Eastland Creek is a stream on the Kenai Peninsula that flows south for 3 miles (5 km) to Kachemak Bay, about 16 miles (26 km) northeast of Homer, Alaska. The local name was first reported and published on maps by the U.S. Geological Survey in the 1950s.
The Kenai coalfield covers an area of about 1,100 square miles (284,899 ha) on the west side of the Kenai Peninsula between Tustumena Lake and Kachemak Bay. The coal seams are layered in about 5,000 feet (1,524 m) of nonmarine sedimentary rocks from the early Tertiary age. The bedrock is exposed at beach bluffs and along the larger streams such as Eastland Creek by glacial and alluvial deposits of Quaternary age. The coal is relatively low-grade lignite to sub-bituminous and seams are from 3 to 7 feet (0.9-2.0 m) thick. Although mining has been attempted from time to time since 1888 very little coal has been produced commercially.
In 1894, the North Pacific Mining and Transportation Company began commercial exploration for coal in Eastland Canyon. The company erected three buildings and a short pier at the mouth of the canyon and built a tramway to a tunnel on a coal seam 0.5 miles (0.8 km) up the canyon. At least 650 tons (589,670 kg) of coal was mined and shipped to San Francisco for testing. Prospecting for coal in Eastland Canyon continued until 1897 and then abandoned due to high extraction costs and low value. Read more here and here. Explore more of Eastland Creek here: