{"id":27475,"date":"2026-02-22T11:39:00","date_gmt":"2026-02-22T16:39:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/?p=27475"},"modified":"2026-04-03T01:45:30","modified_gmt":"2026-04-03T05:45:30","slug":"episode-1490-alaska-1959-bill-morrison-b-52-dillingham-pebble-mine-alan-skeoch-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/?p=27475","title":{"rendered":"EPISODE 1,490 — ALASKA 1959 – BILL MORRISON, B 52 – DILLINGHAM -PEBBLE MINE =- ALAN SKEOCH."},"content":{"rendered":"
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episode1.490: Learning curve 1959\u2014Alaska with Bill Morrison and The TURAM <\/div>\n

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alan skeoch<\/div>\n
feb. 14, 2026<\/div>\n

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ANYTHING the boss wants, the boss gets.  We had almost 24 hours of sunshine on the Alaska job in 1959<\/div>\n
and my boss, Bill Morrison was an avid fisherman.   Problem was his boots.  They were leather. Mine were rubber.<\/div>\n
So my job description included \u2018beast of burden\u2019 carrying Bill and his fishing gear most evenings.<\/div>\n

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The Alaskan river valleys were great fishing grounds.  No bait necessary. The Pacific salmon fertilized eggs were strew around<\/div>\n
the gravel river bottoms.   Then their parents died and their bodies floated towards the <\/div>\n
Bering sea often intercepted by Kodiak brown bears.  We were not welcome but ignored the danger. Such is the nature<\/div>\n
of fishermen like Bill.  He snagged salmon with bare hooks\u2026alive or dead\u2026had me photograph his luck then tossed<\/div>\n
them back in the river\u2026 Then I carried him from place place. No real danger because the bears thought we smelled bad anyway\u2026which was true.<\/div>\n

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Why would I do that?  Fortune.  Bill was a good guy and he  taught me how to set up and run a Turam survey.  That skill<\/div>\n
got me an American work permit and a job the following summer in Southern Ireland.  Bill was tired of mining <\/div>\n
ex[ploration.  A  23 year old U. of T. student I was the only person available.  Such is luck.<\/div>\n

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JOB DESCRIPTION:<\/div>\n

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Top of the list\u2026Must be able to live among billions of biting insects (blood supply) , work 7 days a week, for $400 per month (less than $100 a day). Oh, yes<\/div>\n
the company would provide a 30-06 scoped rifle in event of trouble from an ill defined reason. (kodiak bears) and finally<\/div>\n
room and board which meant tent  and nice dinners such as moose heart,  <\/div>\n
Transportation povoided via two S52 (Sikorsky) helicopters and a pilot who awoke us each morning with \u201cLet\u2019s get fucking airborne!\u201d<\/div>\n
We had a semi secret base camp about 100 miles east of Dillingham where the best tourist site was a high hill<\/div>\n
made entirely of bottles.  The summer freight ship ship did not take empties.<\/div>\n

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When the survey was over the campsite was bulldozed into the river valley\u2026tents, cook house, gas 45 gallon drums, moose bones, etc.<\/div>\n
So I was told.<\/div>\n

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The site remains one of the largest potential copper mines on earth.  When that happens you will also move on.  <\/div>\n
You do not believe me?  Use your computer start with Dillingham then  \u201ccopper\u2026And a mystery word \u2014PEBBLE.\u201d<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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SETTING SCENE:<\/div>\n

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Early in June, 1958, I met Bill Morrison on a an airstrip in <\/div>\n
Dillingham, western Alaska.     He taught me how to set up and run the Turam, a sophisticated geophyhsical<\/div>\n
instrument thtcandetect mineralized deposit of chalcopyrite and other ore bodies deep beneath<\/div>\n
overburden of the ground.<\/div>\n

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The rivers of western Alaska were loaded with Pacific salmon in a rush drop eggs among the gravel riverbeds.<\/div>\n
You probably noticed Bill, an avid fisherman  and needed help crossing and crisscrossing the river far below our<\/div>\n
tundra campsite.  Helping Bill got me an American work permit.  <\/div>\n
…see pic below.<\/div>\n

