List of Quarries in Alaska & Quarry Links, Photographs and Articles
Prince of Wales Island (Continued)

• Prince of Wales Island, Dry Pass to Winter Harbor, Alaska – Granite & Marble Deposits along North side of Dry Pass to Winter Harbor (circa 1920) (Marble & Granite) (Excerpt from Mineral Resources of Southeastern Alaska, Bulletin 682, by Ernest F. Burchard, U. S. Geological Survey, 1920)

  Dry Pass.

  “The marble area extends eastward from Calder about 2 miles along the north side of Dry Pass to a small shallow cove known locally as Winter Harbor, just east of the shallowest part of Dry Pass, where it terminates against a mass of gray granite. The marble in this vicinity is white and gray to light grayish blue in color and is coarsely crystalline near the contact with the granite. On the surface it is not very hard and is easily disintegrated to sand by water running down the slopes. On the northeast shore of the small cove the marble forms low cliffs, over one of which at the north end of the cove, falls a small mountain stream. Half a mile above the mouth of this creek a cliff of gray coarsely crystalline marble 100 feet high (No. 28) surmounts a talus slope about 200 feet high, which extends from the creek to the cliff. The top of the marble cliff is probably 500 feet above sea level. The general trend of the ridge is N. 60° E., and the marble mass may be continuous with the deposits located by the Vermont Marble Co. south of Red Bay. Between Winter Harbor and Shakan Bay the marble beds are cut by several dikes and are intruded by small areas of basaltic rock.

  “Thin sections of the white marble near the cove and of the light-gray marble from the cliff half a mile from the shore were examined by T. N. Dale. Both are coarse grained. In the white marble the grain diameter ranges between 0.56 and 4.48 millimeters, but mostly between 1.40 and 2.80 millimeters. Measurements, according to the Rosiwal method showed an average grain diameter of 0.049 inch, or 1.24 millimeters, and the texture is fairly even. In the light-gray marble the grain diameter ranges between -.28 and 2.80 millimeters, mostly 0.56 to 1.96 millimeters. The Rosiwal measurements showed an average grain diameter of 0.0331 inch or 084 millimeter, and the texture is uneven.

  “Marble as coarse as this seldom shows as great strength as fine-grained marble and is likely to show greater porosity and absorption, yet if normally sound stone can be obtained it strength will doubtless be found ample for all interior decorative work for which the marble would be suitable, and probably also for exterior walls of small buildings. Certain Georgia marbles that have been largely used for decorative purposes resemble the gray rock in color and texture.”

• Prince of Wales Island, Dry Pass (north of), Alaska – Marble Deposit north of Dry Pass (Marble) (Excerpt from Mineral Resources of Southeastern Alaska, Bulletin 682, by Ernest F. Burchard, U. S. Geological Survey, 1920)

  Important Undeveloped Deposits.

  “Some of the undeveloped deposits of marble described in this paper (those from which no stone has been quarried) possess elements of possible economic value, but not all of them seem to warrant prospecting, and even those that have appeared most favorable on cursory inspection may prove on prospecting to be totally unfit for exploitation. The more important of these undeveloped deposits, whose surface appearance and general relations suggest that further investigations might be warranted whenever the demand for marble on the Pacific coast exceeds the present production, are mentioned in the following summary....:

  “A vast quantity of coarse marble, of a pleasing light grayish-blue shade, is available north of Dry Pass (No. 28). This place, however, is not accessible by ocean-going boats, and marble could be barged down to Shakan Bay only at times of high tide in Dry Pass. ”

• Prince of Wales Island, Dry Pass, Alaska - Limestone Quarry – El Capitan Marble Co./Vermont Marble Co. (Marble) (The following information is from Mineral Resources of Alaska: Report on Progress of Investigations in 1917, Bulletin 692, by G. C. Martin and Others, 1919, pp. 89.

  Mining Developments in the Ketchikan District - West Coast.

  “Aside from the output of the Vermont Marble Co., who operated on about the usual scale, there was no production of marble. Development work was continued at the El Capitan quarry, on Dry Pass, for a part of the summer, and a number of diamond-drill holes were put down, aggregating 1,000 feet. The cores show white crystalline marble, with some beds of blue and some of black and white.”

  • Prince of Wales Island north of Dry Pass/east of Winter Harbor, Alaska – El Capitan Marble Company Quarries (circa 1920) (Marble) (Excerpt from Mineral Resources of Southeastern Alaska, Bulletin 682, by Ernest F. Burchard, U. S. Geological Survey, 1920)

    El Capitan.

