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

• Prince of Wales Island, near Shakan, Alaska – Historical notes about Tokeen Marble – Alaska Historical Files, Alaska State Library Historical Collections, Bayers, Lloyd H., 1911-1968, Captain Lloyd H. “Kinky” Bayers Collection, 1898-1967, MS 10.  (Subjects included on the note cards are:  (1)  “Marble” Marble discovered on Prince of Wales Island near Shakan; Vermont Marble Co. marble quarries at Shakan and Tokeen; Marble discovered by Vermont Marble Co. at El Capitan Pass; the Tokeen marble plant; (2)  “Mines and Mining”: “3. Alaskan (Sitka) History of Alaska Marble (John the Baptist Bay—1874”)
• Prince of Wales Island, near Shakan, Alaska – the Alaska Marble Company (Marble) (The following information is from “Marble Production in Individual States,” Mineral Resources of the United States, 1905, David T. Day, Chief of Division, Department of the Interior, United States Geological Survey, Government Printing Office, Washington, D.C., 1906, pp. 1054.)

  “Only a small quantity of Alaskan marble was put upon the market in 1905, and that was chiefly for the local monument trade...The Alaska Marble Company at Shakan, Prince of Wales Island, has been constructing buildings, erecting machinery, building a tram railroad and a wharf for deep-sea vessels, and expects to make shipments in the near future….”

  “At Klawak Pass, near Shakan, the ‘Fox Island’ deposit has been exploited to some extent but with no commercial output.”

  • Prince of Wales Island, north of Shakan, Alaska – the Alaska Marble Company Quarry (circa 1907) (Marble) Excerpt from “The Building Stones and Materials of Southeastern Alaska,” by Charles W. Wright, in Mineral Resources of Alaska: Report on Progress of Investigations in 1907, Bulletin 345, by Alfred H. Brooks and Others, Department of the Interior, United States Geological Survey, 1908, pp. 117-119.

    Alaska Marble Company – Situation and Development.

    “The properties of the Alaska Marble Company are situated on Marble Creek a few miles north of Shakan, Prince of Wales Island, bordering the coast for 2 miles and being over half a mile in width. They are located upon a belt of Devonian limestone about 3,000 feet in width flanking the west side of an intrusive granite mass which forms the low mountain ridge to the east and which is evidently the direct cause of the alteration of the limestone to marble. This deposit was first discovered in 1896 and finally located in 1905, the first work being done along the exposures in the creek bed half a mile from the shore. From 1900 to 1904 prospecting was extended up the hillsides and drill holes were sunk to ascertain the quality of the product in depth. Early in 1904 the Alaska Marble Company was incorporated, and developments on a large scale were immediately begun. At present (circa 1908) the plant consists of a wharf equipped with derricks, a gravity railroad to the quarry, 3,200 feet of length necessary channeling and gadding machines, and various buildings. At the quarry, located on the south side of Marble Creek at an elevation of 100 feet, an area 100 by 200 feet has been stripped and quarried to an average depth of 60 feet, measured on the mountain side. A test shipment of 100 tons was made in 1902, but actual production did not begin until 1906. The marble is now being placed on the market in the cities along the Pacific coast. The manufacturing plant of the company is located at Tacoma, Wash.

    The Marble Deposit.

    “The extent of the marble deposit at this locality has been investigated at a number of points on the surface by open cuts and trenches and in depth by 18 drill holes, and at all these places marble usually of good quality is exposed. As above noted, the marble belt is approximately 3,000 feet in width, striking in a northwesterly direction and dipping to the southwest. It is limited on the northeast side by an intrusive granite mass and on the southwest by the shore line. To the south it crosses the entrance to Dry Pass, but just back of Shakan it is cut off by a granite mass. To the northwest it extends into the channel and reappears at the entrance to Calder Bay, extending northward and overlying beds of conglomerate. Along the shore exposures and at the quarry small dikes of diabase, striking north-eastward and much altered and faulted, were observed intersecting the marble beds. Apparently these dikes antedate the metamorphism of the limestone and therefore the intrusion of the granite. They are, however, but a foot or two in width and not sufficiently numerous to affect the value or expense of quarrying the marble. In the present opening at the quarry only one dike is exposed. Both surface cracks and slipping planes are present in the surface exposures of the marble, but in depth these are less numerous and will not materially interfere with quarrying.

