Arizona republican., 1900-07-17
SURVEYS OF ALASKA
Rapid Growth of Our KnOWI-
 edge of the Country
Five Expeditions Engaged in Survey of Seward Peninsula, Kotzebue Sound and the Coast From Cape Nome to Cape York.

Alaska to this country constantly in creases as the territory and it's re- sources become better known. The scientific exploring and mapping of the vast region, which is a sixth as large as the rest of the country, on the Ameri- can mainland has progressed rapidly in two years. It is doubtful if the | knowledge of any other part of the world has grown so rapidly in that time. The work has been resumed this l season with equal vigor. The purpose of the government, to explore and map the whole territory so that its resources and their location may be known, min ing and other enterprises may be in telligently established and development | facilitated, comments itself to the peO- | pie.
 So little was known of fAlaska's topog- raphy even four years ago that a range of mountains, represented as an off shoot of the Rocky Mountains, was shown on all the maps as coming down i to the sea in the Cook Inlet region. It | is now known that no such range eX- l ists. The fact that in every region
 where surveys are being made this summer great resources are known to await development illustrates the rapid growth of information. None of these regions was known at all three years 1 ago. except that coast lines were i'm | perfectly outlined on the maps 1 The largest survey work now in pro- gress is in the Seward Peninsula the westernmost extension of Alaska.
 which has an area of 5000 to 4,OOO | square miles between Kotzebue and Norton sound. A geological survey | party, under MT. E. c. Barnard, is making typographical survey of the entire region, which is at present the center of the largest interest in Alaska. l On its southwest coast is the Cape l Nome gold district; on its northwest
 side is the newly discovered gold dis ] trict of Cape York, near Port Clar-
 ence; and inland, stretching northeast 1 toward the neck of the peninsula, is 1 the still uneXplored extension of the | Cape Nome gold-bearing belt The i map of this region is to be on the fair | ly large scale of four miles to the inch. ! While MT. Barnard's party is surveying and mapping the peninsula a geological | party under MT. Alfred Brooks is in vestigating the gold resources in the 1 Cape York district and will endeavor | to locate and define the gold-bearing | formation from which the placer gold | of the Nome beach and the foothills
 and river valleys back of it is derived. 1 This party, however, will not go far | inland, but another expedition, includ- | ing MT. w. J. Peters. topographer. and
 MT. W. C. Mendenhall, geologist, will
 land in Good Hope Bay in Kotzebue
 sound and will endeavor to trace south | ward the great goldbearing belt which
 seems to extend across the peninsula
 in northeast and southwest direction
 and is now being worked at it's Cape
 Nome terminus to the sea.
 l While these parties are at work near | the coast and in the interior of the | peninsula the coast and geodetic survey | has sent two steamers, the Pathfinder | and the Patterson, to survey the entire | coast line from St. Michaels to Cape
 York and Port Clarence, giving special
 attention to harbor facilities. a matter
 of great importance, as the coast par
 ticularly between Cape Nome and Cape | York. is almost unknown, and the dis | covery of harbors. if they exist is very
 desirable for that entire gold region | This survey will at least result in the determination of places for the best
 anchorages. Thus five expeditions,
 
 two from the coast and geOdetic survey
 are now at work on Seward Peninsula
 and its coasts. and the result of this
 seasons pioneering will undoubtedly
 make the entire region known in all it's
 aspects.
 The geological survey is also making
 preparations this summer for the eX
 ploration next year of the large terri l Twin hpt hn Ia
 and the Arctic ocean. This region is entirely in arctic latitudes. between the
 Arctic circle and 73 degrees north. The headwaters of the KOyukuk. which is d
 large northern tributary of the lower
 Yukon. were explored last year by geographical survey party. Gold is found along the Koyukuk and its trip
 utaries, and this region. now entirely without white settlers. is likely to be-
 come important. In order to carry out 1 the work proposed for ne::t summer IL | IS important to leave the starting point | on the koyokuk early enough in the | season to reach the Arctic ocean and return to the Yukon before the close l or navigation in the fall. The survey | proposes, therefore, to cache supplies for this expedition this summer at the mouth of the Allenkokat river d large northern tributary of the Koyukuk just within the Arctic circle A party with light outfit will go inland by sledge next winter and early in the spring will take supplies from the cache, start up the Allenkakat on the ice. cross the divide and follow some stream on the northern slope down to the Arctic ocean. It will be a great gain to our knowledge of the extreme northern part of the territory to have all its conditions studied by scientific observers. This pioneer party will doubtless be followed by others till l thorough information concerning our Arctic domain is at last secured.
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