The lower Matanuska Valley coal field is in southern Alaska 45 miles northeast of the city of Anchorage (fig. 1). The field is in an area bounded on the south by the Matanuska River, on the north by the foothills of the Talkeetna Mountains, and includes on the east and west, respectively, the valleys of Eska Creek and Moose Creek, which head in the Talkeetna Mountains and flow southward to the Matanuska River. The western boundary of the area described is about 8 miles north of Palmer, which is in the heart of an agricultural district.