USA > Alaska > History of Alaska : 1730-1885 > Part 66
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During the company's second term ship-building was a prominent industry. In 1821, the company's fleet, apart from a few small craft, consisted only of ten sea-going vessels, whose total measurement was
43 For further particulars as to the timber resources of Alaska, see Golov- nin, in Materialui, 110; Morris's Rept. Alaska, 109-111; Petroff's Pop. Alaska, 5, 73-4.
4 In 1833 a saw-mill was established at the Ozerskoí redoubt-the second that was built on the Pacific coast-the first having been erected by the Hud- son's Bay Company on the Columbia. Wrangell, Statist. und Ethnog., 14. Dur- ing Voievodsky's administration it was worked by steam power. Tikhmenef, Istor. Obos., ii. 245. In 1853 there was a saw-mill at Sitka, but it was so badly managed that lumber cost the company $25 to $30 per M, though the forest was close at hand. Ward's Three Weeks in Sitka, MS., 12. A saw-mill was also erected on the Kirenskoy River near Sitka. Golovnin, in Materialui, 72. At Karluck, Sitka, and Ooyak Bay, on the west coast of Kadiak, were small tanneries. I.l., 74; Tilhmenef, Istor. Obos., ii. 246; Daridson's Sci. Exped., 473. There was also a flouring-mill at Sitka, and several brick-yards and machine-shops in various parts of the colonics. With the exception of lumber, few of these branches of manufacture are now carried on. At Atkha grass cloth and other articles manufactured of grass are produced, as mats, baskets, and cigar-holders, of superior workmanship. A number of Indian carvings and manufactures were collected for the centennial exhibition by Mr J. G. Swan, special commissioner for Indian affairs. A description of them is published in his Alaska Ind. Manuf., 7-8.
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SHIP-BUILDING.
1,376 tons.45 Between that date and 1829, the Urup, a four-hundred-ton ship, and several smaller craft were built.46 In 1834 Wrangell ordered the colonial ship- yards to be abandoned, with the exception of the one at Sitka, where all the conveniences could be obtained, and good mechanics were employed.47 About the year 1839 the brig Promissel, and between that date and 1842 the steamer Nikolai I., of sixty horse-power, and the steam-tug Muir, of eight horse-power, the first vessels of the kind ever launched on colonial waters, were constructed at the port.48 The machinery for the Nikolai I. was imported from Boston, but every- thing needed for the tug was manufactured at Novo Arkhangelsk, under the superintendence of the ma- chinist Muir, after whom the craft was named.49
Although other sea-going craft were built in the colonies between 1821 and 1842, while at least four were constructed for the company elsewhere, and sev- eral purchased, there were at the latter date only fifteen vessels belonging to Alaskan waters;50 many
45 Between 1799 and 1821 five vessels were purchased by the company's agents at Kronsdadt, eight in the colonies, and fifteen were built at the colo- nial dock at Okhotsk. During the same period sixteen were wrecked, five were condemned, and three were sold. Tikhmenef, Istor. Obos., i. 235. In 1817- 19 the schooners Platof and Baranof were built at Novo Arkhangelsk, and the brigantine Romanzof and brig Buldakof at Bodega.
46 Lutke, in Materialui, Istor. Russ., part iv. 135; Tikhmenef, Istor. Obos., i. 330. The latter states that the Urup was a 300-ton ship, and that three other vessels, the schooner Aktzia, 50 tons, the brig Polyfem, 180 tons, and the sloop Sitka, 230 tons, were built for the company at Okhotsk, between 1829 and 1832.
47 The work was carried on under the superintendence of a native of St Paul, the Creole Netzvetoff, who had learned his business in St Petersburg. For the ribs, a kind of cypress was used, which was called dushnoie derevo, fragrant wood, and was well adapted for the purpose on account of its den- sity, dryness, and remarkable lightness. The outside planking was of larch, and the upper works of hemlock; the latter, however, is not very durable, as it grows in damp soil. Wrangell, Statist. und Ethnog., 20.
