COAL RESOURCES OF SOUTHWESTERN ALASKA. 
By Ralph W. Stone. 
INTRODUCTION.. 
Southwestern Alaska includes the Cook Inlet region, Kocliak and 
adjacent islands, Alaska Peninsula, and the Aleutian Islands. Coal, 
mostly of a lignitic character, is widely distributed in this province. 
The known localities are indicated on the accompanying map (PL II). 
Coal-bearing rocks occur in three principal districts, Cook Inlet, 
Kodiak Island, and Alaska Peninsula. In Cook Inlet coal is found at 
Kachemak Bay and Port Graham on Kenai Peninsula, at Tyonok on 
the west shore, and on Matanuska River about 50 miles inland from 
the head of the inlet. It has also been reported at various localities 
in the Sushitna basin, which lies beyond the province under discus- 
sion. Coal occurs at several points on the shore of Kodiak Island. 
From Cape Douglas, at the northern end of Alaska Peninsula, out to 
the Aleutian Islands coal-bearing beds are found at several places, 
but Chignik and Herendeen bays and Unga Island are the only locali- 
ties where developments have been made. 
The earliest accounts of any of these coal beds are those of Port- 
lock" who made a voyage to Alaska in 1786, and of Doroshin and 
Wosnessenski, 6 Russian mining engineers and explorers. In 1895 
W. H. Dall made a coast trip in southern Alaska and reported on the 
coal/ Mining operations were then being carried on at Kachemak 
and Chignik bays and Unga Island, but are now confined to Chignik 
Bay. 
During the summer of 1904 the writer, acting under orders of 
G. C. Martin, had an opportunity to examine several of the coal 
localities on the east coast of the Alaska Peninsula and about Cook 
Inlet. The result of these investigations, together with information 
concerning some localities which the writer did not visit, and a report 
on the lignite at Unga by G. C. Martin, are embodied in this report. 
a Portlock, Nathaniel, A Voyage to the Northwest Coast of America, London, 1789. 
&Grewingk, Constantin, Beitrag zur Kenntniss N. W.-Kiiste Am., 1850, pp. 39-41; and Wrangell.in 
Baer and Helmersen, Beitriige I, 168-170. 
cDall, W. H., Coal and lignite of Alaska: Seventeenth Ann. Rept. U. S. Geol. Survey, pt. 1, pp. 
784-814. 
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