Karl Alvin Bachner
(1827 - 1990)
Photo Credit: Bachner Family Files.
Karl Alvin Bachner was born in Fairbanks on February 10, 1927, to Cleora Cassiday Bachner and J. George Bachner, both Alaskan Pioneers. George emigrated from Wurttemberg, Germany in 1911, coming to Alaska in 1914. Cleora was born in Leduc, Alberta, Canada and travelled to Fairbanks in 1906 as a five-year old with her mother and her brother. After a few years in Fairbanks, Cleora’s mother remarried, and they made the then arduous journey to Livengood where her stepfather mined on Mike Hess Creek. At 17, she married George in front of her parent’s home on Amy Creek.
George and Cleora mined in the Livengood area for another eight years while their family grew to include Jesse and Elizabeth (Betty). By the time Karl was born, the family was living on Eighth Avenue in Fairbanks, where George found work as a house carpenter.
Karl enjoyed the many pursuits typical for those growing up in small town Fairbanks before the boom of World War Two. He was an avid gardener, entering and winning prizes for his vegetables, joining the 4-H Club and Boy Scouts, playing baseball, and appearing in local band (trumpet) and theater productions. On August 15, 1935, Karl was on hand to watch Wiley Post and Will Rogers take off from Fairbanks on their final flight. He also saw Howard Hughes landing in Fairbanks in 1938 as part of his round-the-world flight. Karl’s older brother Jesse eventually became an aviation pioneer himself, running Bachner Aircraft Service on Phillips Field in Fairbanks. In the early 1940s, the family moved to the Seattle area, where Karl’s father was employed by the Morris Knudsen Company.
Karl attended Pacific Lutheran University (PLU) before enlisting in the U.S. Navy in 1944. After his discharge in 1946, he finished his degree at PLU in 1951 and joined his father’s general contracting company. Karl later formed Bachner Northwest with William G. Jones and Edgar Billimek, building many landmark buildings throughout Alaska. These buildings included the original Portage Glacier Visitor Center, the Eagle River Correctional Institution, and the Sitka (Harrington) Centennial Hall.
In 1953, Karl turned his attention to strategic and critical minerals. With his partners, George Bachner and Mike Seiler, they formed the Kenai Chrome Company to extract high-grade chromite from the Chrome Queen and Star Four deposits on Red Mountain near Seldovia, Alaska. After securing a contract with the US General Services Administration (GSA), they produced their first 6,000 tons of gravity separated concentrate in 1954. In 1955, Karl and his partners produced and shipped 7,067 tons of concentrate. The 1955 production represented nearly 20 percent of the total US metallurgical chrome production. At that time, the US total production met only 1 percent of total domestic demand.
Surface exposures of chromite seams from 1990 geological investigation at Red Mountain, Seldovia quadrangle, Alaska; most chromite was mined using underground methods. Photo Credit: Tom Bundtzen Files.
Chromite concentrates stockpile at beachhead from Red Mountain, circa 1957. Photo Credit: Tom Bundtzen Files
Chromium became increasingly important after the development of “chromium steel” in the mid-1800s. Once “rustless” or stainless steel alloys were perfected in the early 1900s, chromium became a critical mineral with applications in all sectors of industry. Since stainless steel contains at least 10.5 percent chromium, a secure domestic chromite (FeCr2O4) source is needed. Unfortunately, chromite production in the U.S. has been historically low with cheaper international sources of chromite available from Turkey, New Caledonia, the Philippines, South Rhodesia, and South Africa. This is especially true when shipping costs from Alaska are already high.
In 1957, Karl travelled to Washington D.C. at the invitation of Alaska Delegate Bob Bartlett (then the Territory’s representative in the US House of Representatives from Alaska’s at-large district) to address the U.S. Senate Natural Resources Committee on the need for tariffs and price setting to bolster the economics of Alaskan chromite mining. At that time, a ton of metallurgical grade chromite (at least 42%) went for $21 (U.S.)/ ton. Shipping Red Mountain chromite by barge to Seattle and then by rail to the smelter in Mississippi cost $25/ton. Karl argued for tariffs on non-domestic chromite and a regulated price point of $125/ton to cover mining and transportation costs. Bachner also cited the high cost of labor in Alaska at that time in part due to the Cold War military ramp up. Skilled workers were making a high wage of $4.25/hour with extras like overtime and lodging which made industrial metal mining even more uneconomic. Refractory chromite (less than 42% grade) is primarily used for furnace lining bricks. While refractory chromite is important to the industrial process, it was even less economically viable to mine than metallurgical chromite.
Civil engineer and US Senator George Malone from Nevada, who served on the US Senate Natural Resources Committee and spent time in Alaska prior to World War Two as an engineering consultant on war materials, strongly supported the development of the mine at Red Mountain. Unfortunately, Karl Bachner was not able to move the needle on chromite prices. Ultimately, mining at Red Mountain was discontinued in 1958 after the GSA refused any more shipments of chrome concentrates from Alaska. Subsequently, the U.S. became even more dependent on chromite imports.