    “Three distinct varieties are found – pure white, blue veined with white background, and light blue much of which has a mottled appearance. The pure white, which has a finely crystalline texture, is the most valuable. All of the marble is free from the silica and flint beds common in most quarries, and though thin seams of pyrite were observed, they do not occur in a quantity detrimental to the stone. The following is a chemical analysis of the white marble made by E. F. Ladd for the Alaska Marble Company:

    Chemical analysis of white marble from Marble Creek, Prince of Wales Island, Alaska.

    Insoluble matter – None

    Oxide of iron (Fe₂O₃) – Slight trace

    Sulphuric anhydride (SO₃) – Trace.

    Lime (CaO) – 55.59

    Magnesia (MgO) -.30

    Carbon dioxide (CO₂) – 43.67

    Undetermined -.44

    100.00

    Calcium carbonate (CaCO₃) – 99.26

    “A qualitative test for magnesia in a sample collected by the writer was made by George Steiger, of the United States Geological Survey, who reports a content of less than 1 per cent.

    “To determine the crushing strength of the stone the Alaska Marble Company submitted samples to N. H. Winchell, State geologist of Minnesota, who reports an average strength of 10,521 pounds per square inch – a strength ample for all building purposes. Though not equal to the best Italian grades, this marble is better than most American marbles, and in the market will compete on at least equal terms with the product of Vermont, Georgia, and Tennessee.

    Method of Quarrying.

    “At the quarry it was first necessary to remove the uppermost layers of the more or less fractured marble. This was done by channeling machines, a method which is preferable to blasting, as it does not injure the massive rock in depth. The machine used is mounted with a donkey engine on a truck and cuts a channel 2 inches in width at a rate of 7 to 8 square feet per hour. These channels are extended to a depth of 4 feet and are made at intervals of 4 or 6 feet in one direction and at intervals of 6 feet at right angles, so as to form blocks 4 to 6 feet by 6 feet in surface area and 4 feet in depth. These blocks are undercut by gadding machines, in which a drill is set so as to drill a series of holes under the block, and in these holes wedges are driven and the block is freed from its base. It is then lifted by a derrick to the car on which it is carried to the wharf. The blocks contain from 96 to 144 cubic feet of marble and weight from 7 ½ to 11 tons each, the dimensions depending on the handling capacity of the machinery. The larger portion of the marble product is shipped in the rough state to a sawing and polishing plant in Tacoma, where it is prepared for the market. Small shipments have also been made to Chicago, Milwaukee, St. Louis, Cincinnati, and other points for trial tests.”

  • Prince of Wales Island, north of Shakan, Alaska – the Alaska Marble Company (circa 1907/1908) (Marble) Excerpt from “Building Stones,” The Ketchikan and Wrangell Mining Districts of Alaska, Bulletin 347, by Fred Eugene Wright and Charles Will Wright, Department of the Interior, United States Geological Survey, Washington: Government Printing Office, 1908, pp. 192-195. (This book is available on Google Book Search for reading and downloading to your computer in PDF format.)

    Alaska Marble Company – Prince of Wales Island.

    “Situation and development. – The properties of the Alaska Marble Company are situated on Marble Creek a few miles north of Shakan, bordering the coast for 2 miles in length and over a half a mile in width (see fig. 23). They are located upon a belt of Devonian limestone about 3,000 feet in width flanking the west side of an intrusive granite mass, which forms the low mountain ridge to the east and which is evidently the direct cause of the alteration of the limestone to marble. This deposit was first discovered in 1896 and finally located in 1905, the first work being done along the exposures in the creek bed one-half mile from the shore. From 1900 to 1904 prospecting was extended up the hillsides and drill holes sunk to ascertain the quality of the product in depth. Early in 1904 the Alaska Marble Company was incorporated and developments on a large scale were immediately begun. At present (circa 1907/1908) the plant consists of a wharf equipped with derricks, a gravity railroad to the quarry 3,200 feet in length, necessary channeling and gadding machines, and various buildings. At the quarry, located on the south side of Marble Creek at an elevation of 100 feet, an area 100 feet by 200 feet has been stripped and quarried to an average depth of 60 feet measured on the mountain side (Pl. XII, A). A test shipment of 100 tons was made in 1902, but actual production did not begin until early in 1906. The marble is now being placed on the market in the cities along the Pacific coast. The manufacturing plant of the company is located at Tacoma, Wash.