    “On the north side of Dry Pass, about 2 ½ miles east of Winter Harbor, east of the granite mass just mentioned, marble beds (No. 29) form the surface rocks for a mile or more. Ten marble claims located here were acquired by the El Capitan Marble Co., in 1903. In 1904 a small quarry pit 12 feet deep was opened near the tidewater by channeling and gadding machines, and 3 gangsaws operated by steam power were installed. A small quantity of marble was shipped to Seattle. Operations were suspended at the end of 1904 and have not been resumed, although the property has been cared for, and it is rumored that the quarry will be reopened. Drilling operations were under way in the summer of 1917.

    “The marble exposed in the El Capitan quarry is of medium grain and not very hard. It is of slightly coarser texture and shows more contrast than the marble at Calder. The color is white with faint gray veins and cloudy areas. The exposures near the beach are badly fractured. In one set of fractures, which strikes N. 60° E., nearly all the openings are filled with quartz, which stands out in relief on the weathered surfaces. These quartz seams are nearly vertical and are spaced from 3 or 4 inches in the marble exposed in the wall of the quarry pit. The presence of siliceous material in the marble may render the stone slightly difficult to saw uniformly. Several metadiabase dikes cut the marble beds. Near the quarry one dike which is much jointed and has been faulted and deformed ranges from 12 to 18 inches in thickness, strikes N. 40° E., and dips steeply southeast. Wright considers that the dikes were intruded and later disturbed, all, however, prior to the metamorphism of the limestone beds.

    “In the bluffs northeast of the El Capitan quarry at 200 to 400 feet above sea level are exposures of medium-grained light-blue marble which has been prospected by pits and trenches, and about half a mile above the mouth of a small creek that empties near the sawing plant are exposures of fine to medium grained white marble, all of which are included within the El Capitan group of claims.

    “Three thin sections of these marbles were examined by T. N. Dale. A section of the marble from the quarry opening showed an uneven texture and proved to have a grain diameter ranging from 0.05 to 0.75 millimeter, but mostly between 0.125 to 0.5 millimeter. Rosiwal measurements showed an average grain diameter of 0.0059 inch, or 0.15 millimeter, mostly from 0.07 to 0.25 millimeter, with an estimated average diameter of 0.125 millimeter, indicating that the grain is medium. The texture is even. A section of another specimen of white marble from the same deposit showed a grain diameter of 0.05 to 0.375 millimeter, mostly between 0.125 and 0.5 millimeter. The texture is uneven. Rosiwal measurements showed an average grain diameter of 0.0052 inch, or 0.132 millimeter.”

  • Prince of Wales Island, Dry Pass, Alaska - Limestone Quarry - El Capitan Marble Co./Vermont Marble Co. (From Southeastern Coastal Alaska Limestone Terrain (1944), presented by the Alaska Department of Natural Resources. The information in the report was taken from a report "Limestones of the Pacific Northwest," by Edwin Hodge, industrial raw materials consultant, September 1, 1944, for the Bonneville Power Administration. (The link from which this information was obtained is no longer available.)
    <http://wwwdggs.dnr.state.ak.us/scan1/mr/text/MR191-08.PDF>

    "Dry Pass, 25 miles long, extends east from Calder and Shakaan Strait to El Capitan Strait, El Capitan Marble Co.; Vermont Marble Co.

    "Rocks: Limestone occurs on two small islands and at the north side of the entrance. Pre-Silurian in age. Part of a large area covering Prince of Kales and adjacent islands. Associated with greenstones, schists, and gneisses. Strike N 60° East. Cut by dikes which have marbleized adjacent limestone. Forms bluff 200 to 400 feet high.

    "Quality: Uniformly pure crystalline marble, white to blue-gray, limestone, some quarts (sic) seams."

    "Commercial considerations: Thick. To Seattle, 832 miles."

  • Prince of Wales Island, Alaska – El Capitan Mining Company (Seattle) (From Southeastern Coastal Alaska Limestone Terrain (1944), presented by the Alaska Department of Natural Resources. The information in the report was taken from a report "Limestones of the Pacific Northwest," by Edwin Hodge, industrial raw materials consultant, September 1, 1944, for the Bonneville Power Administration.) (The link from which this information was obtained is no longer available.)
    <http://wwwdggs.dnr.state.ak.us/scan1/mr/text/MR191-08.PDF>

    "Klawak Passage, between Koscuisko and Calder. El Chpitan (sic) Mining Company (Seattle).

• Prince of Wales Island, Point Colpoys, Alaska – Limestone & Marble Deposits at Point Colpoys (circa 1920) (Marble) (Excerpt from Mineral Resources of Southeastern Alaska, Bulletin 682, by Ernest F. Burchard, U. S. Geological Survey, 1920)

  Northern Part of Prince of Wales Island - Point Colpoys.

