Wesley Earl Dunkle: Alaska's Flying Miner

An experienced geologist in Alaska himself, Charles Caldwell "Chuck" Hawley has compiled a well-documented and compelling story about one of Alaska's pioneer prospectors and mining engineers, Wesley Earl Dunkle.

An economic geologist who prospected many mineral occurrences and developed several mines in Alaska in the early to mid-1900s, Dunkle's career and life story weave together many interesting aspects about the history of the Last Frontier.

Alaska historians, explorers, aviators, prospectors and miners will find this book a captivating and educational read. One word of advice - have nearby as an additional reference an Alaska Atlas and Gazetteer to truly appreciate the breadth of area Dunkle explored, by foot, boat and plane. The simplified maps printed in Hawley's book provide a good general reference, but their small size tends to distort the vast areas of remote, rugged terrain covered by Dunkle.

Notably, many of Dunkle's geological targets and interests remain relevant today, including his persistent work on the Golden Zone property southwest of Cantwell in the Interior and his experiments with improving the quality of low-rank coal, also found in Interior Alaska.

According to Hawley's story, Dunkle was fiercely dedicated to both projects in the years just prior to his death in September 1957, at the age of 70. On Sept. 29, 1957, he set out on foot from the Alaska Railroad section house at Broad Pass, in search of a clear-water spring needed for his self-designed coal improvement plant.

He never returned from that field trip, and his body was found four days later, after "his well-worn heart had finally failed," Hawley wrote.

Dunkle's career as a prospector in Alaska's early days, when transportation infrastructure was virtually non-existent, "demanded the physical strength that he inherited as a Pennsylvania Dunkle," Hawley wrote. "Dunkle men typically were tall and powerful. The characteristics were so common that a Pennsylvania Dutch phrase, 'Dunkle Stout-like,' was applied generally, not just to the Dunkles, to describe extraordinary physical prowess."

In the preface, Hawley wrote that during Dunkle's 50-year professional career, he "set a pace in geology and mining that was difficult to follow. The pace accelerated in 1932 after Dunkle earned his pilot's license and he barely slowed down until his death in 1957."

Using aircraft for mining access

While aircraft helped Dunkle quicken his appraisal of various remote mineral deposits, the miner and prospector first earned his geological field stripes the old-fashioned way, on foot.

"Some of Dunkle's Alaskan hikes of 1912 to 1924 are legendary," Hawley wrote. "In total, he covered many hundreds of miles of extremely rugged Alaskan countryside cut by glaciers and broad silt-rich rivers."

Areas prospected by Dunkle stretch throughout Alaska and include Chichagof Island, the Brooks Range, the Big Hurrah near Nome and the Golden Zone near Flat. "His presence as a mining engineer and geologist was especially strong in the Willow Creek district of the Talkeetna Mountains, around Prince William Sound, at Kennicott in the high Wrangell Mountains and at the Golden Zone" in the Alaska Range, Hawley wrote.

Dunkle's first flight occurred in 1928, from a Kantishna region mine to Fairbanks, a trip that took about two hours by plane, five days by railroad and dogsled. "Gradually the romance or pride that had once attended a 60-mile hike paled, especially when an upward glance showed a possible competitor passing overhead at nearly 100 miles per hour," Hawley wrote.

Dunkle began his flying instruction in Seattle in the winter of 1931-32, but didn't finish before returning to Alaska for the spring season. He grubstaked his young trainers in an aviation business that started in Anchorage as Star Air Service, eventually evolving into Alaska Airlines, thanks in part to Dunkle's patronage, guidance and business from his mining operations.

Float plane enthusiasts in Anchorage who currently use Lake Hood can also thank Dunkle, who called himself the instigator of a canal project connecting it with Lake Spenard, creating a seaport in Anchorage "when it was most needed," Hawley wrote.

Dunkle ferried planes across the United States

Dunkle received his pilot's license in September 1932 and with only 34 hours of flight time, purchased and picked up a new Curtiss-Wright Travel Air in New York. He wrecked that plane on his first attempt to ferry it across the nation, and purchased another new Travel Air for $2,125 (which included $125 to rent a truck to haul the wrecked plane back to the factory).

His route from New York took him through Detroit, Chicago, St. Louis, Kansas City, Wichita, Amarillo, Albuquerque, Kingman, Burbank, San Francisco and Seattle, where the Travel Air was disassembled for the marine leg to Seward, Alaska.

In 1934, he made a second, successful transcontinental flight after buying a larger and faster airplane, a four-seater, enclosed cabin Waco biplane. This time, at Renton, Wash., Dunkle converted the Waco from wheels to floats for the coastal flight to Alaska.

With an experienced Fairbanks pilot at his side but not at the controls, Dunkle set a record for the Seattle to Anchorage trip: 13 hours, 20 minutes, within a total time of 31 hours, 30 minutes.

Aircraft opened up new areas for Dunkle to prospect, particularly in the Alaska Range. "From 1935 to 1942, Dunkle had mining operations on both sides of the range: Golden Zone mine on the east and the Slippery Creek (placer) operation on the west," Hawley wrote. "The pass enabled management of both operations, but it was rarely easy to use." and included more than one dead stick landing.

Coal improvement project

World War II forced the cessation of most gold mining in 1942, including Dunkle's Golden Zone mine, developed in the Alaska Range and still of interest to hard rock exploration companies today.

During the war, he turned his attention to coal, providing new military bases in Fairbanks and Anchorage with about 5,000 tons of coal to produce heat and power.

Another project with lasting relevance to today's miners is Dunkle's coal improvement experimentation. His hypothesis, which proved out successfully in initial tests, was that the low-rank lignite coal found in Interior Alaska could be economically improved with heating and pressure treatment.

"He reasoned that reducing the moisture content would increase the thermal value of the coal as well as decrease its shipping cost," Hawley wrote. "The technical part of the problem is fairly difficult. The coal has to be dried but in such a way that its fabric and inherent strength are not destroyed. Once dried, the coal must be treated to stop resorption of equilibrium moisture."

The other problem of treating low-quality coal, one that still dogs Alaska coal producers today, is to design a drying process with costs that do not exceed the benefit.

Dunkle's solution was to dry coal under steam pressure, about 100 degrees Centigrade, which eliminated about two-thirds of the moisture. "Broad Pass Lignite, originally with about 30 percent moisture, was converted into a new product with 10 percent moisture and about one-third greater heat content," Hawley wrote.

To prevent the dried coal from resorbing moisture, Dunkle treated it with fuel oil, which apparently filled the near-surface pores of the coal. "Oiling also added a small amount to the heat content of the product," Hawley wrote.

Following Dunkle's death, his wife Billie pushed ahead with the coal improvement project. Testing in Fairbanks showed that processed Broad Pass lignite could compete against most other coals in the state. She formed and presided over a new company, Accolade Mines, to finance the project and was making marketing progress before her death in April 1962.

"Alaska's Flying Miner" is published by the University Press of Colorado. For information, call 800-627-7377. It is also distributed in Alaska by the University of Alaska Anchorage.