Contractors hired to clear World War II ordnance from near the Port Chilkoot Dock last week found what they were looking for, but maybe a little more than they expected – a defused mortar shell measuring 17 inches long and three inches wide.
“We all knew there was stuff down there, but I don’t think anyone anticipated a mortar shell. Holy cow,” said Dave Berry, acting administrator for the Chilkoot Indian Association, which let the contract. “It caught everybody off guard.”
Officials with the firm declined comment this week.
The shell, which was believed to be inert but apparently contained explosive, was found exposed on the surface of the beach between the Port Chilkoot Dock and former Chilkat Cruises dock, encrusted in rocks.
The mortar was moved to an explosives container used by local contractor Southeast Roadbuilders and was to be detonated in a local gravel pit Thursday.
“They felt like it was pretty safe to move. If they hadn’t, they would have blown it up in place,” said Brad Ryan, a CIA contract employee overseeing project administration.
The work was done by a subcontractor to Ahtna, Inc. LLC. The dig was spurred by a tourist’s discovery of an unexploded hand grenade near the former Chilkat Cruises dock in July 2007.
Berry said while growing up in Haines, he remembers seeing bullet cartridges at the dock, but he was surprised to know a mortar was there, too. It also surprised employees of the subcontracting firm, he said.
“It sort of freaked them out. It made them submit a new inspection plan to the (U.S. Army Corps of Engineers),” Berry said.
The company won a $177,000 contract to dig up 10 percent of metal objects identified as possible munitions two years ago by a study using a sophisticated metal detector to locate World War II-era alloys, Ryan said. “Anything with a signature that could be a World War II munition.”
The beach, a popular spot for strollers and sunbathers, is strewn with rusting chunks of metal. Ryan said most of the digging was near the old Fort Seward dock, an area where munitions were most likely to have been dropped.
Starting March 16, a half dozen workers with shovels dug 365 holes in the beach between the two docks, down to a foot in depth, Ryan said. “Mostly, it’s just been metal scraps.”
Berry said the beach was a dumping ground as recently as the 1960s, and there are numerous car axles and other junk there, but mortar shells are serious business. “Even the smallest ones make a substantial hole in the ground.”
Work set for later this year includes removing about 300 old pilings from docks previously located on the beach. The work, to be done by the tribe, is intended to make the area safer for uses including subsistence activities, Ryan said.