Heppner gazette. [volume] (Heppner, Morrow County, Or.) 1892-1912, 1903-07-23
FUTURE OF ALASKA.
Prospect of Its Becoming a Great
Farming District.
1t Is believed the Country Will BE
Capable of Supporting 10000
900 Persons in Something
Like Comfort.

Some idea of the future of Alaska
and its almost boundlesS resources is
given by Harrington Emerson IN the
Engine ering Magazine. Nj. Emerson
believes that Alaska can support a
population Of Il, ,000, ,0G0 ersonsin com
fort, and that at no distant day II
VIII be one Of the worlds richest min
ing and farming districts. The ideas
Of this explorer are expressed III part
as follows:
The Yukon, the fourth largest river
in the world, navigable for more than
1000 miles above its mouth and run
ming in a great semi-circle from south
eastern to northwestern Alaska, forms
4 natural highway. All this was
AnoWn long ago; but it was not known
that the interior contained 100 Geo
square miles of farming lands and al
most limitless areas of the richest
mineral lands in the world. 1t is in
his unsubdued country that thou
.ands of miles of railroad must be
Quilt, that great areas will open for
settlement, absorbing and keeping
ousy 1000 900 workers as fast as they
choose to go.
at is, however. not the agricultural
resources that will Immediately at
tract the largest influx Of population
and capital. About 40 miles from
Valdez in the Chittyno y&lie> are very
great copper deposits which during
many experts. Some Of 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 4O.OOO,00O tons Of high.
grade copper ores. VALDEZ bay and the
low pass north of it are the American
gatpWays to the Yukon valley. and al
ready a railroad has been surveyed and
partly graded to the interior. for the
copper. though it can be quarried like
the ron ores of Lake Superior. with
out raiiroad will remain worthless.
The rH'.rcad itself is assured nn IN
limited tonnage. II is tAe shortest
line to Dawson and the Yukon valley,
md what is of more Importance, it
can carry supplies delivered at Val
1e2 from sailing vessels or deep draft
ocean steamers in all the months Of
the year, with only one break Of bulk
at Valdez and also reach the deeE
navigable Yukon and the Koyukuk
month earlier than by the Yukor
mouth, which is closed by Behring
sea ice until July I.
"As shown in the history Of the
White Pass railroad, the ngOinG traf
fic would in itself be sufficient to war.
rant railroad but from Dawson the
only export is gold about 70 tons a
year, while this road will not only car
ry all the United States government
troops and supplies, for which many
hundred thousand dollars are spent.
but it will have the unlimited out
bound tonnage of high-grade copper
ores, which, with freight rate of two
dollars a ton from Valdez to the smell
ters Of Puget sound will scarcely be
treated in the interior.
1T is not too much to expect that
Improvement in transportation facili-
ties alone will convert central Alaska
into as closely populated and pros
porous region as Colorado, as the
Black Hills, of South Dakota, as the
rich mining region of British Colum-
bia"