There's Coal in Them There Hills

There's Coal in Them There Hills. . , This area's coal deposits took millions of years to form and only a few years to mine, forever changing the surrounding valley., Stored Energy , Essentially, we get coal from sunshine. Hundreds of millions of years ago, swampy forests covered different parts of the earth. Plants in these swamps thrived using energy from the sun. When they died, they created a layer of stored energy at the bottom of the swamp. Over time, dirt, rocks, and water covered and trapped the plant matter. Heat and pressure caused chemical and physical changes that eventually created coal., Prospecting for Power , In the late 1890s, government explorers documented many varieties of coal deposits in the Matanuska Valley including lignite, subbituminous, bituminous, and anthracite. Most of the coal remained untouched until 1913-1914 when the U.S. Navy saw its value as a fuel source for the Pacific Fleet. By 1917, railroad tracks reached Chickaloon and over 45,000 short tons of coal shipped out of the Matanuska Valley that year., Matanuska Mines , Government-operated and privately-owned mines employed hundreds of hard-working people. However, by 1922, the Navy began using diesel instead of coal and turned their mines over to the Alaska Engineering Commission to power the Alaska Railroad and local homes. Mining continued sporadically in the Matanuska Valley, mostly supporting nearby railroad and military operations. The energetic mining activity from 1914-1922 and subsequent strip mining left a lasting impression., "The Children of Evan Jones", Sparky and Murry and Alabam , Pruit and Johnny the Lip , The jawbone champs of Wishbone hill, , They never know when to quit., Their ferocious growls and hideous howls , Start at the dry house door , But are washed away at the end of the day , Down the drain of the shower floor., The Children of Evan Jones stanzas are from the poetry book , The Matanuska Bard's Alaskan Verses, 1996 by Bob Klem. , [Photo captions, counterclockwise from top left, read] , . TIME-PRESSURE-HEAT - These combined forces create coal, . Evan Jones Mine at full production, . Clean-faced miners on a "man trip" going into the mine. They, no doubt, came out much dirtier