    (Caption) Fig. 23. Sketch map showing marble quarry and locations of Alaska Marble Company. (pp. 193)

    (Photo caption) Pl. XII. A. Marble blocks ready for shipment, quarried from Marble Creek deposits. (pp. 194)

    “The marble deposit. – The extent of the marble deposit at this locality has been investigated at a number of points on the surface by open cuts and trenches and in depth by 18 drill holes and at all of these places marble usually of good quality is exposed. As above noted, the marble belt is approximately 3,000 feet in width striking in a northwesterly direction and dipping to the southwest. It is limited on the northeast by an intrusive granite mass and on the southwest by the shore line. To the south it crosses the entrance to Dry Pass, but just back of Shakan it is cut ff by a granite mass, while to the northwest it extends into the channel and reappears at the entrance to Calder Bay, extending northward and overlying beds of conglomerate. Along the shore exposures and at the quarry small dikes of diabase, striking northeasterly and much altered and faulted, were observed intersecting the marble beds. Apparently these dikes antedate the metamorphism of the limestone and therefore the intrusion of the granite. They are, however, but a foot or two in width and not sufficiently numerous to affect the value or expense of quarrying the marble. In the present opening at the quarry only one dike is exposed. Both surface cracks and slipping planes are present in the surface exposures of the marble, but in depth these are less numerous and will not materially interfere with quarrying (see Pl. XII, B).

    (Photo caption) Pl. XII. B. Marble quarry working of the Alaska Marble Company, 3 miles north of Shakan, on Prince of Wales Island. (pp. 194)

    “Three distinct varieties of marble are found – pure white, blue-veined with white background, and light blue, often having a mottled appearance. The pure white, which has a finely crystalline texture, is the most valuable. All of the marble is free from silica and flint beds common in most quarries, and though thin seams of pyrite were observed they do not occur in a quantity detrimental to the stone. The following chemical analysis of the white marble was made by E. F. Lass from the Alaska Marble Company:

    Chemical analysis of white marble from Marble Creek, Prince of Wales Island, Alaska.

    Insoluble matter – 0

    Oxide of iron (Fe₂O₃ – Slight trace

    Sulphuric anhydride (SO₃) – Trace.

    Lime (CaO) – 55.59

    Magnesia (MgO) -.30

    Carbon dioxide (CO₂) – 43.67

    Undetermined -.44

    Total – 100.00

    Calcium Carbonate (CaCO₃) – 99.26

    “A qualitative test for magnesia in a sample collected by the writers was made by Dr. George Steiger, of the United States Geological Survey, who reports a content of less than 1 per cent.

    “To determine the crushing strength of the stone the Alaska Marble Company submitted samples to N. H. Winchell, State geologist of Minnesota, who reports an average strength of 10,521 pounds per square inch, a strength ample for all building purposes. Though not equal to the best Italian grades, this marble is better than most American marbles, and in the market will compete on at least equal terms with the product of Vermont, Georgia, and Tennessee.

    “Method of quarrying. – At the quarry it was first necessary to remove the uppermost layers of the more or less fractured marble. This was done by channeling machines, a method which is preferable to blasting, as it does not injure the massive rock in depth. The machine used is mounted with ‘donkey’ engine on a truck and cuts a channel 2 inches in width at a rate of 7 to 8 square feet per hour. These channels are extended to a depth of 4 feet and are made at intervals of 4 or 6 feet in one direction and at intervals of 6 feet at right angles so as to form blocks 4 to 6 feet by 6 feet in surface area and 4 feet in depth. These blocks are undercut by gadding machines, in which a drill is set so as to drill a series of holes under the block, and in these holes wedges are driven and the block is freed from its base. It is then lifted by a derrick to the car on which it is carried to the wharf. The blocks contain 96 to 144 cubic feet of marble and weigh from 7 ½ to 11 tons each, the dimensions depending on the handling capacity of the machinery (Pl. XII, A). The larger part of the marble product is shipped in the rough state to a sawing and polishing plant at Tacoma, where it is prepared for the market. Small shipments have also been made to Chicago, Milwaukee, St. Louis, Cincinnati, and other points for trial tests.”

