Arizona republican., 1898-05-30
SkAGUAY AND DYEA
Battle ROyaI Between Cities
On Freighting.
The Great InduCemenf To Go At
Once Appears To Be That Rates
On Freight Are Away Down.

has been much anxiety, depression
and general blueness in Skaguay for
the past week and at last a comfort
ing ray of light has come to us. Dur
ing the winter the pack trains have
used what is called the winter trail,
dunning from the ford, mile and a
half up the canyon, to the summit,
across the Ice and snow on Summit
lake, Shallow lake and part of Clear
lake to Log Cabin, distance of four
teen miles, thence across country to
Lake Bennett While the ice on these
lakes remained hard and the snow
crust above was solid enough to bear
packing. But the inevitable thaw
came on about eight days ago. The
snow crust is a thing of the past. The
Ice is breaking up and packing by this
winter trail is now impossible. The
summer trail parallels it, however,
but Is at present deeply buried by
snow. This must be shoveled out for
distance of fourteen miles, and the
old summer trail, first rate one, by
the way, laid bare. 1t has been diff
cult heretofore to secure organized eff
fort for this. Each packer waited for
his neighbor to take the lead Mr.
Bracket, the owner of the wagon road,
could not do it because the Canadian
authorities would give him no right
OF way, and no authority to collect
toll. 1t began to look as though we
must wait until the snow took itself
of unaided, and meantime no freight
could get through, and Skaguay,
which is entirely dependent on the
packing industry. began to feel of less
Importance than ever before in her
history. u
Freight has been coming TO this
place in greater quantities than for
weeks, and in consequence of the con-
dition of the trail it has all gone over
to Dyea.
Last night meeting of the pack
ers and citizens convened to consider
ways and means for setting things
right. There was much discussion pro
and con. The merchants were In IA
vor of letting things slide, and a man
named Keder, who calls himself the
money king, one of those unnecessary
evils who fatten on the necessities of
others at anything between and Is
per cent per month-you know the
breed-suggested an adjournment for
week. without further action. Where
upon a man named Pillsbury jumped
up and spoke a few words straight to
the point. Gentlemen said he, 81
am the youngest citizen of Skaguay
have just arrived. But 1 want to 20
into business here. If you don't get
that trail open Skaguay will be the
deadest town on earth. If the secre-
tary will draw up a subscription list at
once l will head it with 500. "And
I'll put $500 under that" shouted an
other man. And I'm good for a hun
dred;'' "And l." and l." Keder, the
money king, at this juncture, went out.
Within five minutes $500 was sub
scr1bed, and now the other 81 500 re-
qu1red is assured. Mr.. Bracket has
been appointed to take the work in
charge, with a committee of three lead
ing packers to assist him. The snow
from the summit to Log Cabin will be
shoveled out at once, and the trail be-
tween Log Cabin and Bennett will be
corduroyed, where soft places occur.
The whole trail between this place and
the lake will be in first class order
and permanently so within five days
Then we propose and will be able
to quote freight rates to Lake Bennett
that Dyea cannot compete with. And
this brings ME to the second difncu!ty
that has for the past week or 50 made
Skaguay the bluest town on earth.
At Dyea there are three tram or
ropeway companies, each having pow
er transportation over the Chilcoot
pass, each running wagons and pack
trains from Dyea to the foot of the
pass, each subletting contracts to in
dependent packers, from the summit
to Lake Linderman. The most impor-
tant of these is owned and operated
by the Oregon Improvement company
This company about two weeks ago
started a rate war, with the avowed OBJ
ject of freezing the other two compa-
MES out of existence, in which they
will probably be successful. Freight
rates went down and down, from Is
cents pound to z cents to Lake Lin