48 Simpson, who sailed in the Nikolai I. to Fort Stikeen and back, states that she made six to seven knots an hour, and had most of her machinery on deck. Narr. Voy. round World, ii. 184. Besides the above-named vessels, the company caused to be built at Abo the sailing ships Nikolai I., 400 tons, and Crown Prince Alexander, 300 tons.
49 A considerable business was also done at Novo Arkhangelsk in re- pairing vessels. During Wrangell's administration an American ship was retimbered at the wharf, and for some years later there was no other dock in which vessels sailing in neighboring waters could be repaired.
50 A list of 13 vessels lying at Sitka in April, 1842, is given in Simpson's Jour. round World, ii. 198-9. Most of them belonged to the company.
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AGRICULTURE, SHIP-BUILDING, AND MINING.
losses having occurred from shipwreck,51 and some after a few voyages proving worthless except for store- ships. It was found that vessels could be purchased from foreigners, and especially from Americans, to better advantage than they could be built in the col- onies, and it is probable that the managers would have saved money if no attempt at ship-building had been made in Russian America, except perhaps for in- tercolonial traffic. During the last term little was attempted in this direction. In 1860 the company's fleet consisted of only three steamers, four sailing ships, two barks, two brigs, and one schooner,52 or twelve vessels in all, of which but two were constructed in the colonies. The schooner was built at Sitka in 1848, at a cost of more than three thousand roubles per ton; while one of the barks, purchased in the Sand- wich Islands during the same year, and built at Salem, Massachusetts, in 1845, cost only about eighteen hun- dred roubles a ton, and the other sailing craft were purchased at about the same rate.
Since the time of the purchase, only a few small coasting vessels have been built,58 though attempts have been made to obtain from congress grants of land and the right of cutting timber in certain locali-
51 The navigation of some portions of the Alaskan coast is exceedingly dangerous, and the danger is increased by the want of reliable charts. At the time of the purchase the charts then in existence were merely sectional, in- cluding those of La Pérouse, Vancouver, Tebenkof, Lütke, Kashcvarof, Tikhmenef, and others. Tebenkof's were probably the best, though far from being complete, and several others are of considerable value. Since the pur- chase, better progress has been made in this direction, but the work has been of the same fragmentary nature. We may hope, however, that at no distant day we shall have some approach to accurate charts of the entire Alaskan coast. The coast-survey chart of 1868 is almost worthless so far as inland navigation is concerned, for few of the shoals and rocks appear on it. In Morris's Rept., Alaska, 56, is a partial list of the wrecks that have occurred in south-eastern Alaska during recent years. Two U. S. ships of war have also been lost in Alaskan waters. In 1878 there was not a single light-house
in the territory. In Id., 21, several points are mentioned where liglit-houses should be erected, and further mention of this matter is made in U. S. Fi- nance Rept., 1868, 391-4, and Sen. Ex. Doc., 40th Cong. 3d Sess., 53.
62 Also a steam-tug completed at Sitka in 1860. The list is given in Golov- nin, in Materialui, app., 152-5, where the armament and cost of each are stated.
53 And a small stern-wheel steamer for trade on the Yukon and other riv- ers, built in 1869.
693
COAL-MINES.
ties,54 ostensibly for ship-building purposes. To pro- cure at a nominal price a few thousand acres of the best timber-lands in Alaska, on condition of building a ves- sel or two, would doubtless be a profitable speculation, but thus far no sale or lease of timber-lands has been made. It is not improbable, however, that at no very distant day ship-building may again rank among the foremost industries in Alaska, for coal, iron,55 and suit- able timber are found in several portions of the terri- tory, within easy access of navigable water.
Lignitic, bituminous, and anthracite coal,56 but es- pecially lignite, are found in many portions of Alaska, from Prince of Wales Island to the banks of the Yukon, and even on the shore of the Arctic Ocean,57 the best veins being found in southern and western Alaska and the adjacent islands.