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

    Shakan Bay

    “Marble and limestone beds border the northeast shore of Shakan Bay, and the marble is well exposed in the entrance to Dry Pass in two small islands, on which are Indian graveyards (Pl. IX, B).

    Plate IX. B. Indian graveyard on the small Marble Island at entrance to Dry Pass near Shakan (Alaska). View, photographed at half tide, shows characteristic shore outcrop of marble in this locality. (pp. 58)

    “This marble is now considered to be of Silurian age and to have been altered by the intrusion of a granite mass that lies adjacent to it on the southeast. Claims 2 miles long and half a mile or more wide were located along the coast of Shakan Bay (see fig. 2) in 1905 by the Alaska Marble Co., after considerable prospecting by trenching and drilling to ascertain the extent of the marble and its quality in depth. A quarry has been opened near Calder, at an altitude of about 100 feet on the hillside south of Marble Creek, about half a mile above its mouth (No. 27), and an area of 100 by 200 feet has been stripped and quarried to a depth of nearly 100 feet measured on the hillside, about 60 feet below the level of the tramway. (See Pl. IX, A.) A tunnel has been driven back for a distance of about 25 feet at the southeast corner of the quarry pit.

    Figure 2. Sketch map showing marble quarry and claims of Alaska Marble Co., on Prince of Wales Island, Shakan Bay (Alaska). (pp. 60)

    Plate IX. A. Marble quarry of Alaska Marble Co. at Calder, Prince of Wales, Island (Alaska). (pp. 58)

    “The quarry is connected with deep water in Marble Cove by an inclined trestle, 3,200 feet in length, on which is laid a standard-gage railroad track. Loaded cars run down to the wharf by gravity and are drawn back to the quarry by cable. The wharf is equipped with a stiff-leg derrick, and the quarry with two derricks, necessary channeling and gadding machines, and a complete machine shop. The power plant near the quarry which operates the quarry derricks and the tramway cable is equipped with an 80-horsepower boiler. A small engine on the wharf operates the derrick there.

    “The character and relations of the marble deposit are described as follows by the Wrights,* who visited this locality while active work was in progress:

    (* Footnote 1, page 61: Wright, F. E. and C. W., The Ketchikan and Wrangell mining districts, Alaska: U. S. Geol. Survey Bull. 347, pp. 19-4195, 1908.)

    “‘The extent of the marble deposit at this locality has been investigated at a number of points on the surface by open cuts and trenches and in depth by eighteen drill holes, and at all of these places marble usually of good quality is exposed. The marble belt is approximately 3,000 feet in width, striking in a north-nothwesterly (sic) direction and dipping to the southwest. It is limited on the northeast by an intrusive granite mass and on the southwest by the shore line. To the south it crosses the entrance to Dry Pass, but just back of Shakan it is cut off by a granite mass, while to the northwest it extends into the channel and reappears at the entrance to Calder Bay, extending northward and overlying beds of conglomerate. Along the shore exposures and at the quarry small dikes of diabase, striking northeasterly and much altered and faulted, were observed intersecting the marble beds. Apparently these dikes antedate the metamorphism of the limestone and therefore the intrusion of the granite. They are, however, but a foot or two in width and not sufficiently numerous to affect the value or expense of quarrying the marble. In the present opening at the quarry only one dike is exposed. Both surface cracks and slipping planes are present in the surface exposures of the marble, but in depth these are less numerous and will not materially interfere with quarrying.

    “‘Three distinct varieties of marble are found – pure white, blue-veined with white background, and light blue, often having a mottled appearance. The pure white, which has a finely crystalline texture, is the most valuable. All of the marble is free from silica and flint beds common to most quarries and though thin seams of pyrite were observed they do not occur in a quantity detrimental to the stone. The following chemical analysis of the white marble was made by E. F. Lass for the Alaska Marble Co.”

    Insoluble matter – 0

    Oxide of iron (Fe₂O₃) – Slight trace.

    Sulphuric anhydride (SO₃) – Trace.

