Teacher at Sea: May 15, 2004 Log

Meet the Governor

Curtis Watkins, NOAA Teacher at Sea

Alaska Governor Frank Murkowski goes over nautical charts.

We enjoyed breakfast at the Northern Lights Restaurant while Governor Murkowski was having breakfast at the table beside to us with Bill and his crew. The Governor seemed to be quite interested in what Bill had to say about the economic potential of their findings. The Governor had come to town the previous day to meet with the U.S. Coast Guard (USCG) and present awards for service to the Aids to Navigation Team aboard the USCG Cutter Elderberry that had served the southeast Alaska community out of Petersburg for the last 50 years. Jennifer and John had a chance to meet the Governor and members of the USCG that work closely with NOAA during the ceremony celebration.

Landing craft used to supply Woewodski Camp where geologists are exploring the economic potential of mining platinum group elements (PGE).

We left for camp several hours later during high tide as to avoid the many rocks along the waters. We were introduced to a very important member of Bill’s crew on the ride, BB (the camp cook and EMT) and met Dr. Phil upon arriving at the Woewodski Camp, who has been prospecting this island for the last 20 years. Dr. Phil is great story teller as well as an incredible local historian. We were given a tour of the camp where there are still signs of past mining activity. The foundation of the old stamp mill is still there as well as parts of the old boiler. The old gold mine pit, which is now filled with water, was over 100 feet deep. There was a lot of activity in this area around the turn of the century. The current camp consists of a fully equipped kitchen, a shower tent with laundry as well as three really nice bunk tents. They had recently completed camp mobilization getting the supplies from Petersburg by the landing craft RB.

Splitting rocks looking for platinum group elements.

We then went by boat to Mad Dog Island where signs of metal sulfides have been located. There is the potential for platinum, zinc, silver as well as gold. They have been more successful than past explorations because their daily activities are well planned out to maximize their resources. While on Mad Dog Island we saw many inter-tidal organisms such as spitting clams. Bill demonstrated how surface samples are taken and, using a hand lens, we were actually able to see what he was searching for. We returned to Petersburg rather late but the channel was well marked and we still had the late Alaskan sun. On the way in, we saw the landing craft RB loaded with materials needed for drilling operations headed for Mad Dog Island. We were again invited to see the mobilization of the drilling equipment to Mad Dog Island the following day.