List of Quarries in Alaska & Quarry Links, Photographs and Articles
- Queen Charlotte’s Island, Alaska – Slate
Quarries on Queen Charlotte’s Island circa
1897 (The following information is from Alaska
and Its Resources,
by William H. Dall, Boston: Lee and Shepard Publishers,
1897, pp. 411.)
“The Kygáni. – These Indians have their head-quarters on Queen Charlotte’s Archipelago, but there are a few villages on the extreme southern part of Prince of Wales and the adjoining islands. They are a very fierce, treacherous race, and have not been improved by the rum and fire-arms sold to them by the Hudson Bay Company at Fort Simpson. They are noted for the beauty and size of their cedar canoes and their skill in carving. Most of the stone pipes, inlaid with fragments of Haliotis or pearl shells, so common in ethnological collections, are their handiwork. The slate quarry from which the stone is obtained is situated on Queen Charlotte’s Island. They are frequently called Hydahs or Háidahs.”
- Revillagigedo Island, Alaska – the Revillagigedo
Island Marble Deposits (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. 121-122.
Revillagigedo Island.
“A well-defined limestone belt traverses the eastern portion of Revillagigedo Island in a northwesterly direction and is exposed in Thorne Arm, Carroll Inlet, and George Inlet. Its widest development is on the north side of George Inlet near the head, where marble claims known as the Bawden group were located in 1904. The deposit is included in the crystalline schist near the contact with the less altered slates to the southwest. The marble beds range from10 to 20 feet in width and are separated by strata of calcareous schist. Their strike is northwest, and northeasterly dip. The marble is exposed in cliffs near tidewater and is of good quality, being relatively free from fracture and joint cracks, finely crystalline, and from white to gray in color. No large developments have been started on this property.
“In Carroll Inlet to the southeast claims have also been located on the same belt, but at this locality the deposit is not so extensive as in George Inlet.”
- Revillagigedo Island, Alaska – the Revillagigedo
Island Marble Deposits (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. 197.
Revillagigedo Island.
“A well-defined limestone belt traverses the eastern portion of Revillagigedo Island in a northwesterly direction and is exposed in Thorne Arm, Carroll Inlet, and George Inlet (see Pl. II). Its widest development is on the north side of George Inlet, near the head, where marble claims known as the Bawden group were located in 1904. The deposit is included in the crystalline schist near the contact with the less-altered slates to the southwest. The marble beds range from 10 to 20 feet in width and are separated by strata of calcareous schist. Their strike is northwest and their dip northeast. The marble is exposed in cliffs near tide water and is of good quality, being relatively free from fracture and joint cracks, finely crystalline, and from white to gray in color. No large developments have been started on this property.”
- Revillagigedo Island, Alaska – the Revillagigedo
Island Marble Deposits (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. 197.
- Rivallagigedo Island, Alaska – Marble Deposits
(circa 1909) (Marble) (The following information
is from An
Abridged History of Alaska, by John W. Brown,
1909, pp. 19. The text of this book is available on
the Internet Archive web site.)
“George Inlet, a little nearer Ketchikan, has a few gold prospects, and Tongass Narrows, still nearer, has about the same. In the vicinity of the gold prospects and mines some good marble has been located, but not worked.”
- Revillagigedo Island, Alaska -
Map showing marble deposits examined on southeastern Prince
of Wales Island and on Revillagigedo Island
(circa 1920) (Marble) (Excerpt from Mineral Resources
of Southeastern Alaska, Bulletin 682, by Ernest F. Burchard,
U. S. Geological Survey, 1920)
(Map caption) Plate V. Map showing marble deposits examined on southeastern Prince of Wales Island and on Revillagigedo Island (Alaska). From Coast and Geodetic Survey chart No. 8100 (pp. 32) 
- Revillagigedo Island, Alaska – Marble
Prospecting on Revillagigedo Island (circa
1920) (Marble) (Excerpt from Mineral Resources
of Southeastern Alaska, Bulletin 682, by Ernest F. Burchard,
U. S. Geological Survey, 1920)
Revillagigedo Island.
“Prospecting for marble on Revillagigedo Island has been carried on at intervals for about 15 years. Little of importance has been done, however, since the survey of the Ketchikan district by the Wrights,* who noted the important features of the marble deposits on this island as follows:
“‘A well-defined limestone belt traverses the eastern portion of Revillagigedo Island in a northwesterly direction and is exposed in Thorne Arm, Carroll Inlet, and George Inlet. Its widest development is on the north side of George Inlet, near the head (No. 55), where marble claims known as the Bawden group were located in 1904. The deposit is included in the crystalline schist near the contact with the less-altered slates to the southwest. The marble beds range from 10 to 20 feet in width and are separated by strata of calcareous schist. Their strike is northwest and their dip northeast. The marble is exposed in cliffs near tidewater and is of good quality, being relatively free from fracture and joint cracks, finely crystalline, and from white to gray in color. No large developments have been started on this property.
“‘In Carroll Inlet, to the southeast, claims have also been located on the same belt, but at this locality the deposit is not so extensive as in George Inlet.’