    Lime (CaO) – 55.59

    Magnesia (MgO) -.30

    Carbon dioxide (CO₂) – 43.67

    Undetermined -.44

    (Total) 100.00

    Calcium carbonate (CaCO₃) – 99.26

    “‘A qualitative test for magnesia in a sample collected by the writers was made by Dr. George Steiger, of the United States Geological Survey, who reports a content of less than 1 per cent.

    “‘To determine the crushing strength of the stone the Alaska Marble Co. submitted samples to N. H. Winchell, State Geologist of Minnesota, who reports an average strength of 10,521 pounds per square inch, a strength ample for all building purposes. Though not equal to the best Italian grades this marble is better than most American marbles and in the market will compete on at least equal terms with the product of Vermont, Georgia, and Tennessee.’

    “A thin section of the white marble from Calder, examined by T. N. Dale, showed a grain diameter of 0.075 to 0.625 millimeter, mostly 0.125 to 0.375. The Rosiwal measurements gave an average grain diameter of 0.0058 inch, or 0.147 millimeter. The grade is medium, and the texture uneven.

    “A thin dike of metabasalt at this quarry contains much pyrite and a streak of pyrrhotite.

    “Experience in quarrying this marble seems to have shown that the whiter varieties are softer than the veined or clouded varieties. Areas in which the rock is too soft for commercial purposes are not uncommon, even in the depths of the quarry. The marble beds are much fractured, and as yet the fractures have not been found to disappear entirely with increasing depth. A vertical hole is reported to have been bored with a core drill 15 feet below the present bottom of the quarry, and two more holes were drilled in the southeast and southwest corners of the quarry, for distances of about 200 feet at an angle of about 45° to the horizontal. All these cores are reported to have shown marble of good quality.

    “Shipments of marble were made from this quarry each year from 1906 to 1910, but no quarrying has been done since December, 1909. The product in rough blocks was shipped mostly to a sawing and polishing plant at Tacoma, Wash., where it was prepared for interior decoration. Shipments were also made to Spokane and San Francisco and to several eastern cities. The closing of the quarry may have been due to failure to find sufficiently hard stone within the depths quarried. According to recent reports, it is planned to reopen this quarry whenever the conditions of finance and the markets will warrant it. Some development work is reported to have been done at Calder in 1915, and some prospect drilling on Dry Pass near the Indian burying ground yielded good white cores. The equipment generally has been kept in good condition.”

  • Prince of Wales Island, Shakan, Alaska – Alaska Marble Company Quarries (circa 1909) (Marble) (The following information is from An Abridged History of Alaska, by John W. Brown, 1909, pp. 21. The text of this book is available on the Internet Archive web site.)

    “Marble, pure white, light blue and blue veined, is found al many locations in this district, and some of the mines or quarries, such as the Alaska Marble Company, near Shakan, are producing beautiful blocks of commercial marble. The lime is not far distant when the coast can be supplied from these quarries. A variety of grades and kinds of granite and building stone can be easily found, but we have no market for them yet.”

  • Prince of Wales Island, near Shakan, Alaska – the Alaska Marble Company Quarry circa 1909 (Marble) (The following information is from Handbook of Alaska: Its Resources, Products, and Attractions, by Major-General A. W. Greely, New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1909, pp. 64.)

    “A new industry of southeastern Alaska pertains to building materials, the non-metallic minerals of cement, gypsum, clay, and granite being widely distributed. Marble quarries have been located and opened at various points on Prince of Wales Island, though very promising deposits are elsewhere in process of exploitation. The most extensive operations have been made by the Alaska Marble Company, whose quarries near Shakan have been worked since 1905. They have ample installation and plant in the shape of a gravity railroad, dressing and cutting machinery, with suitable shipping facilities. The importance of the industry is shown by the increase of shipments of marble and gypsum from $11,995 in 1906 to $71,958 in 1907, and yet greater in 1908.

    “Not only are the deposits most extensive in distribution and practically inexhaustible in quantity, but the marble is of the best quality. It is free from silica and flint, takes the chisel readily, presents a beautiful surface, and has an average crushing strength of over ten thousand pounds. The main deposits are of three varieties, pure white, light blue, and white with blue veins, some of the colored marbles being unexcelled by the finest Italian products.”

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