The Birmingham age-herald., 1903-02-25
By Harrington Emerson in the Engineer ing Magazine

By Harrington Emerson in the Engineer
 ing Magazine HE new and unsubdued west today \0 is Alaska, almost 10 a mile one-
 half larger than the thirteen orig inal American colonies, very nearly twice the size of California, Oregon and Wash ington, as large as Great Britain, Den mark, Sweden, Norway and the German empire. and with better climate and greater natural resources than an equal area of Northern Europe. supporting 10- 100000 inhabitants. This land, so rich. so fertile, has a sea coast of 23,0OO miles, ev- anywhere accessible.
 The Yukon the fourth largest river in the world, navigable for more than 2O0O miles above it's mouth and running in great semi-circle from southeastern to northwestern Alaska, forms a natural highway. All this was known long ago; but 1t was not known that the interior contained 100000 square miles of ra ming lands and almost limitess areas If the richest mineral lands in the word. l. is in this unsubdued country tha. thousands of miles of railroad must be built, that great areas will open for settlement. ap- sorbing and keeping busy tro rnillion workers as fast as they choose to go
 It is, however not the agricultural re- sources that will immediately attract the largest influx of population and capital. About 40 miles from Valdez in the Omt- tyna valley are very great copper depos- It's, which during the last season have haa tnl the ores run s5 per cent copper, and there are many thousand tons in sight assaying 16 per cent. A great mountain slide has occurred in this region, revealing it is claimed. as much as 10, 100000 tons of high grade copper ores. Valdez bay and the low pass north of it are the American gateways to the Yukon valley, and al- ready a railroad has been surveyed and partially graded to the interior, for the copper, though it can be quarried like the iron ores of Lake Superior, without rail- road will remain worthless. The railroad itself is assured an unlimited tonnage It is not too much to expect that improve ment in transportation facilities alone will convert Central Alaska into as densely populated and prosperous region as Colorado, as the Black Hills of South Da- kota, as the rich mining region of Brit ish Columbia.
 There is another part of Alaska wait ing for transportation facilities. It is not so dazzling as the klondike nor as vast as Central Alaska, but 1t Is perhaps richer than either of them. Far to the northwest lies the Seward peninsula, sug- gesting on the map an animals head snarling across Boring strait at the near by Siberia. By rivers and sea 1t is al- most wholly separated from tEe main- land and though comprising but per cent of the area of Alaska, or 20000 square miles in 100000, 1t has yielded for the last three years nearly 75 ger cent of the gold output, in spite of the in- creasng yield Of the great quartz mines of the southeast, near Juneau. Although the most distant region of North Amer ica, 2700 statute miles from Puget Sound, it owes the rapid exploration and develop ment of it's coast to the fact that an all- water route was open to it's shores, and that freight still costing a minimum of s7O a ton into Dawson is being landed On the Nome beach for s10 a ton.
 That part of the Seward peninsula on which Nome Is located, a part about s660 miles in area, was, geologically speaking very recently an island. A deep inden- tation of the ocean runs fifty miles inland