(* Footnote 1, page 96: Wright, F. E. and C. W., The Ketchikan and Wrangell mining districts, Alaska: U. S. Geol. Survey Bull. 347, pp. 197-198, pl. 2, 1908.)
“In addition to these claims two groups were noted by the writer in October, 1912, on the east side of George Inlet. One (No. 56) lies 7 miles north of the point where George Inlet and Carroll Inlet coalesce, and the other (No. 57) about 6 ½ miles north of that point. Only the shore exposures were visible at these places, and no prospects could be found. The rock exposed consists of grayish-white to gray fine to medium grained schistose marble, interstratified with and intersected by dikes of mica dacite. Nearly as much dike rock as marble is exposed on the beach at the southern locality. All the beach exposures of marble are very soft and saccharoidal, almost too soft to yield a hand specimen. The beds dip about 30° a little north of west. So far as these exposures indicate, little if any commercially valuable marble is present at either place.
“In the summer of 1915 Theodore Chapin examined certain marble deposits along Carroll Inlet, and his notes given below are descriptive of the most valuable deposit:
“‘A deposit of white marble is being developed near Carroll Inlet by G. E. Dickinson and B. Bell. The claims are on Marble Creek, a stream entering a cove on Carroll Inlet from the east about 10 miles from its head (No. 58). (See fig. 6.) From this cove a trail leads to the claims, a distance of about a mile and a half. The rock is exposed by surface cuts at several places and along Marble Creek for half a mile, the width covered by the claim locations. In this distance the rock shows little variation. It consists of white crystalline marble of even texture and of very fine grain. No analysis was made of the rock, but to judge from its slight effervescence with acid it is probably dolomite.
“‘Timber suitable for cabins and other construction grows on the claims, and water power sufficient for quarrying could be obtained from Marble Creek. The fall of 300 feet between the claims and the beach in a distance of a mile and a half offers no serious difficulty in tram construction.’”
Figure 6. Sketch map of Dickinson & Bell marble claims on Revillagigedo Island near Carroll Inlet. (pp. 96) 
- Revillagigedo Island, Alaska – Marble
Deposits on Revillagigedo Island (circa
1920) (Marble) (Excerpt from Mineral Resources
of Southeastern Alaska, Bulletin 682, by Ernest F. Burchard,
U. S. Geological Survey, 1920)
Important Undeveloped Deposits.
“Some of the undeveloped deposits of marble described in this paper (those from which no stone has been quarried) possess elements of possible economic value, but not all of them seem to warrant prospecting, and even those that have appeared most favorable on cursory inspection may prove on prospecting to be totally unfit for exploitation. The more important of these undeveloped deposits, whose surface appearance and general relations suggest that further investigations might be warranted whenever the demand for marble on the Pacific coast exceeds the present production, are mentioned in the following summary….:
“White fine-grained marble of even texture, fairly well situated for quarrying and shipping, occurs on Revillagigedo Island near Carroll Inlet (No. 58).”
- Rivallagigedo Island, Carroll Inlet, Alaska - Marble
Deposit near Carroll Inlet (circa 1916) (Marble) (Excerpt
from “The
Marbles of Alaska” in Stone: An Illustrated Magazine,
Vol. XXXVII, No. 11, November 1916, pp. 583-584.)
“Interests in the development of marble properties continues, especially in the Ketchikan district….”
“A deposit of white marble is being developed near Carroll Inlet by G. E. Dickinson and B. Bell. The claims are located on Marble Creek, a stream entering a cove on Carroll Inlet from the east about 10 miles from its head. From this cove a trail leads to the claims, a distance of about 1 ½ miles. The rock is exposed by surface cuts at several places and along Marble Creek for half a mile, the width covered by the claim locations. For this distance the rock shows little variation. It consists of white crystalline marble of even texture and of very fine grade. No analysis was made of the rock, but to judge from its slight effervescence with acid it is probably dolomite.” - Sitka (near), Alaska – White Marble Depositcirca 1897 (The following information is from Alaska and Its Resources, by William H. Dall, Boston: Lee and Shepard Publishers, 1897, pp. 476.)
“The beds of white marble near Sitka and in Lynn Canal, if uniformly of as good quality as the specimens obtained by the United States Coast Survey officers, will prove of great value. The natives have long been in the habit of carving images, labrets, &c., of this material.”
- Tenakee Inlet, Alaska – Marble
Deposit (circa 1920) (Marble) (Excerpt from Mineral
Resources of Southeastern Alaska, Bulletin 682, by Ernest
F. Burchard, U. S. Geological Survey, 1920)
Tenakee Inlet.
