The Savannah morning news., 1901-09-02
FINE MARBLE IN ALASKA.
Large Quarry Discovered o.
FRINGE Edward Island.


From the Seattle Post-Intelligencer.
]. E. Cronin. who has recently re-
turned from Marble Creek, on Prince
of Wales Island, and w. X Sheldon,
who has just joined him from San
Francisco. have some wonderful sto-
ries to tell of the fine character of
the marble to be found at Shakan, on
Prince Edward Island. The marble is
said TO be equal to the best Italian
marble, and a fortune is said to be
in sight for the fortunate owners of
the quarry. Mr.. Sheldon said:
When / received samples of this
marble last February I saw at once
that IL was unlike any marble now
being produced in the United States,
but was identical with the marble pro-
duced in the world famous quarries
at Carrara, Italy. While there are a
number of profitable quarries in the
United States, and a large amount of
American marble is used, yet the Ital-
ian product has always occupied field
which no American marble could NIL,
as evidenced by the fact that during
the fiscal year ended June 30, 1900,
nearly forty thousand tons of Italian
marble We're imported into the United
States. This marble from Alaska in
texture, color and chemical analysis
is Identical with the Carrara deposit.
and there is no reason why IL should
not supplant the foreign product en-
tireiy. went to Alaska in March and
found a mountain of high grade mar
BILE. While ! was fully convinced as
to the quality of the material. ! did
not wish to make Anal report on the
property as a commercial proposition
until large blocks had been quarried,
taken to the market and sawed. We
therefore quarried number of blocks
and l took them to San Francisco and
had several of them sawed. These
blocks, of course, were taken from the
surface of the ground, and having
been subjected to climatic influences
for several centuries. were soft for a
depth Of several inches from the sur
face; but the trial demonstrated the
fact that the deposit is a remarkably
sound one, and have every reason to
believe that the percentage of high
grade, sound marble will be much
larger than in any of the deposits now
being worked in the United States.
In fact, when you consider that in de-
veloping marble quarries II is custo-
mary to take out and throw away from
ten to twenty feet of the surface ma
terial, the results obtained are unpre-
cedented.
THE amount of the matter is that
on an island in Southeastern Alaska,
within a few feet Of deep water. there
is a larger area Of high grade mar
bles than the combined areas Of all the
quarries now being worked in the
United States"
When asked for his opinion as to
the existence of other deposits of val
liable marble in Alaska Mr.. Sheldon
said
THAT is a hard question to answer.
There are undoubtedly other marble
deposits in Alaska, and since / have
been on the coast ] have received
samples and descriptions of several
deposits. Some of the samples were
of a coarse. erayish nature. and. al
though pure marble, would be of
no commercial value. while other sam
Piles which were very fine in color and
texture came from deposits which were
described as being so shattered and
broken as to be worthless. / have
talked with a number Of men who have
prospected the country for marble. An
old San Francisco marble man told me
that he prospected all that part of
Southeastern Alaska north of Prince
Of Wales Island several years ago, and
! understand that a Mr.. Fox. who
was connected with the origingl lot a
tion OF this property. spent several
years. In prospecting for marble, and