The mining engineers who built

The mining engineers who built so much of Alaska

Today's Juneau Empire has a local color story by Anne Chardonnet on the engineering that went into Juneau's large gold mines: "Southeast Sagas: A Tale of Two Tunnels". The story of one of the tunnels is the story of engineer Ben Stewart:

"The Gold Creek Tunnel was brought to fruition by Ben Stewart (1878-1976), an engineer and the father of Juneau resident Judge Thomas Stewart.

"In 1910, my father was hired... to re-survey the Alaska Juneau mining claims," Judge Stewart said... It was supposed to be a one-season job, but then they hired him to survey the main tramming tunnel for moving the ore from the glory hole on the flanks of Gastineau Peak in Perseverance Basin to the mill... It was drilled simultaneously from both ends. It has a one-percent grade (from start to finish) to make it easier for the trains."

" "My father told me that at 2 o'clock one morning he had a call from the man who was running the drilling crews that he expected to break through soon," Stewart added. "And indeed they did - and the floors were only one inch apart."...

"...To survey the tunnel route accurately, Ben Stewart had to chain level from sea level up over Mount Roberts and down into the basin. Conscientiously, he did this three times to check his figures, Tom Stewart said.

" "The terrain was so steep that he would sometimes get three feet of chain out, and the plumb bob would be hanging down eight feet."

"The Gold Creek Tunnel was begun in August 1911 and finished two years later... It measured nine feet high by seven feet wide and was driven 6,538 feet into Mt. Roberts..."

So, over a mile through a mountain, tunneling from both ends, surveyed and engineered so well that the floors were only one inch apart when the tunnels met!