The first, and one of the largest placer gold finds, was discovered on the Seward Peninsula by three Swedes, Jafet Lindeberg, Erik Lindblom, and John Brynteson at Anvil, Glacier, Rock, and Dry creeks, and Snow Gulch Creek on September 22nd 1898. Those early finds would spur a rush to the peninsula, and by Spring of […]
On September 0th, 1915, The Cordova Daily Times broke the news that William Van Valin, a noted explorer, lecturer, and teacher, had discovered a “Lake of Oil” a mile inland from Smith Bay, approximately halfway between Wainwright and Utqiagvik (Point Barrow) Van Valin described and photographed streams of crude two feet thick flowing from the […]
