The Chitina leader., 1910-12-10
LET US MINE
 OUR OWN COAL
THE COPPER RIVER WAY.

History repeats itself more often in the building and populating of empires than it does in any other way. There is reason for this that is as potential and answering as the course of empire itself. Certain conditions lead to the building of cities whenever there is an immigra- tion into any unsettled territory, and these conditions have resulted in building the great cities of the North. These are the conditions which have combined to build at Cordova, the terminal harbor of the Copper River & Northwestern railway, the great est mining and traffic center, and which is proving itself today the most substantial city of the great North.
 Nature preordained that there should be city on the site of Cor
 dova. It is the natural place for metropolis in southwestern Alaska
 both from typographical and geo graphical standpoint. The city lies on a natural bench overlooking the harbor. She stands on the pedestal of the virgin empire of which she is mistress. The Copper River valley, of xxyhirh Tnr10uo ic tho 10uino1 ter, is 500 miles long, every bit oi which is rich mining and farming land, with scarcely waste acre. Ad- joining the city are thousands upon thousands of acres of the richest gold quartz lands in the world. The fla nous Mckinley lake and Alaganik gold mines he contiguous to the main line of the Copper River & North western railway. The world-re- nowned Bonanza copper mines will be tapped by the main line of the railway before the closing of the year. The vast wealth of these celebrated copper mines is too we'll known to re- ceive any further mention here. It will not, however, be out of place to mention the fact that they were of sufficient importance to justify the expenditure of thirty millions of dol lars in the construction of a railroad to connect them with tide water.
 The coming summer shall witness the completion of branch line from Katalla junction at mile 39 to the world-famed Katalla and Berink lake coal and oil fields. Here lie a hun dred thousand acres of the richest coal and oil lands on the North American continent. Wealthy cor porations have been formed to de- velop these fields. But the silly prin- ciples of Pinchotism, which blinded the people of the nation to their true interests, has been the bane of Alaska's greatest industry to be. When the frigid blanket of conserv- atism, as exemplified by Pinchot
 shall have been thrown aside, the fires of industrial prosperity shall flame in their wonted glory. This one resource alone is enough to make Cnrdnuo ait of
 pie. but this is apparently only one of the city building resources which Cordova possesses. The gold, cop per and coal mines, to be sure, will develop large industrial population for the metropolis, and bring mil lions of dollars in trade to it's very doors, but even without these advan- tages, Cordova would become great trade center. The fact that Cordova is the logical center of this vast vir- gin empire is indicated by the con- pletion of a great railway system from her doors to the great interior. Industries are springing up and all of the other marts of trade that in- dicate the development of a great surrounding population. With the completion of great railroad and the opening of great empire, the scores of settlers that are now con- ing in will change to hundreds, and even to thousands, the great Copper River way with its rich opportuni- ties, will become settled and pro- ductive, and Cordova will become be- fore another decade, a great metrop.