 the coal land laws to the District of Alaska," but through a character- 
 istic lack of knowledge concerning Alaska, Congress failed to recog- 
 ni/e the fact that the system of public land surveys in conformity with 
 which coal land must be located, had not been extended to Alaska. 
 
 In so far as permitting the initiation of any valid title to coal 
 lands of course this law was ineffectual, but it had the effect of induce- 
 ing the location of a large part of the Bering Kiver coal fields by the 
 rapidly increasing population which was being drawn to this region 
 by the reported discovery of coal, oil and other minerals. 
 
 These miners and hardy pioneers located coal lands in good 
 faith, trusting in the sincerity of the government in extending an 
 invitation to them through this law to discover, locate and develop 
 these lands, fully believing the discoverer of coal would be rewarded 
 for his labors by receiving title from the government. 
 
 The discovery and exploitation of the Bering river coal was due 
 in the first instance to the deceptive trick provided by the law of 
 1900, which led several hundred Alaskans to spend several years of 
 hard labor and thousands of dollars in prospecting, exploring and de- 
 veloping the coal, only to find that the title which they thought the 
 law guaranteed was simply the illusive song of a siren. 
 
 This was the uncertain position of those who had attempted
 
 by the location of tlie coal lends between 1897 and 190 1 to afford a 
 necessary supply of cheap fuel, and incident 1 v.lement the supply 
 
 of poor coal in the Pacific coast states wi gnute. In li)U4 
 
 Congress again reached out into the realms ui me unknown and at- 
 tempted coal legislation for Alaska. The result was the act of April, 
 1904, an act wherein special coal legislation adapted to the peculiar 
 conditions existing in this new territory was provided. This law is 
 now being subjected to the test of judicial analysis by the United 
 States courts, and a case involving the construction of the law is pend- 
 ing before the U. S. Supreme Court- 
 Without entering into any examination of this coal act from 
 a legal standpoint, it may be briefly stated that is has been reviewed 
 by two judges of the federal district court, before whom it has come 
 up for consideration from two widely different standpoints. In the 
 one case, Judge Kudkiii reads into the Alaska coal law the old coal law 
 of 1873 which entirely changes the meaning and operation of the 
 Alaska law and abrogates many of the features which were intended 
 for adaption to the peculiar conditions existing in Alaska. In the 
 other case, Judge Hanford holds that the Alaska law is an act com- 
 plete in itself and is not subject to the restrictions or modifications of 
 the old federal law. Viewed from the practical standpoint of the oper- 
 ation of the law, the difference between the two constructions given, 
 the act itself is the difference between making the law effective to 
 accomplish the purpose for which Congress intended it; that is, to 
 enable the acquisition and development of the coal land and the mak- 
 ing of an ineffectual and useless law under which no coal land could 
 be located, acquired or developed. 
 
 - To add to the difficulty encountered by the Alaska coal claim- 
 ants arising from the uncertain construction of the law by the courts. 
 the land department of the government having in charge the disposi- 
 tion of the public lands is attempting to construe this la\v through its 
 rules and regulations with such technical strictures against the coal 
 claimants that out of 1000 or more coal claims located in Alaska not one 
 can pass to patent. The long established policies of the land depart- 
 ment and operation of the land laws in accomplishing the principal 
 purpose for which the law is designed; that is. to enable the citizens to 
 explore, locate and acquire and make productive public domain in the 
 United States, has within recent years, and chiefly since the conser- 
 vation movement became active, been reversed, and today the techni- 
 cal objections raised and the unwarranted rulings made by the land 
 office department against the Alaska coal claimants indicates an in- 
 tention to DEFEAT rather than PROMOTK the purpose of the coal 
 land law. 
 
 The power of the land department over the rights of the entrymen, 
 even when these rights are clearly defined by the law, is readily un- 
 derstood when the peculiar functions and activities of this department
 
 are considered. In passing upon an application for patent the land de- 
 partment is the grand jury, for finding an indictment, the detective 
 agency to secure the evidence, the counsel to prosecute, the jury to 
 determine the facts and the judge to construe the law and pronounce 
 the sentence. If you were on trial on a criminal charge before a court 
 having all these powers incorporated within itself you would have no 
 chance for acquittal no matter how innocent you were, nor how clear 
 the law in your case might be, if the court thought best, for reasons of 
 public policy, or other reasons, to find you guilty. 
 
