The Chitina leader., 1910-11-12
THE CHIT4NA CUTOFF.

It is well nigh on thirteen years since Major Abercrombie, an adven- turous agent of the War Department, drifted on the tide of human events to the shores of southern Alaska. He came on a quest of exploration. His instructions were to proceed up the valley of the Copper river and scien- tifica1ly explore and disseminate an accurate knowledge of the same. His subsequent reports and revelations of this then unknown region awakened the interest of the entire world. He revealed to his native country hid den empire teening with incalcula bie wealth. He gave to her the Cop per river way, the brightest star in the Alaskan galaxy.
 Without so much as a map to guide him, he laid bare to a won dering world, the resilient, the mar velous possibilities of an empire un- dreamed of in the mind of man. In his wake came the fearless voyagers the dauntless argonauts, the sturdy pioneeds, who penetrated the val leys, pushed across the trackless wastes, through the mountain bar riers the thin wedge of civilization that rent asunder the myth of the great national ice chest" and made Alaska the golden dawn of the Amer ican continent.
 Abercrombie post dated one AL Ian by twelve years and one Sch watka by thirty. Allan, in an indif- ferent way, in company with some Indians, made a canoe trip up the Copper river in the summer of 1884 On his return he brought no knowl- edge of practical value. Scientifical- ly, his venture was a failure. His story is one of hair-raising experien- ces, with swift running streams and with crafty Indians.
 Lieutenant Schwatha in the trou- blesome days of the civil war, floated from the head waters of the Hoot- alinQua down the Yukon to its mouth, distance of 2,400 miles. On the deck of gun boat he skirted along the. shores of southern Alas ka. He turned his prov through some shoreland pass and vexed the waters of some unknown bay, to which, as fancy suited, he would give a name. But his report is nothing more than a fine contribution to belle-letters. It is repIete with elo- quent descriptions of gorgeous scen- cry. It was written in diary form, and its reading proves more inter- esting than profitable.
 To Abercrompfe alone belongs the credit of task we'll done. It was he who started the ball of progress a. rolling. At any rate subsequent events at Washington eonclusively demonstrated that Congress placed a confidence in him which was in consistent with all precedent. They received his suggestions and acted on faith. It was Abercrombie who led to the creation of wagon roads and government trails throughout the North. He prophesied the com ing of the railroad. It was through a hint of his that the late M. J. Heney, backed by the Close broth CTS, of London, made his prelimi- nary surveys and explorations from the head waters of Cordova bay into the interior by way of the Copper river valley. Heney's explorations for suitable route and terminal harbor along the southern coast of Alaska extended from the year 1898, while he was building the White Pass and Yukon, from the head wa ters of Lynn canal in southeastern Alaska to the Yukon, to the spring of 1906, when he began the construc- ton of the Copper River Railway.
 Abercrombie is the father of the Copper river way. In his minds eye he saw it beribboned with the gleam- ing rails of modern commerce. He declared it to be the only feasible and practical route for 8 railroad to the inland empire, which he fore saw must some day beckon to. the call of civilization. Contemporary