“In the north side of Tenakee Inlet, from 1 to 2 miles east of Tenakee post office, marble is exposed at several places, in some of which it forms low bluffs 30 to 50 feet above the beach. On the banks of the large creek that flows into the inlet about a mile east of the village (No. 9), from a quarter to half a mile above the mouth of the creek, the marble forms low steep bluffs. Here it is coarse grained and much fractured, and some of it is schistose. The color is mostly nearly white, but some of the rock, especially the schistose parts, is white and green. This deposit was at one time located as a marble claim by persons sojourning at the Tenakee hot springs. On the beach, about 1 ½ to 2 miles east of Tenakee post office (No. 10), the marble exposed is brittle and hard and ranges from white to gray in color, some being gray and white banded, and then is also a little that shows mottlings of green and pink. It is generally of medium grain, but some, particularly the mottled stone, is fine grained. Specks of pyrite are present in places.
“Mr. Dale examined microscopically two thin sections of the fine-grained marble from this area. One section, cut from a pale yellowish-white specimen, showed a grain diameter of 0.02 to 0.14 millimeter, mostly 0.03 to 0.094 millimeter, and the estimated average is 0.04 millimeter. The Rosiwal measurement showed an average grain diameter of 0.0014 inch, or 0.0355 millimeter. This specimen is of even texture, but it contains streaks of pyrite in fine spherules and particles, roundish grains of feldspar and quartz reaching a diameter of 0.125 millimeter, and chlorite. The other specimen, which is white marble with faint yellowish bands, showed an abnormal texture, appearing to be a brecciated calcite marble with calcitic cement and to have been subjected to secondary compression. ( See Pl. VI, A.) The groundmass of this specimen showed a grain diameter ranging from 0.0378 to 0.25 millimeter, mostly 0.047 to 0.14 millimeter, with an estimated average of 0.073 millimeter, and is to be classed as fine textured. The fragments disseminated in the groundmass are calcite plates having a grain diameter of 0.62 to 2.25 millimeters, with an estimated average of 0.89 millimeter, and are thus of coarse texture. The calcite of the groundmass is closely twinned, and the brecciated plates show curved twinning and retwinning produced by later movement.
Plate VI. A. Photomicrograph of thin section of white marble from Chichagof Island, Tenakee Inlet (Alaska). View shows fine-grained groundmass containing coarser fragments of brecciated calcite with curved twinning. Magnified 10 diameters. (pp. 46) 
“The general strike of the rock is northward, but the bedding is obscured by the folds and fractures, which are very prominent. The fractures are locally so close together that good hand samples can hardly be obtained from surface material. The marble is cut and impregnated by so much altered volcanic rock as to be in most places of little value, but it may be possible to find here and there material suitable for quarrying. Except where exposed on the beach and in stream cuttings the marble is concealed by a heavy forest growth.”
- Waters Bay, Ketchikan District, Alaska – Marble Deposits at Waters Bay (circa 1916) (Marble) (Excerpt from “The Marbles of Alaska” in Stone: An Illustrated Magazine, Vol. XXXVII, No. 11, November 1916, pp. 583-584.)
“Interests in the development of marble properties continues, especially in the Ketchikan district….”
“On Waters Bay three claims, the Lily, Long Island, and White Cloud, have been located, and assessment work has been done on them. Most of the marble exposed has a bluish-white field with white-mottled areas and blue-black stripes. Under the microscope the rock is seen to be composed essentially of twinned calcite crystals ranging in size from 0.25 to 0.7 millimeter, inclosed in a network of finely granular calcite averaging about 0.05 millimeter in diameter and forming with the large calcite crystals an intersectal fabric. The large calcite crystals are bent and fractured. They are evidently crushed fragments around which the fine-grained calcite has recrystallized. The black stripes are composed of opaque particles of carbonaceous material, probably graphite. Associated with the striped marble are beds of medium-grained white marble of even texture and also beds of blue-clouded white marble with yellow patches. This rock takes an excellent polish.”
- Willoughby Island, Glacier Bay,
Alaska – Limestone & Marble Deposits on Willoughby
Island (circa 1920) (Marble) (Excerpt
from Mineral Resources of Southeastern Alaska, Bulletin
682, by Ernest F. Burchard, U. S. Geological Survey, 1920)
“Willoughby Island (No. 8) is in the western part of Glacier Bay, about 13 miles north of Icy Strait. It is about 4 1/3 miles in length and 2 miles in width and reaches a height of nearly 1,600 feet. The south half of the island is composed mostly of gray limestone. At about the middle of the east side a small area of marble projects into the bay. This marble is medium grained, of cream and light-gray colors, and brecciated in places. Some patches of chert show on weathered surfaces. Mr. Dale finds that the grain diameter ranges from 0.112 to 2.8 millimeters, mostly 0.56 to 1.68 millimeters. The estimated average diameter is 0.56 millimeter. By the Rosiwal method the average grain diameter is 0.0181 inch, or about 0.46 millimeter. The grain form is uneven.
“The marble is cut by dikes of greenish-gray micaceous, pyritiferous rock, probably dacite, and is jointed. In some places the joints are closely spaced, but in others there are masses of marble that show no joints for 20 to 30 feet. The gray brittle limestone south of the marble outcrop is closely fractured and jointed. The exposed marble extends for about 500 feet along the shore and rises to a height of 60 to 70 feet above the water. Near the shore the surface of the marble shows glacial grooves and striae. Back of the wave-washed exposure there is a growth of shrubs and small trees.”
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