Images from summer 1902 expedition from W.C. Mendenhall showing steaming and recent ash deposit on Mount Wrangell, by W.C. Mendenhall, U.S. Geological Survey, and reported in Mendenhall et al. (1905). Photos obtained from the U.S. Geological Survey Denver Library Photographic Collection. "Number 1 Panorama. Mountains Drum, Wrangell, Sandford, taken from bluff below Station No. 6. Copper River, Alaska. (Panorama with mwc00244) Handwritten notes on album caption: Plate VII-A in U.S. Geological Survey. Professional paper 41. 1905. No index card available."
From Motyka (1983): "Mendenhall (1905) reported sighting at least a dozen fumarole plumes along the western caldera rim of Mount Wrangell during the summer of 1902. A photo in Mendenhall's report, taken in late May or early June 1902, shows a vapor plume over the West Crater and the snow around it covered with ash. An article in the July 1, 1902 edition of the Valdez Prospector stated that large black clouds were billowing above Mount Wrangell's summit, and volcanic debris was floating down the local streams."
An article in the June 10, 1902 editon of the Galveston Daily News reported that Mount Blackburn was "in active eruption." The unlisted author of the article states that volcanic activity at Blackburn is "improbable" and focuses instead on Mount Wrangell.