A report on the exploration and survey of the Chakachamna-Stony Region of Alaska.

From introduction: The history of glaciation in Alaska offers a fascinating field for study. Because of the remarkable development and easy accessibility of valley and piedmont glaciers in the coastal mountains, Alaska has long been popularly conceived as a land of ice and snow, a concept that is only slowly being corrected. To the student of glaciation, however, Alaska affords a unique opportunity to observe the formation, movement, and dissipation of the many living glaciers, to examine the results of glacial erosion on a gigantic scale, and to discover and work out the sequence of Pleistocene events as shown by the topographic forms in both glaciated and unglaciated areas and by the deposits left by ice and water during earlier stages of glaciation.

From abstract: Kodiak Island, although the site of the earliest white settlement in Alaska and the center of a vigorous fishing industry, is still largely unexplored, except for a strip immediately adjacent to the shores. The heavy growth of vegetation makes access to the interior of the island difficult, and few trails penetrate far from the coast. Mining activity in the past has been confined to somewhat desultory exploitation of beach sands, which in places carry gold, though some gold-bearing lodes have been staked, and a few unsuccessful attempts at lode mining have been made.

Abstract: During the spring of 1932 an opportunity was offered by the United States Navy for a geologist to accompany an expedition organized to make a reconnaissance of the western part of Alaska Peninsula and the Aleutian Islands. This expedition visited several localities the geology of which was little known. It was found, as had already been expected, that the islands west of Unimak Pass are composed mainly of basic volcanic lavas and fragmental materials, into which have later been injected dikes, sills, and considerable masses of intrusive rocks, some of which are of acidic types and of granitic texture. These westward islands are bordered both to the north and south by depressions 2,000 fathoms or more in depth, and the islands have apparently been built up from that depth by the ejection and extrusion of volcanic materials since early Tertiary time. No rocks of proved pre-Tertiary age were seen, and the only sedimentary materials present may well have been derived from the erosion of the volcanic islands after they were built up above sea level. On the Alaska Peninsula pre-Tertiary sediments through which the volcanic materials broke to the surface are abundantly present. There is evidence that all the …

From introduction: The district described in this report is a triangular area covering about 300 square miles in the southwestern part of the Talkeetna Mountains. The Kashwitna River forms the northern boundary, the Susitna Valley flats the western, and the Willow Creek gold district, which is in the extreme southwestern part of the Talkeetna Mountains, the southern. As the area examined is not a distinct geographic unit, its boundaries being arbitrarily chosen and set only by the limitation of time spent in the field, a description of its geography applies to practically the entire western and southern portions of the Talkeetna Mountains, of which it is a part.

From abstract: The Kodiak group of islands, having an area of 4,900 square miles, lie on the Pacific Ocean side of the base of the Alaska Peninsula. Although the town of Kodiak is the oldest continuously occupied white settlement in Alaska, the interior of many of the islands is still little explored and unmapped, for the heavy growth of vegetation makes inland travel difficult, and few trails penetrate far from the coast.

Report issued by the U.S. Bureau of Mines discussing the mine stations and safety cars used to reach miners in distress. As stated in the report, "the purpose, equipment, personnel, and construction of its safety cars" is presented. This report includes an illustration, and a map.

Photograph of Will Rogers in the plane door talking to Wiley Post, Juneau, AK. Photo by Ordway, Juneau, AK, c.1935.

From introduction: "In this paper are assembled and summarized many subjects relating to the copper industry in North America. Production of mines and districts, history of the industry in North America. Production of mines and districts, history of the industry, geology, of the principal deposits, and mining methods and costs are discussed."

From abstract: To help the mining industry of Alaska and to assist in the development of the mineral resources of the Territory have been the prime motives of the Geological Survey's investigations in Alaska during the past 35 years, in which nearly one half of the Territory has been covered by its reconnaissance and exploratory surveys. It was natural, therefore, that the Alaska Railroad, when it undertook intensive consideration of the problem of finding tonnage that would increase its revenues, should look to the Geological Survey to supply technical information as to the known mineral deposits along its route and to indicate what might be done to stimulate a larger production of minerals and induce further mining developments and prospecting that would utilize its service.

From foreword: This report describes the upper cretaceous floras and rocks south of the Brooks Range in Alaska.

From introduction: The present report states the results of an exploratory survey of the Kaiyuh Hills during the summer of 1934.

From Abstract: "The following report is essentially a description of the mineral deposits that have been found in this region and of the status of mining in 1933."

