ALASKA THE GREAT COUNTRY CHAPTER XXII Ellamar Nights: Ore, Panic, and Peppermint Candy

We thought we were sinking.
We were just... loading copper. In the dead of night, docked at Ellamar, Alaska—home of the mighty Gladdaugh copper mines—a sound like the ship splitting in half tore us from sleep. The floor trembled. My friend’s eyes? The size of teacup saucers. “We are going down,” she whispered. But no—this was no wreck. Just tons of ore thundering into the ship’s hold. So we got dressed. Sat on bar stools. Ate stale peppermint candy. And listened to Uncle Josh’s parrot joke on a dusty phonograph, trying not to lose our minds while copper poured like an avalanche. Ellamar is a mining town built on sea-soaked rock, where one tunnel runs right under the ocean. Forty thousand tons of copper ore left here in 1903. More every year since. By day? Green hills. Flowers. A walk to the vanishing native village of Tatitlik, where only 200 remain from 900 a decade ago. A place of sorrow, quiet beauty—and eerie stillness after the roar of ore. But by night? The sound of a ship’s belly being fed stone is something you never forget. To this day, when I read of ore shipments to Tacoma, I whisper a prayer for whoever's trying to sleep onboard.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Chapter twenty two. elOmar is a small town on Virgin Bay,
Prince William Sound, at the entrance to Puerto de Valdas
or Valdez Narrows. It is very prettily situated on a
gently rising hill. It has a population of five or
six hundred and is the home of the Elemar Mining Company.

(00:22):
Here are the headquarters of a group of copper properties
known as the Gladdar Mines. One of the mines extends
under the sea, whose waves washed the buildings. It has
been a large and regular shipper for several years. In
nineteen o three, forty thousand tons of or were shipped
to the Tacoma Smelter, and shipments have steadily increased with

(00:47):
every year. Since the mine is practically a solid mass
of iron and copper parietes. It has a width of
more than one hundred and twenty five feet were exposed,
and extends along the strike for a known distance of
more than three hundred feet. The vast quantities of gold
found in Alaska have up to the present time, kept

(01:09):
the other rich mineral products of the country in the background.
Copper is at last coming into her own. The year
of nineteen o seven brought forth tremendous developments in copper properties.
The Guggenheim Morgan Rockefeller Syndicate has kept experts in every
known or suspected copper district of the North during the

(01:32):
last two years. Kordova, the sea terminus of the new railroad,
is in the very heart of one of the richest
copper districts. The holdings of this syndicate are already immense
and cover every district. The railroad will run to the Yukon,
with branches extending into every rich region. Other heavily financed

(01:56):
companies are preparing to rival the Guggenheims, and in visual
miners will work their claims this year. Experts predict that
within a decade, Alaska will become one of the greatest
copper producing countries of the world. In the Copper River
country alone, north of Valdez, there is more copper, according

(02:17):
to expert reports, than Montana or Michigan ever has produced
or ever will produce. The Ketchikan district is also remarkably rich.
At Niblack Anchorage on Prince of Wales Island, the or
carries five percent of copper and the mines are most
favorably located on Tidewater. Native copper associated with gold has

(02:41):
been found on Tennegen Arm in the country, tributary to
the Alaska Central Railway. A half interest in the Bonanza,
a copper mine on the western side of La Touche
Island Prince William Sound, was sold last year for more
than a million dollars. This mine is not fully developed,
but is considered one of the best in Alaska. It

(03:05):
has an elevation of two hundred feet. Several tunnels have
been driven, and the or taken out runs high in copper, gold,
and silver. One shipment of one thousand, two hundred and
thirty five pounds gave net returns of fifty dollars to
the ton after deducting freight to Tacoma Smelting refining and

(03:27):
an allowance of ninety five percent for the silver valuation.
A sample taken along one tunnel for sixty feet gave
an essay of over nine percent copper with one and
a quarter ounces of silver. The Bonanza was purchased in
nineteen hundred by Messrs Beatsen and robertson four seventy two

(03:49):
thousand dollars. There is a good wharf and a tramway
line to the mine. Adjoining the bonanza on the north
is a group of eleven claims owned by Messrs Esterly,
Minnic and Keys, which are in course of development. There
are many other rich claims on this island, on knights

(04:10):
and on others in the sound. Timber is abundant, the
water power is excellent, and ore is easily shipped. There
is an Indian village two or three miles from Elamar.
It is the village of Tattleik, the only one now
remaining on the sound. So rapidly are the natives vanishing

(04:31):
under the evil influence of civilization. Ten years ago there
were nine hundred natives in the various villages on the
shores of the Sound, while now there are not more
than two hundred. At the most generous calculation. White men
prospecting and fishing in the vicinity of the village supply
them with liquor. When a sufficient quantity can be purchased,

(04:54):
the entire village men and women indulges in a prolonged
and horrible debauch, which frequently lasts for several weeks. The
death rate at Tatlick is very heavy, more than a
hundred natives having died during nineteen o seven passengers have
time to visit this village while the steamer loads or

(05:14):
at Elamar. The loading of ore by the way is
a new experience. A steamer on which I was traveling
once landed at Elamar during the night. We were rudely
awakened from our dreams by a sound which Lieutenant Whitby
would have called most stupendously dreadful. We thought that though

(05:35):
whole bottom of the ship must have been knocked off
by striking a reef, and we reached the floor simultaneously.
I have no notion how my own eyes looked, but
my friend's eyes were as large and expressive as bread
and butter plates. We are going down, she exclaimed, with
tragic brevity. At that instant, the dreadful sound was repeated.

(06:00):
We were convinced that the ship was being pounded to
pieces under us upon rocks. Without speech. We began dressing
with that haste that makes fingers become thumbs. But suddenly
a tap came upon our door, and the watchman's voice spoke, outside, ladies,
we are at Elamar. At Elamar, yes, you asked to

(06:23):
be called if it wasn't midnight when we landed, But
what is that awful noise. Watchman, Oh, we're loading oer,
he answered cheerfully, and walked away. All that night and
part of the next day, tons upon tons of or
thundered into the hold. We could not sleep, we could
not talk. We could only think. And the things we

(06:46):
thought shall never be told, nor shall wild horses drag
them from us. We dressed in desperation and went up
to the store, sat upon high stools eight stale peppermint candy,
and listened to Uncle Josh telling his parrot's story through
the phonograph. Somehow, between the ship and the store we

(07:07):
got ourselves through the night and the early morning. Hours
after breakfast, we found the green and floury slopes back
of the town charming, and a walk of three miles
along the shore to the Indian village made us forget
the oar for a few hours. But to this day,
when I read that an Alaskan ship has brought down

(07:28):
hundreds of tons of ore to the Tacoma Smelter, my
heart goes out silently to the passengers who were on
that ship when the ore was loaded. Copyright by E. A. HEG. Juno,
courtesy of Webster and Stephen's Seattle Grand Canyon of the
Yukon copyright by E. A. Heg Juno, courtesy of Webster

(07:51):
and Stephen's Seattle. Grand Canyon of the Yukon