Event marks history of coal mining

April 29, 2005

DAWN DE BUSK/Frontiersman reporter

SUTTON - The 19th-annual Coal Miners' Ball will hail Sutton's coal-mining history, a past rich with lucrative activity, a revolving door of owners and investors and hard hours put in by workers who started their careers just after World War II.

The event will be held Saturday at the Alpine Inn, Mile 61 Glenn Hwy., and includes an honoring ceremony for the old-timers whose lives intertwined with the coal industry.

A kids' carnival is scheduled from 1-3 p.m. Those attending the ball will eat dinner at 5 p.m., with a cake auction following sometime afterward. Two bands, Coho and Element, will perform at 9 p.m. and 11 p.m.

Prior to the scheduled entertainment, people who have a history with coal mines in the Sutton area will be remembered as part of the old-timers' induction, which begins at 6 p.m.

Admission for the celebration will be $15 per person. The Sutton Community Council sponsors the Coal Miners' Ball.

Seldovia resident Geraldine "Gerry" Patrick stands out as one of the few living people who participated in the bygone era and will be honored. She worked as a waitress in the Jonesville Mine mess hall from October 1951 to April 1952.

Some of the people who will be honored Saturday include:

€ Nuble E. "Tex" Hamilton moved to the Valley in 1947, filed a homestead claim on 160 acres at Mile 58 Glenn Hwy. and worked in the Jonesville Mine's commissary and kitchen. He quit his job there in the early '50s to work full time on his farm and family sawmill, and died in 1959.

€ Ray Roberts owned 160 acres, some of which were located on what is now the Glenn Highway. Roberts built the O'Neil house, currently a historical site surrounded by other settlers' homes. He died in 1981.

€ Harry Hill worked as timekeeper for Lathrop Co. at the Suntrana Coal Mine in Healy and became involved with coal-mining management in 1944. He served as president of Evan Jones Coal Mine and sold his interest with Evan Jones in 1951 to take over operations of the Lathrop Co. He was involved in construction of the RCA Building, the Hill Building and several theaters in Anchorage and Fairbanks through 1969. He died in 1973.

€ Elsie Hill worked as a teacher at Eska Creek. She died in January.

The grandson of Elsie and Harry Hill, who is also named Harry Hill, will be present during the ceremony.

The event has been a part of Sutton's community for nearly two decades.

Jennifer Crosby, now serving for her second year on the planning committee, introduced the kids' carnival last year.

Members of the Sutton Activities Committee, who made posters for the event, will run the carnival and baby-sit during the event, Crosby said.

"(The children) will have as much fun as the grown-ups," she said.