From abstract: The Chitina Valley and adjoining area form part of a rugged alpine region in the southeast corner of the main body of Alaska and include a portion of the Chugach Mountains and most of the southern half of the Wrangell Mountains, to the north. The Chitina River is an eastern branch of the Copper River and rises in ice fields and valley glaciers occupying most of the country near the international boundary north of Mount St. Elias. The adjoining area described in this report includes the Hanagita and Bremner River district and the westward continuation of the north side of the Chugach Mountains as far as Valdez Arm and Klutina Lake. In addition, the geology of the upper White River district is described because of its relation to that of the Chitina Valley.

From introduction: The purpose of this paper is to describe the geology and mineral resources of a part of the Copper River Basin between the Richardson Highway and the valley of the Klutina River, together with small areas east of the highway and west of the river. For convenience in reference this area is called the Tonsina district, as the Tonsina River and Tonsina Lake are conspicuous local geographic features, and the Tonsina Road House, on the highway at the crossing of the river, is one of the oldest and best-known settlements in the Copper River Basin.

From introduction: Two field parties, one topographic, the other geologic, were engaged in making surveys in the section of the Alaska Range between the Nabesna and Big Tok Rivers in 1934. Most of the area surveyed was on the northeast side of the range, within a drainage area that is tributary to the Nabesna and Tanana Rivers, but it also included a small part of the Copper River Basin.

Brief summary of the physical characteristics, general habits, breeding habits, food habits, migratory habits, and habitat of the Alaska-Yukon caribou.

From abstract: The Girdwood district has been known for about 35 years to contain placer gold, but the source of the gold in veins was not discovered until about 1909. When the Alaska Railroad was completed through Girdwood it was hoped that the improved transportation facilities would enable the lode mines to operate at a profit and also to furnish tonnage to the railroad. Production from the quartz veins, however, has been negligible, although one placer mine has been operating steadily for several years.

From abstract: The gold quartz veins of the Willow Creek district belong to the type of ore deposits that may be expected to continue downward for several thousand feet below the present surface. The veins occur in an essentially homogeneous quartz diorite intrusive mass, batholithic in form ; therefore, the composition of the wall rock plays practically no significant part in the distribution of gold within the veins. The veins were formed partly as fissure fillings and partly by replacement of the wall rock along fractures and of fragments of wall rock caught between the fracture walls. Structurally the deposits are essentially composite lodes, although quartz lenses of considerable size have also been formed.

From abstract: The Mount Eielson district lies in south-central Alaska, on the north side of the Alaska Range, about 30 miles east of Mount McKinley. The most widely distributed rocks of the district include a thick series of thin-bedded limestone, calcareous shale, and graywacke of Paleozoic, probably Devonian, age. These sediments are cut by a mass of granodiorite which forms most of Mount Eielson and which was intruded probably in late Mesozoic time. The intrusive has sent a multitude of dikes and sills into the associated sediments.

From abstract: The area in the vicinity of the West Fork of the Chulitna River, Alaska, one of those examined in 1931 in connection with the study of mineral resources in districts tributary to the Alaska Railroad, contains numerous prospects but, as yet, no productive mines. Its placer deposits are negligible but some of its lodes may prove valuable for gold and silver and perhaps also for copper and arsenic.

From abstract: The report is limited to the geology of lode deposits in the northwestern part of the Boise Basin which are in or near mines that were in operation at the time of visit, in 1930. Owing to the recent inactivity of the formerly rich placer (leposits, there is nothing essential regarding them to add to Lindgren's report published in 1898. The area studied is underlain by granitic rock of the Idaho batholith, which is cut by dikes of Miocene(?) age. These dikes are dacite porphyry (intruded early) ; rhyolite porphyry, granophyre porphyry, and granite porphyry (closely related in character and age) ; and several basic varieties (of which some, at least, are of relatively late origin). Diorite porphyry dikes, of undetermined age but probably older than all of those named above, are also present.

From abstract: The Valdez Creek mining district was one of those visited in 1931 in connection with the study of the mineral resource of the region tributary to the Alaska Railroad. It is underlain by argillite, schist, tuff, tuffaceous conglomerate, limestone, and greenstone, listed in approximate stratigraphic order beginning with the youngest.

From Introduction: "The value of its mineral resources has long been recognized as a matter of concern in the welfare of every nation, and all wise governments almost from time immemorial have taken steps to find out about, utilize, and safeguard such of these natural resources as lie within their own boundaries or to acquire rights in those they need that lie outside those boundaries. Obviously one of these lines concerns itself with the record of present performance-how much of the different mineral commodities is the country at present producing, where does this production come from and what are the facts as to the current developments in the industry? To answer some of these questions authoritatively is part of the work of the Alaskan branch of the Geological Survey, and answers to those questions for the year 1934 are given in the accompanying report."