The Evening statesman. [volume] (Walla Walla, Wash.) 1903-1910, 1903-11-02
SURVEYS
in ALASKA
Government Land Open
ed for Development.
MANY new ROADS BEING BUILT
Wonderful Development of the Terri
tory as Shown by Increase in
Population.
MANY new ROADS BEING BUILT

The activities of the Goth century
are not all prosaic. There are still
unconquered regions of the earth that
draw to them heroic souls that are
the ENTHUSIASTICALLY the road break
ers, or Bahnbrecher, as the Germans
SO aptly call them-for the rest of
mankind. Explorers and cartograph-
ers are claiming and mapping new
WilderneSSeS no less enthusiastically
and much more effectively than in
the days of Christopher Columbus and
age, which is nothing if not scien-
tific, demands that the tale of their
achievements be told simply, but be-
tween the lines the sympathetic read
er, who can see and judge alike the
old exploits and the new, catches the
shadow of the dramatic. 1t falls upon
him as he turns the pages of Profess
siOnal Paper No. Is, published by the
United States Geological Survey,
which concerns the mineral resources
VI lllS Ahoulll NldllSSll ololl ~, SAieA'-
ka. In this paper, the authors, Messrs.
Walter c.. Mendenhall and Frank c..
Schrader, have described in plain
language the chief topographic and geo
logic features and the mineral de-
posts of that district, but the thought
full reader who carefully scans the
photographs of those bleak regions
and the topographic map that accom-
panies the paper, will realize the diff
culties and the magnitude of the work.
This report has been issued in ad-
vance of the cOntoured maps, which
will accompany later report on the
general geology of the district, In
order to place it at an early date in
the hands of those interested, the to-
geographic material has been brought
together in one hachured map, which
is confidently presented as the most
complete and accurate representation
of the physical features Of the district
centering in Mount WrangeH that is
now available.
The impression of the need for he
role temper in work of this nature is
strengthened by perusal of the short
Introduction that opens the paper. In
it are recounted the patient steps thus
far taken in the subjugation of the
land. The extent to which this con-
quest has progressed is most clearly
indicated by the growth in population
and in mineral output shown by the
statistics of Alaska in the last 90
years. Its population of 430 whites in
1880 had increased to 3O,4 93 in 1900.
During the decade between 1890 and
1900 the annual value of it's output
of precious metals rose from $772,197
to $S265772.
The larger part of this growth be-
gan with the discovery, late in the
autumn of 1896, of the placer deposits
of klondike river, in Canadian Yukon
territory. An important part of the
general movement toward Alaska that
followed was directed toward Copper
river, the immigration there first
reaching considerable proportions in
the spring Of 1898. Previous to this,
something of the geography and geol
ogy of the Copper river valley had
been learned through a number of
explorations conducted in 1884, 1885,
and 1891, mainly under the auspices
of the war department. Except for
these surveys nothing of consequence
was done within the Copper river
no Gil 70 hn Dit,
William sound district had been in
habited only by natives and those
whites who were engaged in the SAL
mon fisheries or had established trad
ing stations for carrying on fur traf-
fc with the natives.
During the season of 1898 about
1000 people We're landed at Valdes,
about 5000 of whom crossed forbid
ding mountains, nearly 100 miles wide
and 5000 feet high, to reach the Cop
per river valley. A year later not
more than 800 of the original 1000 re-
manned in the country, but it was
they who undertook the first real work
done in the ChiStOchina gold field and
located the Nikoyai copper mine. The
development of the interior advanced
rapidly with the construction Of the
military trail directed by Major Aber-
crombie in 1899, 1900 and 1901. At
the same time map work was carried
on by officers of the United States
army, who made known the geograph-
ic details of that part of the Chugach
-1Jl
the Klutina and Copper rivers In
1900. Messrs. Schrader, Spencer, Ger
dine and Witherspoon, all of the Unit
ed States geological survey, spent the