Coal played large part in Sutton's history

May 6, 2005

DAWN DE BUSK /Frontiersman reporter

SUTTON - At one time the biggest coal producer in the Wishbone Hill coal district, Jonesville Mine began unearthing coal decades before the U.S. joined World War II, and shut down its operations in 1967.

Retired mine employee Walt Mayor, 91, and his wife, Elsie, live in a home he built in Sutton, but keep close ties to the mine - or at least the land where it's located.

"When our grandkids come to visit, we take them there. We've found (fossilized) plant life, like leaves, willow trees, sequoia trees and even ginkgo trees, but that's pretty rare," Elsie Mayor said.

Fossil hunting isn't the only activity that's occurring at the site of the once-busy mines. The company Knoll Acres has been eyeing the economic feasibility of reject coal and has discovered a market for it. As early as this autumn, the rejected coal could be trucked out of Sutton and loaded onto ships at Port MacKenzie.

Sixty years ago, Mayor slept in an employee-housing building near Eska when he began his relationship with the mining company. As the mechanic at Jonesville Mines from 1945-1967, Mayor worked above ground, fixing the mill and mining equipment.

Keeping that equipment running

sometimes required more than eight hours a day, he said.

"If a breakdown hap-pened, that might entail overtime," Mayor said. There were two eight-hour crews - one starting at 4 a.m. and the second crew coming in at 2 p.m. Both crews put in a six-day workweek.

Palmer resident Ron Aklestad joined the company in 1964 as a heavy-equipment operator.

"It was: Go to work, load coal, haul rock, go home, go to bed, get up and do it the next day. It was a steady job, but it was a good job," said Aklestad, who was paid $5.35 an hour. "In 1964, we were busy as bees. It was good money. That was higher than most truck drivers and cat skinners."

Another mining veteran, Dave Meyers Sr., 69, followed in his father's footsteps.

"It was a good job because it was right here at home, year-round," Meyers said.

When he was a boy, Meyers' family moved from Pennsylvania to Alaska. His father had worked in Pennsylvania coal mines, and was hired by Jonesville in 1950. Meyers' dad traveled to the Last Frontier, while mom drove the kids to Great Falls, Mont. The head of the household flew to Montana and drove his family through Canada to the community of Sutton.

Meyers entered the mining industry as a heavy-equipment operator in 1955. He worked the Knob Hill coal mines, but left when he was drafted into the army in 1958.

After an honorable discharge, he put his operating skills to work at Jonesville Mine, remaining an employee from 1963 through 1967.

"A lot of that reject coal would be burning. I had to dig it up and put the fires out," said Meyers, who operated a bulldozer and ran a dump truck.

Mayor, who remembers working with Meyers' dad, also recalls the protocol for the combustible coal piles.

"We let the dump pile burn, and then, later on, we compacted it," he said.

Although it remained the dream of many an owner and investor, moving the product out of Alaska's borders never materialized. The quality of the coal was unsuitable for exportation. However, Alaska's consumption kept the industry alive from the 1920s through the '60s.

The Sutton area provided 238,960 tons of coal in 1941. In 15 years, that production level had more than doubled, with 844,047 tons of coal being removed from the mines in 1957, according to the book "Knik Matanuska Susitna: A Visual History of the Valley."

Two mining accidents blackened the history of the lucrative Jonesville Coal Mine.

"The worst mining accident in Alaska occurred there when an underground explosion killed 14 men in 1937. Another explosion in 1957 killed five miners in a developing prospect slope," according to "Knik Matanuska Susitna."

After the 1964 Good Friday earthquake in Alaska, the mine temporarily closed. Meyers said he thought the mine suspended operations for about a month, and he went elsewhere to work for that duration.

However, Mayor said he recalls it being a shorter amount of time - only a few days - before he went back to work.

The industry, like all business, relied on a consistent demand for coal. When it lost its biggest client, Fort Richardson, Jonesville Mines' financial footing quickly slipped.

"The underground portion of the mine closed down for economic reasons in 1958, but strip mining continued until the Anchorage military bases, a major market for Jonesville coal, switched to natural gas. In 1967 Jonesville closed," according to "Knik Matanuska Susitna."

"I knew it was coming to an end, so I got a different job. I quit in December 1966 and went overseas to Okinawa, Japan. I was running shovel and dragline over there," said Aklestad, who retired in 1997 and lives in the Butte.

Meyers, who kept his home in Sutton, said he remembers the atmosphere prior to the mines' shutdown.

"What can you do? You just have to keep a stiff upper lip and keep living," he said.