Coal-mining in Alaska was first begun about the middle of the present century near the mouth of Cook Inlet, or Kenaï Bay, at a point that still bears the name of Coal Harbor.58 Machinery was erected and run by steam power; a force of laborers was obtained in Siberia; several experienced miners were brought from
54 In 1874, Senator Hager presented a petition, signed by Thomas Burling, W. F. Babcock, John Parrott, and others, asking for the privilege of cutting timber for ship-building on government lands in the neighborhood of Prince Edward Island, where pine and yellow cedar are plentiful. They offered to pay for the privilege, and to purchase the land as it was cleared. During the same year, Representative Piper introduced a bill, granting to certain parties the right to purchase, at $1.25 per acre, the island of Kou, north of Clarence Strait, for ship-building purposes, and the privilege of taking up as much more land as might be required. This modest demand, under which all the best timber-lands in the territory might have been appropriated, was after- ward limited to 100,000 acres. An account of the second bill introduced by Piper, on Dec. 20, 1876, is given in Morris's Rept. Alaska, 107-9.
55 Iron is found in many portions of Alaska, but no deposit has yet been discovered that will pay for working, under present conditions.
56 Dall remarks that the specimens of anthracite coal found in Alaska may owe their quality to local metamorphism of the rocks by heat, rather than to the general character of any large deposit. Alaska, 475.
57 In 1878 a vein was opened beyond Cape Lisburn by Captain Hooper of the revenue marine, who claims that the coal mined easily and was fit for the use of steamers. Petroff's Pop. Alaska, 74. In 1866 Dall inspected a coal deposit near Nulato, but found it to be of inconsiderable extent. Alaska, 56-7. In Id., 473-4, is a list of the principal coal districts known in 1870. 58 On the north side of English Bay.
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AGRICULTURE, SHIP-BUILDING, AND MINING.
Germany, and every available man in the Siberian line battalion, then stationed at Sitka, was sent to aid in the work. The prospect of furnishing the com- pany's steamers with coal obtained in the colonies, and of selling the surplus at high prices in San Francisco and elsewhere, acted as a powerful incentive. In 1857 shafts had been sunk and a drift run into the vein for a distance of nearly 1,700 feet, nearly all of which was in coal. During this and the three following years, over 2,700 tons were mined, the value of which was estimated at nearly 46,000 roubles, but the result was a net loss. The thickness of the vein was found to vary from nine to twelve feet, carrying 70 per cent. of mineral, and its extent was practically unlimited; but the coal was found to be entirely unfit for the use of steamers, and a shipment of 500 tons forwarded to San Francisco realized only twelve and a half roubles per ton, or considerably less than cost.59
It was hoped that as greater depth was attained the vein at Coal Harbor would improve in strength and quality, but there is no sufficient evidence that, in this or other portions of Alaska, any considerable quantity of marketable coal has yet been produced. except for local consumption. Nevertheless, there is. little doubt that it exists,60 though whether in deposits large enough to be of commercial value is a matter
59 Tikhmenef, Istor. Obos., ii. 250; Kostlivtzof, Report, 29-30; Dok. Kom. Russ. Amer. Kol., i. 94. Golovnin, in Materialui, 108-9. According to the last of these authorities, it was already known that coal-veins existed on the Alaska peninsula, at Kadiak, the smaller islands adjoining, and elsewhere. In Rogers, Letters, MS., ii., we find the following, under date June 26, 1855: 'Lütke says: "On dit qu'il y a dans l'île d'Akoun des couches de charbon de terre."' In the Sitka Archives, MS., 1857, ii. 278, it is stated that the work of getting out coal was very difficult on account of local circumstances.