  “Much of the northern shore line of Prince of Wales Island facing Sumner Strait is formed by fine-grained to dense bluish-gray limestone, more or less metamorphosed and cut and impregnated by igneous rock. West of Point Colpoys is an area of marble (No. 20) that has appeared sufficiently attractive to prospectors, Woodbridge & Lowery, to warrant them in staking out claims. The marble is fine grained and comprises mottled and white varieties, the mottled greatly predominating. Reddish stains along fracture planes give to some portions of the marble an attractive appearance. Some of the marble is brecciated, and the rock is closely fractured and jointed on the beach exposures. Numerous thin dikes of altered olivine basalt cut the deposit in several directions; the most prominent system of dikes strikes about N. 40° W. This deposit is exposed along the beach for a quarter of a mile or more and extends back into the interior an undetermined distance. The quantity of the marble available is probably small, and it is likely that owing to the multitude of intersecting dikes and fractures no large blocks can be obtained. This portion of Prince of Wales Island near the shore is low and is covered with a swampy forest growth.

  “Another group of claims owned by Woodbridge & Lowery lies about 2 miles west of Point Colpoys (No. 21), Pls. I and III. The rock here is fine-grained limestone, only slightly if at all metamorphosed. It is all much brecciated and displays a variety of colors, including white, red, gray, and black. Fractures and joints are very numerous, and the rock is cut by many dikes which have been faulted and contorted. The exposure extends along the beach for one-third mile or more, but is obscured inland by a heavy forest growth.”

• Prince of Wales Island, Port Protection, Alaska – Limestone & Marble Deposits at Port Protection (circa 1920) (Marble) (Excerpt from Mineral Resources of Southeastern Alaska, Bulletin 682, by Ernest F. Burchard, U. S. Geological Survey, 1920)

  Northern Part of Prince of Wales Island - Port Protection.

  “About a quarter of a mile southeast of the head of Port Protection and 1 mile from deep water (No. 26), a mass of limestone forms a divide between two small creeks that flow into the bay. This limestone forms a bluff about 100 feet in height with nearly vertical bedding and a northwesterly strike. The rock consists chiefly of fine-grained gray to nearly white stone, in places partly metamorphosed to marble. It is badly jointed and fractured at the surface and is veined and discolored, especially along the fracture planes.”

• Prince of Wales Island, Red Bay, Alaska – Limestone & Marble Deposits at Red Bay (circa 1920) (Marble & Limestone) (Excerpt from Mineral Resources of Southeastern Alaska, Bulletin 682, by Ernest F. Burchard, U. S. Geological Survey, 1920)

  Northern Part of Prince of Wales Island - Red Bay.

  “At the east side of the entrance to Red Bay, along the west shore of Bells Island, fine-grained slightly metamorphosed limestone is exposed for about half a mile (No. 22). Below high-tide level this stone is generally light colored on fresh surfaces, with white and pink mottled effects predominating; above high-tide level darker colors, such as grays and blues, predominate. Some handsome mottled and brecciated material is present here. The deposit is badly fractured and is intersected closely by dikes of andesite and basaltic rock. Woodbridge & Lowery have located a claim extending 1,500 feet along the shore and 600 feet inland known as the East Side claim. There is a heavy growth of forest and underbrush above tide level.

  “Marble appears also on the west shore of Red Bay about 2 ½ miles from the mouth, near the head of the bay, and beyond in the vicinity of Red Bay Mountain.

  “The marble on the west shore of Red Bay (No. 23) is fine grained and is mostly light colored, showing white, faintly to strongly clouded gray, and grayish-blue shades. The part exposed at the surface is rather soft. The beds are cut by several dikes of metadiabase, most of which are only a few inches thick, though one measuring 4 to 6 feet was noted. Thin irregular stringers from some of these dikes penetrate the marble in all directions. The marble exposed on the beach is jointed and, where weathered, shows slightly schistose planes that strike north-northeast. One bed of partly metamorphosed dark-bluish limestone, much fractured and having the seams filled with calcite, was noted interbedded with the marble.

  “On account of the softness of the samples, which were of necessity taken from the water-soaked surface, it was difficult to make thin sections of this marble. Two sections, both light colored, fine grained, and more or less fragmentary, were examined by T. N. Dale. One section showed a grain diameter of 0.02 to 0.141 millimeter, with some exceptionally large particles, but mostly between 0.047 and 0.094 millimeter. The texture is uneven. The Rosiwal measurements showed an average grain diameter of 0.001755 inch, or 0.04457 millimeter. The other section shows a grain diameter ranging between 0.02 and 0.2 millimeter, but mostly between 0.03 and 0.094 millimeter, and the estimated average diameter is 0.05 millimeter.

