Coal Seams under water and on beach in Alaska

[blufford]

I just saw a thread in Countryside Families that mentioned coal seams under water along with coal washing up on shore in Alaska. It also mentioned beach combing for coal during low tide. Have you ever heard of such a thing?

[jwal10]

Saw it on that Alaskan homesteading show....James

[KIT.S]

Hi there. I was the one who mentioned it. On the Kenai Peninsula between Anchor Point and Homer the coal seams lay horizontally. The ocean has worn away the upper layers of peat and clay and the coal seams are open at the low tides along the beach. It's soft coal, but we burned it in our wood stoves. Wore out the bottom of the stoves faster - it burns much hotter than the local wood, and has salt in it, so the combination isn't nice to cast iron. It can be picked up free, but access close enough to get a truck there is only available every so often, and usually on public land. Our place had 800 feet straight down to the beach with no vehicle access.

I don't remember what we paid for someone to deliver it to us, but I think it was around $80/ pickup load in 1990's.

Kit

[kasilofhome]

Yep, I do free for the pickings bring a spitting mall largest piece the solution zero of a vs bug.

[AmericanStand]

Yep it is true I spent the coldest monte of my life living six miles south of Anchor point in a coal heated cabin. Back then the farther from the access road the more coal to pick from but when you can see between the boards you can't carry enough coal !
Most locals would wait for a good storm then pick up the plentyful coal in the size they liked.

[elkhound]

a huge hunk of coal on beach in homer,alaska.

http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog...3700/tpod.html

[elkhound]

http://travelbydesine.com/2011/07/homer-alaska/

[elkhound]

i see exposed seams of coal here in mtns regular.theres different types of coal too.

[Paumon]

Originally Posted by blufford

I just saw a thread in Countryside Families that mentioned coal seams under water along with coal washing up on shore in Alaska. It also mentioned beach combing for coal during low tide. Have you ever heard of such a thing?

Yep. Shoreline coal seams are pretty common all along the west coast from at least southern British Columbia to Alaska, they're on the islands too. The discovery of coal in one of the shipping harbours in Vancouver in 1862 inspired its name Coal Harbour. I've lived in several coastal areas from Vancouver to Alaska and it's not unusual to find chunks of coal on the beaches on any of them during low tide.