 In November, 1906, by executive order, the president withdrew 
 all coal lands from entry in Alaska, and in 1910 oil lands were similarly 
 withdrawn. In 1909 the Chugach forest reserve was extended over the 
 Bering river coal fields, where the timber areas are scattered and the 
 timber of little value, its value as compared witli coal being infinitis- 
 inal. Though the government has accepted the purchase price for its 
 coal land and many claims are ready for patent, some claimants 
 have waited over four years, not a patent application has been passed 
 upon, with the exception of the Cunningham claims and the decision 
 on these is still pending on appeal to the Secretary of the Interior. 
 Under the land office ruling the coal claimant is required to open a 
 commercial coal mine, upon his claim, and though this law requires 
 the opening of a mine, he cannot market a ton of coal without subject- 
 ing himself to criminal prosecution. 
 
 The secretary of the interior and the president have announced 
 themselves in favor of leasing the coal lands of Alaska. Is it any 
 wonder that Alaskans think they are being denied their rights with 
 the intention that their claims are to be cancelled pursuant to a pre- 
 conceived design to foist upon Alaska a doubtful experiment the 
 leasing plan the entering wedge to the complete overturning of our 
 public land system. 
 
 This article will proceed upon the assumption that a large per 
 cent of those who chance to read it are not familiar with many of the 
 facts essential to the formation of a satisfactory opinion as to the extent 
 to which "conservation" can be beneficially applied to the public coal 
 lands of Alaska. Hence a brief recital of the facts will precede a 
 statement of the conclusions deducable from these facts. 
 
 Statement of Facts. 
 
 Alaska's area is nearly 600,000 square miles. Not more than one 
 fifth of this area has been geologically surveyed, and not much more 
 than this area has been visited by pioneers, prospectors and others 
 seeking information as to the natural resources. 
 
 For uncounted ages long ago all of Alaska was dominated by 
 a tropical climate, supporting a flora and fauna of colossal magnitude. 
 During this torrid period the phenomenal coal measures in Alaska were 
 laid down.
 
 Alfred H Brooks, government geologist in his valuable and re- 
 liable report for 1909 makes a minimum estimate of at least 12,667 
 square miles of coal lands in this one-fifth of Alaska. It may be fairly 
 assumed as a fact that the imsurveyed four-fifths contain coal in some- 
 what similar proportions say something like 60,000 square miles in all 
 of Alaska. 
 
 The known coal measures are numerous, and are reported by 
 government geologists to exist in ten different survey districts, most 
 of which coal measures lie far back from tide water. Alaska contains 
 vast areas of allthe other minerals including thosuands of square miles 
 of coal oil lands, besides large areas of agricultural lands, but the space 
 allowed the writer will not permit statements in detail as to them. 
 
 Since the first coal locations in the -Bering river coal fields^ 
 14 years ago numerous applications by the locators for patents have 
 been made but down to date not a single patent has been granted in this 
 coal field, nor anywhere else in Alaska, though the law makes ample 
 provision for issuing patents for these lands. 
 
 While the law makes provision for the locators opening up and 
 improving his coal claims he is prevented by the rules of the land office 
 from selling any coal even for local use- 
 
 At Katall'a an inferior grade of British Columbia coal has always 
 sold for $21.00 or more per ton. 
 
 Alaska, notwithstanding its large yearly output in wealth, is not 
 increasing in population. In view <;f its vast natural resources what is 
 the reason .' 
 
 It is conceded that the public is already aware that Alaska is an 
 exceptionally large store house of national wealth awaiting develop- 
 ment. 
 
 When and by Whom is Alaska to be Developed? 
 
 It seems apparent that 600,000 square miles of Arctic land, buried 
 in moss, snow and ice cannot, whatever its riches, be developed as rap 
 idly and economically as a similar area elsewhere in the United States. 
 
 Before the mineral wealth of Alaska can be developed it must be 
 discovered by some one, and the prospector is the only man who has 
 ever done this anywhere in thi> country, even under the most favorable 
 conditions. 
 
 The Prospector Discovers and Capital Develops. 
 
 Though Congress try ever so hard it cannot reverse history nor 
 change the laws of economic necessity. 
 
 A Leasing' System- 
 Senator Lafolletto in his speed) before the Senate on September 
 21, 1911, argues in favor of the government leasing all mineral lands in 
 Alaska, and that is the position of those in charge of the conservation 
 movement. It cannot be denied that conservation for protective pur-
 
 poses is sound, but when its application becomes destructive or prevents 
 or retards development it necessarily follows that it amounts to mis- 
 application, and is therefore essentially wrong-. Does the leasing sys- 
 tem furnish an instance of misapplication! 
 
 We cannot hope to arrive at a correct conclusion until we ex- 
 amine the conditions under which a leasing system is to be applied. 
 Those conditions are fixed and unalterable. A brief general survey 
 of the facts will disclose them. 
 
 The most of Alaska lies in an Arctic climate covered with a 
 dense growth of moss, where not buried beneath glaciers; the ground 
 is frozen to a depth of many feet, and the placer mines can only be 
 worked by thawing the earth. 
 
