Norwich bulletin., 1911-07-27


 today sent to the senate message concerning the Controller bay affair and the reduction of the area of the Chugach national forest reserve to per. init the Controller Bay Railway and Navigation company to acquire land on the bay to be used as terminals for railway line to the Boring coal felds. twenty-five miles away. The passed by the senate June 27 last which asked for copies of all depart mental orders, maps. surveys. letters, reports and official documents in the case. Copies of these documents ac- company the message.
 The executive order of Oct. 28. 1910, referred to in the resolution was in the terms following:
 CHUGACH NATIONAL FOREST.
 ALASKA
 Under authority of the act of congress of June 4, 1897 (30 Stat, Il. at 34 and 36). and on the recommendation of the secre- tary of agriculture 1t Is hereby ordered that the proclamation of Feb. B, 1909, en- larging the Chugach National forest be modified to reduce the area of such na- tional forest by eliminating therefrom the following described tract. containing ap- proximate1y +, 800 acres of land, which has been found upon examination to be not chiefly valuable for national forest purposes:
 Beginning at a point where the meridian of longitude IA degrees minutes west rynS ho ocf Er3a nf CoY1fr hqv thence north along said meridian line to the parallel of latitude at 60 degrees 10 minutes north. thence west along said parallel to a point where the same crosses the coast line at or near the mouth of Boring river and thence along the coast to the place of beginning.
 The tract above described is hereby re- stored to the public domain.
 WILLIAM H. TAFT.
 The White House. Washington, Oct. 2S. 1910,
 The president declares that the order does not permit the Controller Bay secure a monopoly of the Controller bay harbor as, under the law, a strip eighty rods wide must be left between each entry. having frontage of 160 rods on navigable water. The law also keeps the control of the shore, which includes the flats lying between high water and low water, under the di- rection of congress. This provision. says MT. Taft, fully protects the pub lie and absolutely prevents any in- dividuai or corporation from acquir- ing monopoly.
 In regard to the Dick to Dick' let ter. in which there is reference to his brother ever spoke to him con- cerning Controller bay, Richard s. Ryan or any grant in Alaska. He says that the letter in question cannot be found in the files of the government, and he refers to it as wicked fab rication." He declares that his broth CT never heard of Controller bay un- regarding the subject
 Possible Harbor In Controller Bay.
 The message describes the location of Controller bay, which was original ly included in the Chugach forest re- serve. For a time it was thought that the water of the bay was too shallow tn make it valuable as harbor, but in 1907 channel was discovered ex- tending into the bay about seven miles The tract taken from the forest re serve by the presidents order covers 12,8OO acres in triangular form, the side along Controller bay being be- tween six and seven miles long, which covers the channel mentioned
 The presidents message then says:
 All the territory surrounding Con- troller bay was included in the Gnu zach forest reservation in 1909 by proclamation of President Roosevelt. The importance of Controller bay is that it lies about twenty-five miles from very valuable. coal deposits, known as the Boring coal fields. Ka- talla bay is to the. west of Controller bay and almost immediately adjoins it. It is an open roadstead, upon the shore of which an attempt was made by the Morgan-Guggenheim syndicate to establish railway terminal and thence to build a<road to the Boring coal fields. already mentioned. The attempt failed for the reason that the breakwater protecting the terminals was destroyed by storms and the terminals became impracticable Some fifty miles or more farther west of Katalla bay IS the mouth of the Cop per river, where there is an excellent harbor, on which is the town of Cor dova. There the Copper River rail- road. owned by the Morgan -Guggen- helm interests, has it's terminals. and the line runs to the northeast along the Copper river and has nearly reach ed certain rich copper mines in the in- terior. branch from this main line is projected to the Boring coal fields and is feasible.
 When the channel in the Controller bay was discovered MT. Tittman. su- perintendent of the coast survey. as shown by his letter in the record was of opinion that it was of great value and ought to be maintained as a na- val reservation because of it's proxina- fly to the coal fields His letter was submitted by the secretary of com the inferior. who invited the comment Of the director of the geological sur vey. That officer replied that the harhor was poor one and that it would not be as good for q naval res eryation as one already selected, but