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Alaska-Gastineau Mining Co. Ephemera (103122)

Currency:USD Category:Collectibles / Mining Start Price:500.00 USD Estimated At:1,000.00 - 2,000.00 USD
Alaska-Gastineau Mining Co. Ephemera  (103122)
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This is a collection of items related to the Alaska-Gastineau Mining Co., which operated a gold mining and milling operation on the outskirts of Juneau, Alaska, from 1911 to 1934. The collection includes several stacks of Receiving Reports dated between 1919 and 1920, eight wood-framed signs from different levels in the underground gold mine, two metal hoist signs, a square wooden level sign, and five, hand-carved, wooden hoist level markers. Small-scale gold mining began east of Juneau in Alaska's Silver Bow Basin with the acquisition of the Perseverance claims by Joseph Gilbert around 1900. With the help of Col. W. J. Sutherland, they began mill operations in 1907. In a 1910 reorganization, the Alaska-Gastineau Mining Company was created, and the new company incorporated in New York by 1911. The next year, the Alaska Gold Mines Company was organized as a holding company to finance expanded mining and milling which began in July of 1912. October 31, 1913, saw the groundbreaking for a large, new mill that began operations in February of 1915, even while it was still under construction. Construction of the mill was supervised by Daniel C. Jackling, the original company's managing director who had previously developed the large-scale open-pit copper mining at Bingham Canyon, Utah. By November, the Alaska-Gastineau mill was in full operation and processing 6,000 tons of ore per day and was regarded as one of the modern and efficient facility of its kind. Six thousand horsepower of electricity for the mine and mill were supplied by the construction of a concrete arch dam, built in 1914 across Salmon Creek, as the world's first constant-angle arch, variable-radius dam. The Company operated before World War I as the largest gold-mining operation in the world. The mine and mill employed around 900 people, but the Great War sapped the mining operations of manpower, and post-war inflation, coupled with gold prices fixed at just over $20, made the mine unprofitable. The entire operation closed in 1921, and the facilities were scrapped and salvaged. Today a private company offers tours of the mill site and a portion of an underground tunnel, teaching the history of this once-great gold mining operation.

Date: c1910-1920
Country if not USA:
State: Alaska
City: Juneau
Provenance: Geff Pollock Collection