Seward weekly gateway., 1906-10-13
A TRIP TO MATANUSKA
Describes Valley Leading
 to Coal Fields.

The Matanuska coal fields are within forty miles of tide water and only few 1 hundred feet above sea level. From Knik, the head of navigation on Knik arm, the trip to the coal fields is made overland. Knik is a pretty village of about three dozen houses on the west side Of Knik arm. It has U. $. com missioner. and recorder, post office, two stores. two restaurants and (only) one saloon. The soil is rich and gar denS thrive well.
 From Knik we travelled in a rowboat to Cottonwood, the tide carrying us seven miles in less than an hour and a half. From Cottonwood our route was nortnward, along the crest of the bluff that seems to run parallel to the Arm about two miles from it's shore. The low land between the bluff aud water is a dead level, covered with grass and cut by sloughs. The upper ten miles of the Arm is simply a mud fiat at low tide. Westward is a light forest of hemlock, spruce, birch and cotton wood, with a rich growth of grass among the trees. We passed over low hills, across corduroyed Swamps and rayines, bridged and unbridged.
 Along the north end of the Arm the country was much the same, but after leaving tidewater the hills were larger and more rolling, and interspersed with beautiful lakes, clear as crystal and full of fish. We stopped for lunch at a cabin where two enterprising young men had taken up GAO acres of land and can see a confidence in the near future Soon after leaving the pioneers we struck the north bank of the MatanuSka river, and after a diff cult descent of several hundred feet reached tue narrow bench along which the stakes of the survey mark the line to the mines. A walk was the best gait our horses could make and the gnats and mosquitoes were at their worst. Some grumble at this trail but it is a peach compared with many along the Yukon, for the tundra is not thick enough to impede travel.
 After thirty-three miles of interest ing misery we camped for the night, and slept in mosquito tent" the first had ever seen. This has a floor of canvas sewed to the lower edge of the sides and a door like the mouth of sack, so that after entering we could draw and tie the "puckering string" and laugh at the gnats and mosquitos. The next morning six miles brought us to Kings river and we followed its west bank six miles more, crossed it on a substantial bridge and went over the summit, along ridges and through several swamps, where we had to diSmount, pick our way through the brush and let the horses founder along the miry trail as best they might. Down the noun tain'S side we came and at 10 o'clock reached Coalville in the Chicaloon valley sixty miles from Knik and lS5 from Seward by the railroad survey.
 The coal fields lie in a flat half a mile wide, between the Chicaloon river and bluff some 500 feet high, where coal croppings first attracted the attention of prospectors. About $25, ,OOO has been spent in development work here. Good log houses have been built for hunks, eating house, blacksmith'S shop, stables and com missary. Fourteen tunnels have been run into the bluff, along a distance of two miles, and all show the same formation. A short distance from the face of the bluff fourteen foot vein is struck, then comes seventy feet of slate, then twenty-six feet of coal. At intervals for ten miles exploration has shown the coal to be equally abundant, and it has been traced for seventy miles. Tests show the quality to be better than any yet found on the Pacific Coast, and 100000 tons are ordered as soon as it can be laid down at Seward. The railroad will run down hill most of the distance and the few miles of up grade are all less than 1 per cent, except one half mile which is 9 per cent. c. H. C..