Rich Valley history is worth preserving

Inserted into today’s Mat-Su Valley Frontiersman is a special edition we’ve put together honoring this year’s inductees into the Alpine Historical Society’s Coal Miner’s Hall of Fame. This marks the second year we’ve published such an edition.

The five Hall of Fame nominees will be inducted at the annual Coal Miner’s Ball at the Alpine Inn Saturday night. These five join 179 men previously memorialized in the Hall of Fame.

This year marks the 101st anniversary of an expedition to the Matanuska Coal Field to take samples of the mineral deposits there for testing on the East Coast. And it’s the 100th anniversary of the first load of coal being hauled from Chickaloon along the Matanuska River to tidewater. Led by Jack Dalton, that expedition spurred a 50-year period where coal was king and mining was a thriving industry in the Matanuska Valley.

During that time, coal fueled the railroad, heated and powered Anchorage’s growing military bases, and most of the region’s homes and businesses.

The coal mines also put us to work. Many families had food on their tables thanks to jobs at these mines.

But when oil and natural gas arrived in Alaska’s market, it transformed both the energy and economic landscapes of the state. Today, oil and gas accounts for nearly 90 of Alaska’s annual unrestricted general fund revenue.

But before oil fired the economic pistons of Alaska, that work was done by coal. That coal was mined by legions of hardy men who worked with their hands in the cold, dark underground tunnels to chisel a living from the mountains.

It is these men, women and families who will be honored at the Coal Miner’s Ball on Saturday. Among the Alpine Historical Society’s treasures is a fat three-ring binder with photos and stories of the people inducted into the Hall of Fame since it began in 1986.

While other chapters in our history are well-known and well-publicized, our coal and precious metals mining past has been forgotten by many. It is our hope that shining a light on these Hall of Famers will help preserve their memory and the legacy of coal-mining, which did so much to shape our community.

The Valley’s coal story is one chapter in a much longer tale. It would be disrespectful to omit the fact that Alaska was already home to rich, thriving Alaska Native cultures thousands of years before the first explorers or miners arrived.

We owe respect to all those who came before us, regardless of ancestry. Contact between these cultural groups forever altered Alaska Native people’s ways of living here. And our community still carries these wounds. These injuries are real, contemporary and deserve our humble respect.

Yes, mining was an economic engine that fueled our region and put food on our tables. But we must also come to terms with the fact that it did so at the expense of many of our neighbors who were here first.

This is our past, but we must strive to go forward together as one community that values our diversity as our strength.

What: Coal Miners Ball

Where: Alpine Inn, Mile 61, Glenn Highway, Sutton

When: Saturday. Doors open at 4 p.m. Dinner served at 5 p.m.

More info: Call 745-9955