 Cheap fuel is the largest economic factor entering into this class 
 of industries- Without cheap fuel mining in Alaska can never attain 
 large proportions. The milling and other treatment of ores, especially 
 in the interior, are subject to the same handicap, and this applies to all 
 allied industries. Fortunately the coal measures of Alaska at least 
 so Far as geological surveys have extended, are scattered far and wide. 
 Nature has supplied cheap fuel in close proximity to the ore deposits. 
 
 True Conservation Defined. 
 
 The doctrine of conservation of natural resources primarily 
 means prevention of unnecessary waste. Whenever the application of 
 the doctrine of conservation does not prevent unnecessary waste it is 
 useless. Whenever it produces or augments waste or prevents de- 
 velopment it is destructive. 
 
 Government Leasing an Experiment. 
 
 The question next to be considered is whether the adoption of a 
 government leasing system of any or all of the public lands will give 
 the largest net beneficial results. Will it produce greater benefits 
 than those derived from the public land system in force since the foun- 
 dation of our government! To replace our present land system by a 
 leasing system is in this country an experiment pure and simple. 
 AVhile the experiment has been and is now being tried in some other 
 countries, this nation has never adopted it, except as to our public lead 
 and copper lands in the early history of our country. After years of trial 
 it was abandoned as a failure. It was the case of leading the horse to 
 water when he would not drink American citizens could not be induced 
 to work these lead lands under the leasing system, and so the govern- 
 ment sold them to citizens and from that time to the present day these 
 mines have been worked with that intense industry which the Ameri- 
 can applies to the thing he owns, but never will apply to the thing which 
 the other fellow owns. There is a vast difference between building up 
 and making valuable an estate for our own children and doing it for
 
 some other person. Until we can induce each man to labor, suffer and 
 worry for a stranger, as he will for his own family, your leasing system 
 will prove a dismal and tragic failure. 
 
 So long as we believe in equal rights and opportunities, no Ameri- 
 can citizen will consent to work all his life and contemplate the certainty 
 that his children must work all their lives for another. It is not the 
 important question with him as to who is to be the landlord, nor the 
 amount of the rent. He will not consent to be a floating vagrant. He 
 is, first, last and all the time, struggling for a home a permanent home 
 for himself and his posterity. 
 
 Ultra conservationists, in support of their contention, are citing 
 the public land leasing practices in Canada, Australia and New 
 Zealand, as instances of the successful leasing systems in operation 
 in those countries. But they fail to mention that all those systems 
 provide that lessees may purchase the land at any time during the 
 term of the lease. The manifest importance of the difference is too 
 apparent to require further comment. 
 
 It may safely be asserted that any alleged reason for leasing coal 
 lands applies to the same extent to every other class of public lands. 
 Apparently the only reason that can be urged for leasing public coal 
 lands are: First, to enable the government to raise revenues. Second, 
 to enable the government to regulate the prices of the product of the 
 consumer. Third, to secure more rapid development. Fourth, to pre- 
 vent unnecessary waste. Upon broad fundamental principles these four 
 reasons, as well as any others which might apply with equal force to all 
 of the public domain, whether mineral of agricultureal- 
 
 The raising of revenues by leasing places an unequal and unjust 
 burden upon the poor men who seek homes and business in Alaska. A> 
 to regulation of prices of coal it must appear evident that while none 
 of those who produce coal from privately owned lands, from which 
 all of the coal of the country is now produced, are not subject to regu- 
 lation it is absurd to predict that regulations under a leasing system 
 will accomplish the desired results, and regulation can be made as 
 effectual in one case as in the other. 
 
 How is Alaska to be Developed? 
 
 Under the system employed by our government from the first 
 of granting to those citizens desiring to own and improve our un- 
 appropriated public lands, small areas suitable to their needs, we have 
 built up in the United States the grandest empire of civilized, well- 
 ordered, patriotic men and immense wealth, known to history. 
 
 Under the pretense of conservation, some of our citizens are 
 urging us to reverse our land policies, the wisdom of which has stood 
 every test of experience for more than a century. 
 
 Under no other policy could we have successfully assimilated the 
 millions of immigrants that have flocked to our shores in search of
 
 homes. The ownership of the soil is the most potent civilizer known 
 to man. The unsold public domain still comprises nearly one-half of 
 the area of the states and all of Alaska's (500,000 oqnare miles. Are 
 we prepared in the face of the foregoing facts to Ieae &H1 these upap- 
 propriated public lands. That is the real plan of the ultra-conserva- 
 tionists. 
 
 How can Alaska be Developed? 
 
