The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1903-09-18
SULPHUR FOR WORLD.
Vast Deposits of the Pure Element on
Unalaska Island.

And now it is sulDhur-pure sulphur
in tons, in carloads, in ship1oads-for
which Alaska is to become most ia
nous. Hitherto the worlds supply of
sulphur for the making of powder and
in the industrial arts has been coming
for centuries from the island of Sicily,
where a dozen vessels at time are
seen loading with the yellow material.
But that Sicily is not a circumstance
for deposits of pure sulphur to Mount
McCutcheon, on Unalaska island, is the
report just brought down from there by
George Carlson. who is at present and
has been for years in the Swedish gov
eminent employ as a mining engineer,
fitting him more especially for pass
ing as an expert on the deposits of
Mount McCutcheon. He was for years
located at The Sicilian sulphur mines
as expert locating new beds of the
stuff and experimenting the workings.
1t was on this account the gentleman 8
annual vacation from the Swedish serv-
ice was eagerly taken advantage of by
the New Workers who hold a claim to
the new sulphur discoveries of Una
laSka island. and he was secured and
sent up there at once. He spent one
month on the mountain with a force of
twenty-five men. and recently reached
Tacoma on his return trip by the Elihu
Thomson, the boat having picked him
UP at Dutch Harbor.
The Swedish government expert finds
that for vast deposits of the purest flow
err sulphur the Alaskan discovery Is
without equal in the world. The beds
lie in blanket fashion over most of the
mountain, thinning out as the level OF
the sea is reached, but everywhere pre-
valent in almost unbroken strata. He
found the mountain to be 5000 feet above
the surrounding ocean, and covered mora
than half way down from the summit
with eternal snow. The summit reveals
an extinct volcano, with great crater
half a mile wide. The interior of the
crater is sunken some hundreds of feet,
and the sides are all honeycombed af-
fording sheltering caves for Mr.. Carlson
and his 25 men for many nights. Owing
to there being no timber at all on the
mountain the month spent in the SHOWS
was spent for the most part entirely
without fire or hot food, but the wonder
full revelations more than compensated
the traveller. In one spot the removal
of 30 feet of snow and ice and some ~
feet of broken shell rock let the work
ers into a body of commercially pure
sulphur. the extent of which was not
discovered, for a shaft of so feet had NOT
gone through IT, and it was impossible
10 sink further owing to the constantly
caying sides. In all the deposits We're
tapped at IS points and found to be
at every point more free from adui-
ferrous substances-lava bodies and pum-
zee. which hinder the workings in Sicily
then even the sulphur beds of Iceland
Said Mr.. Carlson;
1T cannot be said to be an enllfely
new discovery, since II was staked and
recorded five years ago-and then aban-
doned. But we have done the very first
work ever performed on the deposit. and
the original stalking was done from the
showings at the base of the mountains,
where Indians have for centuries been
digging out more or less of the stuff.
for medicines principally. I don't want
TO say too much about the matter, fol
while 1 was there the original stakers
of five years ago returned from Seattle
and restaked the ground right on top
os us The original stalker was De Sofa
of Seattle, but the following gold rush
into Alaska diverted that company's at
tentiOn. and the sulphur was never ex-
plored, or for certainty il would never
have been abandoned. Then ii was
staked by the men who have sold it to
the New York spectators have repre-
scented, and I have been sent out am
carrying back my report. If the de-