Karl returned to the construction industry. After George died in 1960, the rights to the Red Mountain deposits were transferred to Anaconda Copper, which continued to intermittently explore the area through the mid-1980s.
U.S. chromium needs continued to rise with the increasing military, automotive, and medical uses until the 1960s. At that time stainless steel recycling methods were developed and eased dependence somewhat on foreign imports. Limited chromite mining in Oregon and California also reduced dependence. In the early 1970s, Englehard purchased approximately 20,000 tons of Red Mountain chromite that had been stockpiled on the beach near Seldovia. This material represented the combined mining efforts of Union Carbide and Chemical Corp. during WW2, and the Kenai Chrome Co. during the 1950s. In 1976, with international chromite prices on the rise, Englehard shipped the material to Japan. Mining, however, was not resumed.
Karl and his wife Carolyn settled in Anchorage in the early 1950s and raised three children, Dana, Denise, and Vicki. In the 1970s he became involved in real estate development. He was also a member of the Anchorage Elks Lodge, the American Legion, and the Veterans of Foreign Wars. An avid horse racer, he proudly owned several winning racehorses, including ‘Kobuk King’ and ‘Ahead Tiger’. Karl passed on September 21, 1990, at the age of 63.
Sitka (Harrington) Centennial Hall, Sitka Alaska, designed and built by Bachner Northwest in 1967, is still considered one of the finest public buildings in Alaska. Photo Caption: Greater Sitka Chamber of Commerce
By Denise Herzog-Cook; Reviewed by Tom Bundtzen
References Used in this Biography
Barker, J.C., Still, J.C., Mowatt, T.C., and Mulligan, J.J., 1981, Critical and Strategic Minerals in Alaska, Cobalt, the Platinum-Group Metals, and Chromite. US Bureau of Mines Information Circular 8869.
Foley, Jeffery Y. and Barker James C., 1985, Chromite Deposits Along the Border Ranges Fault, Southern Alaska, Part 1. Field Investigations and Descriptions of Chromite Deposits. US Bureau of Mines Information Circular.
Foley, J.Y., Barker, J.C, and Brown L.L., 1985, Critical and Strategic Minerals Investigations in Alaska: Chromium. US Bureau of Mines, Open File Report 97-85.
Jasper, M.W., 1955, Examination of Chromite Occurrences on Property of Seldovia Chrome Company, Inc., Kenai Chrome Company, and Alaska Chrome Company. Alaska Territorial Department of Mines Itinerary Report 104-1,
Kaufman, A. et al, 1958, The Mineral Industry of Alaska, Chapter in the Minerals Yearbook 1958, Volume 3 of 3, pages 93-94.
Papp, John F., 2007, Chromium – A National Mineral Commodity Perspective, USGS Open-File Report 2007-1167.
Parker, Audrey E., 2003, Livengood – The Last Stampede. Hats Off Books, Tucson, AZ, page 23.
Roehm, J.C., 1941, Some chromite occurrences at Red Mountain, Kenai Peninsula, Alaska. Alaska Territorial Department of Mines Miscellaneous Report 104-2.
Rutledge, F.A., April 1946, Exploration of Red Mountain Chromite Deposits Kenai, Peninsula, Alaska. US Bureau of Mines Report of Investigations 3885.
UAF Project Jukebox, 1974, Cleora Bachner Erickson is Interviewed by Neville Jacobs in Fairbanks, Alaska in August 1974. Digital Branch of the UAF Oral History Program, sound recording and written transcript.
UAF Project Jukebox, 1985, “Jess Bachner” as part of the Pioneer Aviators Project. Digital Branch of the UAF Oral History Program, sound recording, excerpt, and slideshow.
United States Senate Committee on Interior and Insular Affairs, 1957, “Long Range Mineral Program” in Hearings 1957 Volume 2, pages 195-205.
Williams, J.A., 1953, Field trips by James A. Williams and Martin W. Jasper in the Anchorage, Iliamna, and Seldovia Recording Precincts, July 14 to August 2, 1953. Alaska Territorial Department of Mines Itinerary Report 195-53.
Newspapers and Periodicals
“Alaska Mining Falls by $2 ½ Million in 1955” Fairbanks News-Miner, December 3, 1958.
“Alaskan Mineral Development May Come Slowly” Fairbanks News-Miner, September 7, 1955.
“Anchorage Chamber Paper Gives Roundup on Mining” Fairbanks News-Miner, January 8, 1955.
“Announcements for 1951-1952”, Pacific Lutheran College Bulletin, Volume 31, May 1951, page 116.
“Bids Asked for Building Sale” Fairbanks News-Miner, October 14, 1960.
“Copper Prospect Near Palmer has Good Showings” Fairbanks News-Miner, October 12, 1953.
“Karl A. Bachner” obituary in Anchorage Daily News, September 26, 1990.
“Monthly Mining Bulletin by Territorial Department of Mines”, Fairbanks News-Miner, August 17, 1957.
“Monthly Mining Bulletin by Territorial Department of Mines”, Fairbanks News-Miner, October 16, 1957.
Division of Mines and Minerals, October 1960, Mines Bulletin. Alaska Department of Natural Resources, Volume 8, No 10.