The Ghost Town of View Cove, Dall Island, Alaska
View of the Well Drill Machine
What is now the Ghost Town of View Cove on Dall Island, Alaska, located in South Eastern Alaska, about 45 miles west of Ketchikan, and about 6 miles southwest of Hydaburg, which is located on Prince of Wales Island. View Cove operated as a limestone quarry camp where crushed limestone was quarried and shipped to Seattle, WA where it was made into Portland Cement. It operated a an active quarry from about 1928 to about 1942 when it was shut down because of World War II.
View of the Well Drill Machine, with the Bay in the Background, 1938.
The well drill was located 20 feet back from the top of the quarry face, about 175 feet above the Steam Shovel. It was used to drill series of 6 inch diamater holes, 175 feet deep into the solid limestone. The holes were filled with dynamite for the one big blast each summer.
Bill Operating the Controls of the Well Drill Machine.
Bill was the Chief Well Driller and I was his assistant during the summers of 1937 and 1938. The drill operator kept his right hand on the 3 inch diameter rope that held the 1000 pound drill stem as it went up and down while he kept his left hand on the control wheel which allowed the drill stem to be slowly lowered .
The Well Drill Machine as it Appeared in 1985 .
It appears that someone tried to move the well drill machine down the mountasin and it got away from him. I did not recognize this heap of twisted metal until I saw the control wheel that I had kept my left hand on a lot of times in 1938. .