Kasaan Peninsula
Kasaan Peninsula lies between Clarence Strait and Kasaan Bay in the U.S. state of Alaska. It forms a cut out from the eastern coast of Prince of Wales Island on the south, and by Tolstoi Bay and Thome Bay on the north. A low mountain range forms the backbone of the peninsula, with altitudes ranging from. The southern and western shore line is abrupt and almost unbroken, and has practically no shelter from southeasterly storms which sweep up Kasaan Bay. The northeastern coast of the peninsula also rises abruptly from the water, but is broken by a number of indentations, some of which form small harbors. The first discovery of copper deposits in the Ketchikan district was made by the Russians on the southern side of Kasaan Peninsula. Kasaan is the largest settlement on the peninsula.
Topography
Kasaan Peninsula is a promontory on the east side of Prince of Wales Island that includes about square miles. From Clarence Strait, it appears to be an island whose summits are highest near its central part and diminish in height toward the north and south. A neck of low land between the head of Kasaan Bay and the south end of Thorne Bay connects the peninsula with Prince of Wales Island. This low pass appears to represent the continuation of a valley, from wide, which is a tributary to the north branch of Thorne Bay and extends northwestward through the center of Prince of Wales Island. Kasaan Bay occupies the south end of this valley. In the northward extension of this valley and on the low pass south of Thorne Bay, there are many small lakes and morainal deposits. The highest point on the peninsula is the top of Kasaan Mountain, which has an altitude of. The other mountains average about in height and their slopes are deeply dissected by small valleys and by narrow steep-sided gulches.Erosion
On Kasaan Peninsula, there are many flat areas, some of them containing small lakes, and the mountain slopes themselves are interrupted by benches or terraces, which occur at different elevations and at rather regular intervals above sea level. These benches represent levels of erosion. The lowest bench level is indicated by a series of flats or forelands at a height of about above sea level. Forelands at this height are especially prominent at the head of Kasaan Bay and on the adjacent islands. Along the northern shore of the peninsula and in Tolstoi Bay, a higher level of erosion, which seems persistent at on many parts of the peninsula, is marked by wide flats in the valleys, some of which are occupied by small lakes. Such flats occur just north of Grindall Point; on the hills just north of Kasaan; northeast of the Haida mine, where the flat is covered by a lake; on both the east and west slopes of Tolstoi Bay; and southwest of Thorne Bay, where there are two large lakes. Still higher, at an elevation of, a level of erosion is represented by a flat, occupied by a lake, at the head of Poor Mans Creek, on the divide toward Tolstoi Bay; by flats north of the Alarm claim, on which there are several lakes; and by several areas occupied by lakes northeast of the Haida mine. The surface of the lake just east of Lake Three, at the head of Kasaan Bay, and that of the lake below the Goodro mine are also at this elevation.The next or fourth series of benches and flats are prominent at an elevation of about above sea level. At this level also there are lakes, from which small streams flow down through gulch-like valleys to lower levels. At this altitude, there are terraces along the north slope of the southwest half of the peninsula, flats south of Hadley, a low pass across the peninsula southwest of Lyman Anchorage, and the lakes and flats on the divide from Windfall Harbor to Tolstoi Bay and east of the It mine. Most of the summits of the hills north of the It mine and adjacent to the Salt chucks at the head of Kasaan Bay are at an elevation of about. Higher levels of erosion are indicated at elevations of by lakes and flats in the central portion of the southeast half of the peninsula, by flats that are in part occupied by lakes on Mount Andrew and on the mountain just west of Lyman Anchorage, and at the head of a branch of Tolstoi River. Other lakes at an altitude of about north of Grindall Point Mountains and north of Kasaan Mountain may mark a higher erosion level. The highest relatively level areas stand at an altitude of about, on the Grindall Point Mountains, where there are also small lakes, and also on the ridge southeast of Kasaan Mountain and on Tolstoi Mountain.