60 Captain White, in Morris's Rept. Alaska, 103, states that Cook Inlet coal is well suited for the use of steamers, that it leaves a clear, white ash, and does not coke. In Dall's Alaska, 475, are analyses of coal from Cook Inlet, Nanaimo, Bellingham Bay, and Coose Bay. The' analysis of Alaskan coal was made by Professor J. S. Newberry of the school of mines, Columbia Col- lege, New York. It was found to contain 49.89 per cent of fixed carbon, 39.87 of volatile conbustible matter, 1.25 of moisture, 1.20 of sulphur, and 7.82 of ash. Its character was lignitic. The professor remarks: 'This coal is fully equal to any found on the west coast, not excepting those of Vancouver Island and Bellingham Bay.' For a description of the Nanaimo mines (Vanc. Isl.), see my Hist. Brit. Columb., 569 et seq.
695
COAL-MINES.
that has yet to be determined. Most of the coal so far discovered in the territory belongs to the tertiary system, and is deficient in thickness of seam. North of Coal Harbor, deposits are found almost as far as Cape Ninilchik, but here as elsewhere they seldom exceed seven feet of solid coal in thickness, and are more frequently less than three feet. It is well known that a vein of the latter kind, when situated at a distance from market, is almost worthless.
At Oonga and several other points persistent at- tempts have been made to work the mines at a profit, but as yet without success. The coal was not in demand except for local consumption. When used by steamers, it was found to burn so rapidly as to eat into the iron and endanger the boilers, so that many vessels sailing for Alaska bring with them their own fuel, or are supplied from tenders laden in British Columbia.61
It must be admitted, however, the mining pros- pect in Alaska is far from discouraging. Petroleum of good quality has been found floating on the surface of a lake near Katmai in the Alaska Peninsula. 62 Long before the purchase native copper was obtained from the Indians on the Atna or Copper River, be- ing found occasionally in masses weighing more than thirty pounds. At Karta Bay, on Prince of Wales Island, there is a valuable copper mine, which was sold a few years ago to a San Francisco company.63
61 In a despatch from Santa Bárbara, published in the San Francisco Bulletin of June 8, 1877, it is stated that three miles from the Oonga mine is one known as the Big Bonanza with a vein 30 feet thick, of which 15 are solid coal; that $10 per ton had been offered for the coal delivered in San Franciso; that it was considered equal to the best English and Scotch coal; and that the en- tire coal-fields of this district comprised 1,280 acres, and would suffice to sup- ply California for generations. This may serve as a specimen of the nonsense which has been published in some of the newspapers of this coast as to Alaskan industries, though many valuable items have appeared in them at intervals since the purchase. There appears to be little probability that either Alaskan coal or Alaskan timber will find a more general market on the Pacific coast so long as there remain nearer and better sources of supply.
62 In Morris's Rept. Alaska, 103, it is stated that large deposits of petroleum have been found on Copper River.
63 Id., 102. Morris states that he saw sacks of the ore and found it exceed- ingly rich. Metallic copper is found on Oonga and the north end of Admi-
.
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AGRICULTURE, SHIP-BUILDING, AND MINING.
Cinnabar is known to exist in the islands of the Alex- ander Archipelago, but the exact locality is as yet a secret. Lead has been found on Baranof, Wrangell, and Kadiak islands, but not in large deposits. Native sulphur is very plentiful, and this metal is nearly al- ways found in solution at the mineral springs with which the territory abounds.
Among the lead and copper deposits is sometimes found a small percentage of silver,64 but if there be any valuable silver mines in the territory they are not yet discovered.
From Golovnin Sound it was reported, in 1881, that silver ore, assaying a hundred and fifty dollars a ton, and easily worked, had been discovered so near to tide- water, and in such abundance, that vessels could be loaded with it as readily as with ballast. On May 5th of that year a schooner was despatched to the sound by way of St Michael, and on her return it was reported that the value of the mine had been not a whit exaggerated, but that it was thirty miles from tide-water.65 Of the 'mountain of silver' that was supposed to exist in this neighborhood nothing fur- ther has yet been heard.
