Ladysmith news-budget. [volume] (Ladysmith, Rusk County, Wis.) 1907-1927, 1910-07-01
ALASKA WANTS
MORE SETTLERS
Miners, Farmers and LabOrers
Needed In the Northwest.
COPPER CAMPS OPEN IN JULY

Amazing Alaska has just reappeared
in the limelight, showing another new
phase While folks here at home are
bowling that the riches of the northern
territory should be kept for the people,
ALASKA is crying that the people do not
want the riches badly enough to go
there after them and that as result
the territory is beginning its summer
exceedingly short handed There are
literally not even enough people to do
che work in hand, let alone to develop
the new opportunities.
The first complaint came from Fair
banks a few weeks ago. Press dis
patches said that a large percentage of
the miners in the camp had deserted
to join the stampede to the new Idita-
rod and Innoko gold diggings and more
were going as soon as the ice went out
of the rivers. A labor famine was
threatened, and it still seems likely
that the estimated 100000 of gold
from the spring cleanup will be heavi-
Iy cut next spring for lack of men to
take it out Other established camps
report the same difficulty in getting la
bor and the agencies of the Pacific
coast are being appealed to.
Ore Shipments Soon.
From the railroads also there is
big demand for men. The Copper Riv-
er and Northwestern especially is try
ing to increase it's force, as 1T is rush
ing construction so as to reach the
mouth of the Chitina river by July l.
This is the gateway to the copper
country, and few weeks thereafter
the rails will be in the heart of this
undeveloped and little prospected re-
gion.
BY October the road is expected to
reach the Bonanza mine, and large
force will be at work on the property
all summer so that ore shipments can
begin as soon as the rails reach the
bins. In the meantime several of the
thirty or forty properties along the line
Of the raiSoad are going to begin large
development. All this takes skilled
men, and apparently they are not to be
had Thus a new problem takes the
place of the old. Heretofore develop
ment has been impossible because OF
the tremendous cost. of getting supplies
into a wilderness without roads of any
sort Experts agree that this is one Of
the most promising copper regions IN
the world, and it is unique in that from
being almost inaccessible it will sud
denly this summer have complete rail
connections with tidewater and the
steamer routes.
Farmers Badly Needed.
What Alaska asks for, therefore, even
more than miners and labOrers, are
prospectors who will cover her new
ground and give reasons for further
development.
This year. too, Alaska is crying for
farmers. All along the line of the
railroad up the Chitina valley there is
farming land which the agricultural de-
partment has reported favorably on,
and in view of the large number Of
miners to be fed there promises to be
?. good local market for everything that
can be raised 1t is a pioneering coun-
try Of course and new settlers Will
have 20 face pioneer conditions, but
the success Of farming and the bonanza
rewards to be won in it when there are
local markets has been well proved in
the great Tanana valley OF the lhleflol
and other sections.
The Alaska Yukon Magazine, pub
iished at Seattle, the gateway to Alas
ka, is authority for the statement that
within the next five years Alaska's
population and the value of Alaska's
products will be doubled The COM
pletion Of the Copper River and North
western railroad this year and the ship
ping of ore from the Kotsina- Chitina
copper belt. together with the develop
ment of the Boring river coal fields,
will create an industrial activity in this
part of Alaska that will require greater
population.