Underground and far away, Dawson Mine is easy to overlook. Tucked within a hillside in Hollis along Twelvemile Arm near the dead center of Prince of Wales Island, fifty workers extract gold- and silver-bearing quartz while the rest of the world barely notices. Mammoth metal mines in Southeast, namely Kensington and Greens Creek, overshadow their smaller counterpart, yet Dawson Mine stands as a leading employer on its humble island. First prospected nearly a century ago, Sundance Mining Group has been steadily producing precious metals since reviving the site in 2014.
This month’s cover story, “Good Neighbor” by Jamey Bradbury, stands for all the natural resource development businesses in Alaska, small or large, obscure or in the headlines. The state’s mineral, vegetable, and animal bounties await the enterprise clever and courageous enough to put them to profitable use.
