Alaska

Matanuska Coal Field showing leasing units government reservations and topographic township plats Alaska. . . .

1916 · 56549 — Washington D.C. & Juneau A.T.: Superintendent of Documents U.S. Surveyor General’s Office 1916. Oblong Atlas Folio. 24 x 19 in. 14 colour maps 1 large folding 17.25 x 41.5 in. Printed softcovers stapled and paper reinforcement at gutter margin some minor toning & soiling to fore-edges edgewear to spine minor scuffing and a couple removed label ghosting still VG- bright copy. First edition of this remarkably scarce plat map atlas for the Matanuska coal fields and township sites surveyed by Walker & McDaniel during their surveys following those on the Kenai Peninsula. By 1912 with the act establishing Alaska as a U.S. Territory and in 1914 the authorization to construct an Alaska Railroad there became an increased need and demand for coal. The Matanuska mines located about 45 miles northeast of Anchorage first began production in 1916 and would stay in continuous production through both World War I and World War II and well into the 20th Century re-opening again in the 21st Century. Not only do these maps show available government lease sites for coal mines but also available Township sites for homesteaders as required by the original Homestead Acts of 1866 and the 1916 Act for Alaska requiring surveys and resurveys to accurately determine boundaries of unsold railroad lands and identify their boundaries. Worldcat locates 2 copies Anchorage Museum & Univ. of Calgary; See: Catalogue of the Public Documents of the Sixty-Fourth Congress Index Vol. 13 1922 p. 74; C. Albert White A History of the Rectangular Survey System 1983 p. 189. Superintendent of Documents, U.S. Surveyor General’s Office, paperback