Gold-mining has been a little more successful. In 1880, a former state geologist of California remarked that "the gold of Alaska was still in the ground, all save a few thousand ounces gathered here and there from the more accessible veins and gravel-beds of the islands and the mountains along the coast."66 In 1883 there were in operation several quartz and placer mines, which gave fair returns, and in south-eastern Alaska
ralty Islands. The blue carbonate occurs on the Kuskovkim and near Cape Romanzof, and sulphurets on the north coast of the peninsula. Dall's Alaska, 477.
64 A piece of ore taken from a mine near Fort Wrangell, in 1873, assayed 26 per cent in copper, 20 per cent in lead, and about $7 per ton in silver. This was of course a choice specimen.
65 S. F. Bulletin, Oct. 31, 1881. The truth appears to be that near the sound were base metal mines containing, in spots, a fair percentage of silver. 66 Letter of John Muir, in Id., Jan. 10, 1880. The letter contains an in- teresting and probably reliable account of the mines in Alaska at that date.
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GOLD AND SILVER.
a trace of gold could be obtained from the sands of almost every stream that discharges into the Pacific.
Of the Stikeen River, or Cassiar, mines brief men- tion will be made in the volume on British Columbia, to which territory they belong.
Harrisburg was, in 1883, the mining centre of Alaska. On Douglas Island, separated from the town by a channel two miles in width, are several promising quartz and surface mines. Among the former, the Treadwell claim, owned by San Francisco capitalists, was the only one thoroughly developed. Four tun- nels had been run into the ledge, and a large body of low-grade ore exposed. A five-stamp mill was in operation, and several bullion shipments were made during the year.
Of the Takoo district, on the Takoo River, a few miles from Harrisburg, great expectations were held, but as yet they have not been realized.67
On the 30th of January, 1877, the Alaska Gold and Silver Mining Company's was incorporated, the location being about fourteen miles to the south-east · of Sitka. In 1880 rock was extracted from the ledge on three levels, averaging about $12 per ton, and at that date a considerable body of ore had been exposed. "The ledge is well defined," writes Walter, a practi- cal mining engineer, in 1878, "runs east and west, and is about 15 feet wide, with a fissure vein from 32 to 4 feet in width. The rock is bluish gold-bear- ing quartz, and lies in a slate formation." A ten- stamp water-power mill was erected,69 and the returns were for a time satisfactory, but the expense of oper- ating a quartz mine under such conditions as at pres- ent exist in the territory forbids the working of
67 Mention of this district is made in Id., June 29, July 7, and Aug. 11, 1871.
68 Their claim is usually called the Stewart tunnel.
69 Morris's Rept. Alaska, 99. During a conversation held at my Library on Feb. 3, 1879, M. P. Berry stated that the mill did not do much in the aggregate. 'They have plenty of rock,' he remarked, 'and what milling they did showed pretty well. But the wheel did not carry the water nor the water the wheel." Developments in Alaska, MS:, 11-12.
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AGRICULTURE, SHIP-BUILDING, AND MINING.
veins that in more favored localities would be fairly profitable. That valuable gold deposits exist is not disputed; but in a mountainous and densely wooded territory such as is Alaska, and especially southern Alaska, where the richest veins have been found, mines are neglected which elsewhere on this coast would not lack capital for their development.70
70 Among other points gold has been discovered near the junction of the Yukon and Pelly rivers. Some of it was assayed in 1883 by H. G. Hanks, state mineralogist of California, who reported that about one tenth of its weight consisted of a coating of rust, which made it almost indifferent to the action of quicksilver.
CHAPTER XXXII.
CHURCHES, SCHOOLS, AND HOSPITALS.
1795-1884.
