History revisited

April 28, 2006

By DAWN DE BUSK

Frontiersman

SUTTON - Palmer resident Chuck Shaver, 85, witnessed day after day of subzero temperatures that crept into weeks during the winter of 1946-47, and when employees at the Jonesville Mine got a brief reprieve from the bitter cold, it snowed - abundantly, he said.

&#8220In February 1947, you didn't want to rush into anything too fast or the steel might break,” said Shaver, a Palmer resident who worked as a mechanic for Jonesville Mine from 1946 until its closure in 1967.

Sutton homesteader Eino Kuoppola, 89, remembers the winter of 1946-47. He and his five brothers traveled by showshoes from their Eska home to their jobs at Jonesville Mine.

&#8220That was the coldest winter. It came pretty early - that cold spell. In 1946, it broke records for the North American continent,” Kuoppola said.

The highest number of consecutive days for temperatures 32 below or colder happened during the week of Jan. 29 to Feb. 4, 1947, according to the National Weather Service's Anchorage climate records list. A 13-day stretch from Jan. 24 until Feb. 5, 1947, holds the record for most consecutive days of below-zero temperatures. Three dates in 1947 - Jan. 30, Feb. 3 and Feb. 4 - still stand as among the top-five low temperatures for the state, according to the climate list. Aug. 14, 1946, remains the earliest date of summer receding into a 32-degree or colder day, NWS said.

Kuoppola said it wasn't unbearably cold in the underground mines where he worked eight-hour shifts and spent his lunch hour. Because he was an avid trapper, snowshoeing in the subzero chill didn't phase him either, he said.

&#8220I was in pretty good shape, then. But I wouldn't want to do it now,” Kuoppala said.

Along with coping with record-breaking cold snaps, former miners living in the Valley found a sense of community in the lifestyle they shared while Sutton was an economically viable coal-mining town from the beginning of the 20th Century until 1967.

&#8220At that time (1940s) all of Alaska was run by coal, They couldn't get enough coal miners so the army sent up men to work the mines,” said Kuoppola, who started a stint at Eska Mines and transferred to Jonesville Mine in the Wishbone Hill mining district.

The Evan Jones or Jonesville Mines opened in October 1920, and produced coal that heated Fort Richardson, the Fourth Avenue Theater and many Anchorage homes, according to Shaver.

In 1966, construction to bring natural gas to the military base began. Little by little, as more homes converted to natural gas, the demand for coal dwindled, Shaver said.

&#8220The writing was on the wall, so to speak,” he said, adding the mine closed when Fort Rich switched to natural gas.

Shaver, who is a former Coal Miner Hall of Fame inductee, remembers a supportive atmosphere among miners.

When Nuble &#8220Tex” Hamilton arrived in Sutton to work, some of the men rallied around to build him a suitable winter home.

&#8220He came up in a truck pulling a covered wagon. It was a wooden bed with a canvas top and three mattresses deep. His family was going to live in it for the winter,” Shaver said. &#8220We worked our butts off to build a shack for him. He had a Coleman stove to heat the place.”

Shaver remembers a humorous response from Glen &#8220Sparky” Vore during the day-to-day shifts of the miners.

&#8220Sparky's wife was going to have a baby. He came back from Anchorage for his 6 p.m. shift,” Shaver said. &#8220I asked him how everything went. He said, ‘Yep, she's OK. She had one of those sincere-ian things.' ”

Jim Psenak, owner since 1986 of the Alpine Inn, where the 20th Annual Coal Miners Ball will be held Saturday, said the miners considered themselves not just a community, but a family.

&#8220Being left out of the list of inductees is like being the family member no one talks about. It's astounding how their attitude changes, even with someone who turned it down before,” Psenak said.

Those miners still living, as well as their children, discover a source of pride in being associated with Sutton's coal-mining past that turned the wheels of an economy for approximately 50 years, and has been quiet for almost as long.

Kuoppola not only lived the miner's life during Sutton's coal mining history, but he recorded those events with his camera. Many of his vintage photos hang above the bar. The faces of men wearing headlamps stare back at the camera. Another photo shows an Alaska Railroad car heaped with coal.

&#8220I have some good underground photos of the mine. I have an old metal coal car sitting in my yard,” he said. &#8220I've filled many a wooden car with coal.”

Contact Dawn De Busk at 352-2252 or dawn.debusk@frontiersman.com.