These three Alaskans will be inducted into the Alaska Mining Hall of Fame Foundation Nov. 5. The ceremony begins at 7 p.m. Kelly G. Adams (1912-2005) Washington state-born Kelly Adams left college in Oregon in 1933 to prospect and mine in southeast Alaska. He was put to work by Wendell Dawson to clean tailings at the old Kasaan gold mine near Hollis. He resumed mining work in southeast Alaska in 1945 and worked at the Puyallup Mine near Hollis. He gained a pilots’ license in 1949. In 1955, Adams detected a large radioactive anomaly using a Geiger counter strapped to the strut of his plane while flying over Bokan Mountain on southern Prince of Wales Island. His partner, Don Ross, walked in and staked federal claims over the radioactive anomaly. This became known as the Ross-Adams uranium-thorium-REE deposit, which was mined underground intermittently from 1955-1971 and was Alaska’ only productive uranium mine. Kelly later served as an FAA inspector and worked for many years for Ketchikan-based Weber Aviation. He continued his mining career in the Klondike district and placer mined for gold on Dominion Creek from 1978-1993. Kelly Adams passed away in 2005. Wendell Dawson (1896-1965) Illinois-born Wendell Dawson was educated as a schoolteacher but spent much of his life associated with the mining industry. He served in the U.S. Military in three wars: WWI, WWII, and the Korean War. He became a civil engineer and briefly worked for the U.S. Geological Survey as a hydropower engineer in Oregon and Alaska. In 1930, the Kasaan mining company leased claims to Dawson on Prince of Wales Island near Hollis, on ground which would become known as the Dawson Mine. Dawson mined there intermittently from 1931-1952, where gold was primarily recovered, but also byproducts of silver, lead, and copper. In 1953, Wendell learned that a copper discovery he and others had made near Leduc Glacier in Canada in 1931 had garnered interest. He restaked claims there in what became the Grand Duc copper-gold-silver mine. In his last years, he focused on the exploration of rare earth elements in Nevada, where he suffered a heart attack in the field and died in 1965 at age 69. Join us for History Night! The Alaska Miner Fall 2024 48
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