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This is Bill Morrison strapped into the key parts of the Turam<\/div>\n
metaphysical instrument\u2026a long receiving coil hanging from his<\/div>\n
waist\u2026a receiving mechanism on his chest\u2026a  battery pack<\/div>\n
on his back\u2026not seen is the mile long grounded copper wire, grounding rods and motor generator.<\/div>\n

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Should a kodiak bear take a fancy to Bill he had no chance of escape.<\/div>\n
With this in minder contracted, Humble spoil of Texas provided <\/div>\n
30-06 rifles.  Hw could Bill have carried a rifle as well as Turam<\/div>\n
pieces?<\/div>\n

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Base camp looked much like this picture which was taken of<\/div>\n
our base camp in the Yukon in 1962. ( 3 summers later) Marjorie\u2019s cookies are<\/div>\n
poking out of the grey box on the right. That\u2019s a pet rabbit n my tummy.  Note repair to knees of my pants<\/div>\n
using medical tape.  In Alaska our boots were soon rubbed ragged by constant trudging through the<\/div>\n
tundra.   Water seeped in and our feet boiled … became pock marked then peeled away.  Very unpleasant.<\/div>\n

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alan skeoch,<\/div>\n
Feb. 16, 2026<\/div>\n

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The Turam method<\/b> is one of the oldest geophysical<\/a> electro-magnetic<\/a> methods used for mineral exploration<\/a>, devised by Erik Helmer Lars Hedstrom in 1937.[<\/span>1]<\/span><\/a><\/sup> Its name is derived from Swedish “TU” (two) and “RAM” (frame), referring to the two receiving coils.<\/p>\n

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Method<\/h2>\n<\/div>\n

An insulated cable<\/a> a few hundred meters to several kilometers long is laid parallel to the geological strike direction<\/a>. The cable is either grounded at both ends or laid out in a large loop, and energized at low frequencies<\/a> (less than 1 kHz<\/a>). Two receiving coils are moved on lines outside of and perpendicular to the long side of the loop or grounded cable<\/a> and two components of the resultant field are measured. The primary field generated by the large loop or cable interacts with the soil and subsoil<\/a> and with a conductive body if present which could be a mineral and creates a resultant electromagnetic field<\/a>. The electromagnetic field is measured according to two values: the Field Strength Ratio and the Phase Difference<\/a> occurring between the two receiving coils. It is a fixed source horizontal loop method. Separation of the two moving coils is usually from 10 to 30 metres. Using an AC bridge (also called compensator bridge), Field Strength Ratio is measured in percent and Phase Difference in degrees. In-phase (Real) and quadrature (Imaginary) values can be calculated from these data. Observed field strength ratio readings are used to calculate reduced ratios using a formula determined by the loop size and shape or the grounded wire length and the position of the receiving coils relative to the loop or grounded wire. The Turam method is a frequency domain method and in a way is the precursor of the time domain fixed loop methods. It is claimed to have detected large flat lying conductors to a depth of 400 metres.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n


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 Note: This is the beginning of  series of stories about mining exploration\u2026particularly the mines I had<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n

the good fortune to visit, most of
which have been abandoned.<\/div>\n


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Esimated there more than 40,000 coal mines in Ohio of which  20,000 are<\/div>\n
abandoned\u2026DANGEROUS PLACES.
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alan skeoch,<\/p><\/div>\n

february, 2026.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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episode1.490: Learning curve 1959\u2014Alaska with Bill Morrison and The TURAM  alan skeoch feb. 14, 2026 ANYTHING the boss wants, the boss gets.  We had almost 24 hours of sunshine on the Alaska job in 1959 and my boss, Bill Morrison was an avid fisherman.   Problem was his boots.  They were leather. Mine were rubber. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":27828,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-27475","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27475","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=27475"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27475\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/27828"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=27475"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=27475"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=27475"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}