 This is one of the most vital questions touching a leasing system. 
 Taking it as settled that the active ultra-conservationists will attempt 
 to force a leasing bill through Congress at its next session it becomes 
 very important to immediately determine as near as possible what the 
 effect of such a law will have on Alaska's development. Owing to the 
 unfavorable action of the land department Alaska is declining in pop- 
 ulation and in its mining industries. It is the opinion of most Alaskans 
 that the inaugurating of a leasing system will cause a further rapid 
 decline. This decline will continue at least until the leasing experiment 
 is tried out- We are of the opinion that it will spell disaster until 
 abandoned. Under the most favorable laws it will require many years 
 to open up Alaska's resources to even a very limited extent.. 
 
 To fully understand the effect of a leasing system on the de- 
 velopment of the mining industries of Alaska, it is necessary to consider 
 the following facts taken from Dr. Brook's report for 1909: 
 
 The minimum estimate of the coal of Alaska is set down as one 
 hundred and fifty billion (150,000,000,000) tons, and that the actual 
 tonnage may be many times that amount. Alaska is divided into into 
 three general geographic provinces, viz: The Pacific slope," the cen- 
 tral" and the ' 'Arctic." The dividing lines are mountain ranges. 
 Forty per cent of the known coal areas lie in the Pacific slope province. 
 Thirty-five per cent in the central province and the remaining twenty- 
 five per cent in the Arctic province. Thus it seems that the coal 
 measures are scattered all over Alaska. Dr. Brooks says that so far 
 as can now be seen the use of the coal of the central and arctic prov- 
 inces must be confined to local consumption, owing to unfavorable 
 conditions for transportation. 
 
 All the oil as well as the coal lands of Alaska have been with- 
 drawn from entry, which presumably means that at least all these two 
 classes of lands will be held for leasing if a leasing law can be passed. 
 
 ' ' Have no Value Except for Local Use. ' ' 
 
 While of immense importance to the mining development of those 
 regions containing them this coal has no other value. These two 
 provinces are f rose-bound, snow-bound and ice-bound for eight months 
 each year. 
 
 The tieing up of these coal measures by any form of leasing 
 system appears too absurd and ridiculous for discussion- Such a sys-
 
 LIBRARY 
 
 tern is sure to retard or entirely prevent development. 
 
 What is needed is free use of these coals, it' we look to sec the 
 minerals in adjacent mountain ranges mined and utilized. 
 
 Dr. Brooks says Alaska never can be developed except by the use 
 of its coal at low prices. "We beseach the ultra-conservationist to devote 
 the efforts he is expending in obstructing the development of Alaska 
 to saving our people that $"300,000,000" which ex-Senator Aldrich 
 declares the government is squandering each year and of staying the 
 hand of oppressive greed from further extortions from the people. 
 
 The free and interrupted use of the coal found widely scattered 
 over the interior is altogether the most important factor in Alaska's 
 primitive development, and development cannot proceed without it. 
 Without this coal the prospecting frontier must remain near the tide 
 waters. The mileage of railroads is so small it is an insignificant 
 factor so far as fuel supply is concerned. 
 
 The prospector cannot under the present Interpretation of the 
 coal laws by the land office use any of the coal without becoming liable 
 to criminal prosecution. 
 
 It must be remembered that in fro/en Alaska the miner cannot 
 sink even a three or four foot prospect hole without fuel to thaw the 
 ground. That the cost and time necessary to discover and to develop 
 are much greater than at any other place in the country, and that 
 hardships are also much greater. Such conditions make it imperatively 
 necessary that no impediments should be interposed and that every 
 reasonable encouragement should be extended. It seems incredible 
 beyond belief that anyone d;-- irons of seeing Alaska developed will 
 favor any doubtful experiment in Alaska. Condemned by nearly all 
 Alaskans, who are more deeply interested than any other of our 
 citizens in the speedy develc; ^r.ent of the Arctic possessions. 
 
 Does anyone imagine that the men who are laboring to develop 
 Alaska would oppose a leasing system, if they believed it would assist 
 in the accomplishment of the things for which they are so strenuously 
 struggling.' The country will best conserve its own interests by treat- 
 ing these men fairly. Any other course will, as it ought to, result in 
 failure and general disaster. 
 
 For the most exhaustive, sound, dispassionate and authorative 
 discussion of a leasing system for Alaska coal lands yet printed, the 
 reader is referred to the report of the committee on Alaskan Affairs 
 of the American Alining Congress. This report was drafted by Hon. 
 Maurice D. Leehey, Alaska building, Seattle, and was read before the 
 Congress in Chicago. Oct. 27, 1IH1. He will be glad to furnish a copy 
 to anyone writing him for one. 
 
 THE PUBLICITY LEAGUE OF KATALLA 
 Endorsed bv the Chamber of Commerce of Katalla.
 
 A 000 631 370 4
 
 Endorsed by the 
 
 Chamber of Commerce of Katalla 
 
 Chamber of Commerce of Cordova 
 
 Cordova Dail/ Al?skan Print