The Ketchum keystone. [volume] (Ketchum, Idaho) 1885-1899, 1898-11-12
A PICTURESQUE SPOT.
Fertility and Beauty OF Straw
berry Point, AlaskA

The Best Plsoe In the Northwsstsra Ter
ritory for Agricultural Pursaits-A
Perfect Wilderness Of Plants
and Grasses.
The season that is just finished has
been the most profitable in the matter
of tourists as well as gold miners that /
Alaska has ever had. Now that it is
over, and the regular inhabitants OF the
territory have had a chance to think
about it q little, they are beginning to
talk about the great things in store for
them. Alaska is gorgeous in summer.
Nowhere else in the world is there such
scenery as along the island-dotted
channel from Port Townsend to Ju-
neau. Not only is nature dressed In
her best to receive the tourists who are
going there in ever-increasing throngs,
but the inhabitants also get on their
good clothes and their good behavior,
and for four or i've months the whole
territory is arrayed in its Sunday best.
But this good clothes exhibition comes
only in streaks. 1t occurs for about
two days of each week, when the steam
er from 'down below" is in. The tour
lists come and go with the steamers,
and rarely stay over from one boat to
another. AS the steamers lie in each
port only day or less. the tourists
have not much chance to make last
ing impression. Now. however, there
is likely to be change. Juneau men
are nothing if they are not hustlers,
and with the recollection Of this sea-
sons profits and possibilities they are
arranging to put up big hotel ON
Strawberry Point, at the entrance to
Glacier bay, in southeastern Alaska
Strawberry Point In one of the most
beautiful and picturesque spots in all
Alaslia. 1t lies between Juneau and
Sitka at the entrance to Glacier hay.
1t is a glacial moraine, which extends
out into icy straits about ten miles from
the mainland, and separates the en-
trance to Glacier bay on the east from
the little narrow strait between Pleas
ant island and the mainland on the
west. The moraine has an elevation
of from so to 100 feet above high tide,
and contains hundreds of acres OF fer
tile level land. If there is a place in the
territory where agricultural pursuits
can be carried ON it is at Strawberry
Point. The soil is a rich. sandy loan.
! and the benches are mostly free from
! the marshy ground which character
| ICES most of the level land along the
coast in southeastern Alaska. The
whole peninsula is covered with q lux
<>R h1,Vm ;os~ ~ hnv
| grasses, and many acres of it are dotted
with the strawberry plants which
give the point its name. They arc 30
thick that when they are in blossom
in the early summer the land resembles
a New York farmers field of daisies,
and in September. when the berries
! ripen, they fairly make the gre und
red.
The climate of Strawberry Point ia
| much pleasanter than at most other
| places in Alaska. At Sitka, for instance,
! the average is 220 days of rain. snow or
fog in year. Juneau is about as bad.
1t never gets very cold because of the
influences of the warm Japan current,
but there are very few days of clear
/ Strawberry Point the precipitation OF
| rain in summer, and the correspond
| ing fall of snow in winter, are much less
| than at Juneau. This is because across
the bay in the west the lofty Fair
weather range lowers like an army OF
| giant sentinels stationed there to pro-
tect this little garden spot from the
| min <hof vUnlpfd
across from the Pacific if these noun
tains did not hold them back. The
| rainfalls in summer are like those OF
| the interior, and not like the long,
steady drizzles and downpours of Sitka
and Juneau. Strawberry Points prob
| ably the only place in Alaska where the
lightning plays and the thunder roara
in typical summer shower. In places
on the benches there are lunches OF
young cedar and spruce, with occasion.
| al thickets of alders, but most of the
| ground is clear and rolling.
The grandest scenery in Alaska is on
view from Strawberry Point. Besides
| the giants of the Fairweather range,
there are the great ice cathedrals OF
the Muir and Pacific glaciers, which
| loom up 20 miles away and send of a
| continuous procession of tremendous
icebergs, which pass down by the point
like great feet Of white war ships in
| review. The waters about the point
TEEN with fish, and there ic game q
plenty in the nearby woods. Already
| the enthusiastic juneau men are plan
ming their summer hotel and calling
Strawberry Point the "Saratoga OF the
Northwest."-N. T. Sun.