  “Claims aggregating 80 acres, extending about half a mile parallel to the beach and one-fourth mile inland, were located on this deposit by Woodbridge and Lowery. In 1912 some prospecting was done on the beach by hand and by blasting with black powder, and back of the beach, within the woods, the soil was stripped off and the surface of the marble was bared in several pits and trenches, some of which were 140 feet long. The cover is 2 to 4 feet or more thick. It is reported that in 1915 the Vermont Marble Co. opened a quarry on these claims about a quarter of a mile back from the beach. The marble is said to be cream-colored with rust-colored veins, like the Grecian Skyros marble. The beds are reported to stand vertical and to be much fractured, so that the blocks obtainable are relatively small.

  “On the west shore of Red Bay about three-quarters of a mile south of the Woodbridge and Lowery claims and separated from them by a body of dark intrusive rock is an exposure of fine-grained light-gray to dark-gray marble. Samples from an exposure in the woods about 500 feet back from the beach and 60 to 80 feet above high-tide level are mottled. The weathered marble on the beach is very soft and appears slightly schistose, with the gray veins parallel to the schistosity.

  “At the head of Red Bay and above the head of the bay, between Red Bay Mountain and the head of a small lake about 1 ½ miles long which lies south of the bay, there are deposits of marble (Nos. 24 and 25) on which the Vermont Marble Co. has located claims. It is probable that this belt of marble extends southwestward nearly if not quite to Dry Pass. The mass of marble at Winter Harbor has been traced a mile or more northeastward from Dry Pass.

  “The deposit at the head of the bay (No. 24) has been tested by drill holes near Little Creek and on the left bank of a small creek between Little Creek and Big Creek. About 25 feet of a 7/8-inch core was noted at the latter place in September, 1913, and a small area of perhaps 10 square yards of the surface rock had been exposed by stripping. The marble is white with gray veins, of medium grain, and rather soft, so far as shown by the exposure and the core. The drill hole intersected a 1 1/4-inch dike of hornblende andesite (?) containing pyrites. Mr. Dale finds that the grain diameter of the marble ranging from 0.074 to 0.925 millimeter, mostly 0.148 to 0.555 millimeter, and estimates the average to be 0.216 millimeter. The Rosiwal measurement gave an average grain diameter of 0.0079 inch, or 0.2 millimeter. The texture is uneven. The marble is covered by a heavy mold and forest growth. It lies at a distance of a mile or more from deep water, as the upper end of Red Bay consists of mud flats at low tide.

  “On the southeast shore of the bay near the head, facing the mudflats at low tide.

  “On the southeast shore of the bay near the head, facing the mud flats, are exposures of hard fine-grained subcrystalline, partly metamorphosed limestone of light-gray and cream colors with mottled effects and also showing banded gray and blue phases. A thin section of this limestone was found by Mr. Dale to be composed of polarizing untwinned grains of calcite from 0.004 to 0.043 millimeter in diameter with a few lenses of twinned calcite grains. This rock is cut by andesite dikes and more or less fractured. In order to ascertain whether this rock was limestone or dolomite the following determinations were made by R. K. Bailey:

  Analysis of limestone from head of Red Bay.

  Insoluble matter – 1.70

  Calcium carbonate (CaCO₃) – 96.90

  Magnesium Carbonate (MgCO₃) – 2.59”

• Prince of Wales Island, near Red Bay, Alaska – Marble Outcrop (Marble) – “Prince of Wales Island, near Red Bay, Alaska – “West side of Red Bay, Prince of Wales Island, Alaska. Marble outcrop on beach. W. F. Woodbridge, claimant, in view.” (Photograph from the United States Geological Survey Photographic Library.)
• Prince of Wales Island, near Red Bay, Alaska – Marble Deposits near Red Bay (circa 1920) (Marble ) (Excerpt from Mineral Resources of Southeastern Alaska, Bulletin 682, by Ernest F. Burchard, U. S. Geological Survey, 1920)

  Important Undeveloped Deposits.

  “Some of the undeveloped deposits of marble described in this paper (those from which no stone has been quarried) possess elements of possible economic value, but not all of them seem to warrant prospecting, and even those that have appeared most favorable on cursory inspection may prove on prospecting to be totally unfit for exploitation. The more important of these undeveloped deposits, whose surface appearance and general relations suggest that further investigations might be warranted whenever the demand for marble on the Pacific coast exceeds the present production, are mentioned in the following summary….:

  “In the northern part of Prince of Wales Island, in the vicinity of Red Bay (Nos. 23, 24, 25), a considerable variety of marble is found, mostly of fine grain. Much of this marble is easily accessible, and it is probable that the creek and lake above the head of the bay may be utilized in bringing blocks down to tidewaters.”

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