William Henry Bay is a

waterway A waterway is any navigable body of water. Broad distinctions are useful to avoid ambiguity, and disambiguation will be of varying importance depending on the nuance of the equivalent word in other languages. A first distinction is necessary b ...

in the

U.S. state In the United States, a state is a constituent political entity, of which there are 50. Bound together in a political union, each state holds governmental jurisdiction over a separate and defined geographic territory where it shares its sove ...

Alaska Alaska ( ; russian: Аляска, Alyaska; ale, Alax̂sxax̂; ; ems, Alas'kaaq; Yup'ik: ''Alaskaq''; tli, Anáaski) is a state located in the Western United States on the northwest extremity of North America. A semi-exclave of the U.S. ...

. It is located near Haines in the

Alexander Archipelago The Alexander Archipelago (russian: Архипелаг Александра) is a long archipelago (group of islands) in North America lying off the southeastern coast of Alaska. It contains about 1,100 islands, the tops of submerged coastal m ...

. The only commercial

copper Copper is a chemical element with the symbol Cu (from la, cuprum) and atomic number 29. It is a soft, malleable, and ductile metal with very high thermal and electrical conductivity. A freshly exposed surface of pure copper has a pinkis ...

deposit in Southeast Alaska situated north of Prince of Wales Island was located in the bay. Significant

gold Gold is a chemical element with the symbol Au (from la, aurum) and atomic number 79. This makes it one of the higher atomic number elements that occur naturally. It is a bright, slightly orange-yellow, dense, soft, malleable, and ductile me ...

and strategic mineral anomalies were found at William Henry Bay during surveys in 2011. Lower Waterfall on Beardslee River Alaska 1966

Geography

Looking North to Haines from William Henry Bay Alaska 1966

The bayis situated northwest of

Juneau The City and Borough of Juneau, more commonly known simply as Juneau ( ; tli, Dzánti K'ihéeni ), is the capital city of the state of Alaska. Located in the Gastineau Channel and the Alaskan panhandle, it is a unified municipality and the s ...

on the western portion of the

Lynn Canal Lynn Canal is an inlet (not an artificial canal) into the mainland of southeast Alaska. Lynn Canal runs about from the inlets of the Chilkat River south to Chatham Strait and Stephens Passage. At over in depth, Lynn Canal is the deepest fjord i ...

. It is about long and about 4 cables — i.e., about — in width. The Beardslee River flows down a few cascades into its head. About northwest of the bay is the Endicott River, coming in from the west through a narrow, deep gorge in the mountains.

History

After the

United States Government The federal government of the United States (U.S. federal government or U.S. government) is the national government of the United States, a federal republic located primarily in North America, composed of 50 states, a city within a feder ...

purchased Alaska from the

Russian Empire The Russian Empire was an empire and the final period of the Russian monarchy from 1721 to 1917, ruling across large parts of Eurasia. It succeeded the Tsardom of Russia following the Treaty of Nystad, which ended the Great Northern War. ...

in 1867,

United States Navy The United States Navy (USN) is the maritime service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. It is the largest and most powerful navy in the world, with the estimated tonnage ...

Commander Richard Worsam Meade made the first effort to identify the

timber Lumber is wood that has been processed into dimensional lumber, including beams and planks or boards, a stage in the process of wood production. Lumber is mainly used for construction framing, as well as finishing (floors, wall panels, w ...

trade route from Lynn Canal to Haines via William Henry Bay in 1869. Meade adopted the bay's name from the Hudson Bay traders. In 1880 U.S. Navy Commander Lester A. Beardslee who came to the bay and purchased corded firewood. Detailed

hydrographic survey Hydrographic survey is the science of measurement and description of features which affect maritime navigation, marine construction, dredging, offshore oil exploration/ offshore oil drilling and related activities. Strong emphasis is placed ...

s and marine charts were prepared. Farmers came to the bay area, and grew strawberries and

rutabaga Rutabaga (; North American English) or swede (British English and some Commonwealth English) is a root vegetable, a form of ''Brassica napus'' (which also includes rapeseed). Other names include Swedish turnip, neep (Scots), and turnip (Scott ...

s. Though

telecommunication cable Telecommunications cables are a type of guided transmission mediums. Cables are usually known to transmit electric energy ( AC/ DC); however, cables in telecommunications fields are used to transmit electromagnetic waves; they are called ''electroma ...

s of the

Alaska Communications System The Alaska Communications System (ACS), also known as the Washington-Alaska Military Cable and Telegraph System (WAMCATS), was a system of cables and telegraph lines authorized by the U.S. Congress in 1900 and constructed by the U.S. Army Signal ...

existed at the bay until the late 1950s, they are not reflected in the latest maps of the bay area. ;Mining After

claims were discovered about south-southwest of the head of the bay, the Alaska Endicott Mining and Milling Company was established and began copper mining. In 1921, gold tracer

mining Mining is the extraction of valuable minerals or other geological materials from the Earth, usually from an ore body, lode, vein, seam, reef, or placer deposit. The exploitation of these deposits for raw material is based on the economic ...

was also initiated. During this period, the copper mining operations were not profitable and as a result, the mines were closed and the gold tracer studies were also discontinued. At the initiative of the U.S. Government, in the 1950s, many prospectors tried to locate

uranium Uranium is a chemical element with the symbol U and atomic number 92. It is a silvery-grey metal in the actinide series of the periodic table. A uranium atom has 92 protons and 92 electrons, of which 6 are valence electrons. Uranium is weak ...

in the area – what became known as the "uranium rush". This was based on the airborne surveys, which revealed radiation about northwest of the bay at an elevation of about . Noranda Exploration, Inc. and

Nippon Mining was a Japanese petroleum company, a wholly owned subsidiary of Nippon Mining Holdings (now JXTG Nippon Mining & Metals). The petroleum products of Japan Energy Corporation were sold by filling stations under the brand name JOMO (for "joy of mo ...

commenced core drilling operations in the 1950s, but failed to establish a viable source worthy of economic development. Efforts made in 1985 by Dale Henkins, who had nine continuous federal claims named the "Lucky Six uranium prospect," proved to be unprofitable. During 2011, prospecting for gold and strategic mineral anomalies were pursued by Alaska state

geologist A geologist is a scientist who studies the solid, liquid, and gaseous matter that constitutes Earth and other terrestrial planets, as well as the processes that shape them. Geologists usually study geology, earth science, or geophysics, althoug ...

s, and findings of gold and strategic mineral anomalies (including

rare-earth element The rare-earth elements (REE), also called the rare-earth metals or (in context) rare-earth oxides or sometimes the lanthanides ( yttrium and scandium are usually included as rare earths), are a set of 17 nearly-indistinguishable lustrous silv ...

s) were reported in William Henry Bay.

References

{{Coord, 58.7177, -135.2394, display=title Bays of Alaska Copper mines in the United States Bodies of water of Haines Borough, Alaska

Geography

History

See also

References