Burrall, Frederick P.

Frederick P. Burrall was a graduate of the Michigan School of Mines before becoming the company manager of the Arctic Coal Company from 1908-1910 in Longyearbyen on the Norwegian island Spitsbergen, the largest island of the Svalbard archipelago in the Arctic Ocean. As company manager, Burrall was responsible for the mining and loading operations.<CR>Burrall brought a breadth of real-world experience to the job. Following his completion of a mining degree at Michigan College of Mines in 1894, he was employed as an assistant instructor in George Koenig₂s chemistry department for an academic year. He soon departed for the private sector and over the course of twelve years, worked for mines in Oregon, Arizona, South Dakota, and Mexico. Some of this work was with Edmund Longyear and R.M. Bennett properties in Minnesota and other states, and provided introductions to other branches of the Longyear family. From 1903 to 1907 he was employed by the Boston office of Ayer and Longyear. In 1907 ₆ just before Munroe₂s untimely death ₆ he accepted an offer to superintend the Daly-Judge Mine in Park City, Utah.<CR>Burrall was connected to the Arctic Coal operations for just two years, tendering his resignation in fall of 1909 to be effective January 1, 1910. Yet during the course of these years, the mine plant was brought to operating status. He completed the construction of the aerial tram and his diaries report details of day-to-day life in the no-man₂s land that was Spitsbergen in this early era: dealing with frozen coal piles, testing of coal in ships, encounters with trespassers and many other incidents.