Amador ledger., 1900-11-16
Railroad Building In Alaska.

Ii dny JUG i'au sol louSly suggested tDe
construction of railroad in any part
of Alaska five years ago as good in
vestment for capital his sanity would
have been questioned. But the Terri
tory has undergone remarkable changes
since then and the subject of railroad
construction through it may be discuss
ed now as sound business proposition.
The success of the railroad constructed
to tap the Klondike district, which was
the direct outgrowth of the gold dis
coveries there. has been pronounced,
and the original plans of its promoters
have been broadened to meet the de.
mands of increasing traffic and trade.
The inhospitable wilderness of five
years ago contains large population
now whose necessities are great and
the products of whose labors are worth
more than $40, 900, 600 annually.
In the light of the success of this. en-
terprise and the later discoveries of
auriferous wealth north of the Yukon,
the construction of a railroad to join
the extremities of the Nome mining
district has been broached. An Eng
| lish syndicate is said to be behind the
project and surveys of the route to be
adopted have been made. The pro-
moters seem to be in earnest.
The object of the proposed road is to
connect Grantley harbor, at the head
of Port Clarence, the entrance to Ahich
is about seventy miles farther up sthe
coast than Cape Nome, with theo head
of Golovin bay, which is abont forty
miles this side of the Cape. AS both of
these elongated indentations in the
Northwestern Alaskan coast extend far
inland, the termini of the projected
railroad will be about eighty-fve miles
apart. The route will traverse a Sec
tion of the country which has not yet
been explored, but W hich there is every
reason to believe is as rich, if not richer
in mineral wealth, than the territory
prospected nearer the coast 1t will.
at all events. provide a means of trans
porting supplies into the back regions
of the Nome mining district, for which
adequate facilities are at present lack
ing, freight now being moved at a
ruinous cost and at great risk to life
and property. The prevalence of
storms at Cape Nome this summer has
demonstrated the insecurity ofthe open
sea. Marine wrecks innumerable are
strewn along the exposed coast, giving
proof of the dangers besetting ocean
commerce in that neighborhood. As
everything indicates the settlement of
a large permanent population in the dis
trict, harbor facilities must be obtain
ed. Port Clarence and Golovin bay
both provide them, and rich gold
bearing ground has been discovered in
the vicinity of each.
The feasibility of extending this rail-
road ultimately to Nulato, one of the
old Russian settlements on the lower
reaches of the Yukon river, is also
under consideration. The distance is
only 300 miles, as against $50 miles from
st. Michael. The object of this ex-
tension isevidently to avoid the shallow
and dangerous passages of the Yukon
delta, which have been the terror of all
who have taken the river route to the
gold fields. Perhaps, the proposed
railroad will, in time, form section of
the branch of the Canadian Pacific,
which has been mooted to extend from
the main line through the Klondike
and down the Yukon valley to Behring
sea. Manifestly, the development OF
Alaska's mineral wealth is opening an
era of railroad building in the north
S. F. Chronicle.