THE FIRST CHURCHES IN RUSSIAN AMERICA-A DIOCESE ESTABLISHED- VENIAMINOF-THE SITKA CATHEDRAL-CONVERSION OF THE INDIANS -THE CLERGY HELD IN CONTEMPT-PROTESTANT MISSIONS-SCHOOLS -THE SITKA SEMINARY-THE GENERAL COLONIAL INSTITUTE-ME- TEOROLOGICAL-DISEASES-HOSPITALS-THE COMPANY'S PENSIONERS- CREOLES-BIBLIOGRAPHICAL.
GLOTTOF, it is claimed, one of the discoverers of the Aleutian Islands, baptized at Oumnak in 1759 the first native admitted into the fold of the Greek church. He was a chieftain's son, and a large cross was erected on the spot where the ceremony was performed; but timber was scarce in those treeless regions, and soon after the Russian- occupation the wood was used for making sleighs.1 Until nearly half a century after Glottof's visit neither Aleuts nor Koniagas received any regular religious instruction, though Shelikof, as will be remembered, affirmed that he converted forty heathen soon after the con- quest of Kadiak.
The labors of the first missionaries sent forth to Alaska have already been related. In 1795, or per- haps a year or two later, a chapel was built at Saint Paul-the first in Russian America. At Sitka no church was built until 1817, religious ceremonies be- ing usually performed by one of the officials of the
1 Veniaminof, Zapiski, 151-2. The boy was taken to Petropavlovsk, where he learned the Russian language, and returned with the dignity of toyon over all the islands under the jurisdiction of Kamchatka.
(.699 )
CHURCHES, SCHOOLS, AND HOSPITALS.
Russian American Company, though meanwhile a priest occasionally visited this settlement, and bap- tisms were not infrequent.2 In this year an ecclesi- astic named Sokolof arrived, and a temporary build- ing was at once erected, the altar being built of tim- bers cast ashore after the wreck of the Neva, "among which," wrote Baranof, "shone the image of Saint Michael." The vessels and utensils were of silver, fashioned by colonial craftsmen, and the robes and draperies of Chinese silk.
In 1819 a church named Saint Peter's was built at Saint Paul Island, and one at Saint George named after Saint George the Victor, in 1833; at the village of Unalaska a church was dedicated in 1826,3 and in the same year a chapel, named Saint Nikolai, was built at Oumnak, where, as Veniaminof would have us believe, sickness attacked the Russians, who made sacrilegious use of the cross, while, for many years later, the Aleuts did not dare to gather sticks or boards in the neighborhood of this sanctuary.
A clause in the charter granted to the Russian American Company in 1821 provided that church establishments should be supported throughout the colonies,4 and by order of the holy synod, in 1840,
2 In the Alaska Archives, MS., 1-13, is a list of all the baptisms performed at Sitka between 1805 and 1819.
8 In 1808 a log chapel was built at Unalaska and torn down in 1826. Veniaminof, Zapiski, 162.
+ As an illustration of the condition of the colonial clergy at the end of Chistiakof's administration, may be mentioned the trial for sorcery of Feodor Bashmakof, a servitor at Novo Arkhangelsk in 1829. The charge was pre- ferred by one Terenty Lestnikof to the effect that Bashmakof, a native Kolosh, baptized at Novo Arkhangelsk in November 1805, educated at the parish school, and admitted to the subordinate priesthood in January 1827, had been observed by competent witnesses in the act of assisting at certain pagan rites intended to effect the cure of a sick native, and had been seen ' to go through the motions and steps of chamans or sorcerers in the service of Satan,' and also of having at various times desecrated an orthodox shrine by taking pagan charms into the holy water blessed by the benediction of the priest, and of receiving payment in furs for such sacrilegious action. In the opinion of Veniaminof, which was afterward approved by the holy synod, Bashmakof sinned more from ignorance than from malice, and he was discharged with a severe reprimand. Though informed that he was free to return to Novo Arkhangelsk, Bashmakof voluntarily entered the convent of the Ascension at Nerchinsk. The proceedings in this case dis- play a remarkable degree of leniency on the part of the higher Russian
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