The Chitina leader., 1910-12-31

en- among progressive, daring,
dauntless American railroad men as
an advanced railroader," has writ
ten for the New York Herald mag
nificent story of the conquest of
Alaska wilds, by the new railroad
from Cordova, the Copper River and
Northwestern. OF this great work
he says:
To the average man in the United
States Alaska is merely near-polar
region of ice and snow, where there
is plenty of gold to be found If the
hunter can keep from freezing to
death. The truth is that it is large
ly a fair and wonderful land, in
parts of which nature has locked up
treasures of untold value and set
the mightiest of mountains, the most
powerful of streams, the cruelist of
winds and the most crafty, stubborn
and treacherous of all her aids as
guards, whose vigilance is eternal.
They comprise an appalling de-
fensive and at times aggressive force
and, quite as much as Napoleon's
troops who marched on Moscow, Ed
wad HIS outnumbered knights and
bowmen who triumphed at Crecy
and the marvellous foreign legion
which Africa engulfs In part each
year, our men on the Copper river
constitute an army, and the build
ing of the Copper River & North
western railroad is one of the tiercest
and most spectacular battles ever
fought. The enemy is Nature-Na-
ture. who, when conquered, as she
will be, will prove good friend and
ally.
Before passing to the narrative of
the crisis of this battle of the Cop
per river in the North, permit me to
detail some of the smaller herOisms
of the long campaign, for surely the
man who under fire digs rifle pit
with his bayonet or bears wound
ed comrade through leaden hail is
no greater here than the man who
swings pick where the next instant
he may be swept to death in rush
of ice and earth and water or in the
bitter, bitter cold strives to thrust
forward a mattress or brush for a
footing where one misstep means
that he will be whirled away in an
icy torrent at the speed of an eX-
press train beyond all possible hope
of rescue.
1s..e. Northward from the port of Cor
dova, on the center of the south
eastern coast, at distance such as a
good automobile can cover in tam
ed Eastern state between breakfast
and dinner, lies the Kotsina-Chitina
copper district one of the world S
richest, if not the richest of all, de-
posits. Just beyond is the region
of gold and part of the way from
the coast are fields of coal the wealth
of which even at the lowest estimate
makes a mind strain for comprehen-
sion. The American spirit would not
permit that this wealth should re-
main undeveloped for lack of trans
portation, and when the government
evaded the task of preparing to get
It out private corporation set out to
build a railroad that would haul that
wealth to tide water. The men who
are building it are the adventures
of this narrative.
Beginning with the first few miles
after the road sweeps from Cordova
around lake Eyak the first $50 men
who invaded the region encountered
the first fight. M. ]. Heney, dubbed
the prince of Alaska" led the move
ment as the contractor, seconded by
e. C. Hawkins as chief engineer.
The Copper river is spread into a
delta covered with silt, as is the delta
of the Mississippi. This it was nee
essary to cross in the hard season be-
fore the summer foods should turn
It into a shallow lake with a muddy
bottom of great depth.
1t was on November Is, 1907, that
the heroes OF my story began, and al
ready the terrible winter was on.
The snow was eight feet deep and
there were only six hours of day
fight. The fats were 20 miles wide
ana bare to the blast, with many