The farmer and mechanic. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 18??-19??, 1911-05-16
The Coal of Alaska
BV Frank G. Carpenter

coast of the Arctic ocean, and from
the same point. flying westward. We
should go 100 miles before arriving al
Behring sea. Roughly speaking,
Alaska GOULD make a square with
more than 700 miles on each side, and
still leave enough land over to form
two states the size Of New York.
Tt is almost as large as the combined
area OF Germany, France and the
Spanish peninsula, and if it were lifted
up and dropped down on the United
States proper it would cover all OF the
states which border the Atlantic from
Maine down to Florida.
DR. Brooks tells me hat Alaska has
in general about the same features as
the western half of the United States.
It is composed of three or four great
regions. There are two ranges Of
mountains upholding a high plateau
betWeen them, with a wide stretch Of
Arctic plain at the north me
southern mountains correspond to the
Sierra Nevada and other ranges, which
| bound the western side Of the Rocky
mountain plateau. North of them is
a region of plains corresponding to
that plateau, and on the other side is
a great range Of mountains which cor
respond to the Rockies, with plains
beyond like the great plains
farther south. The latter are the
tundras Of the Arctic slope. They
are covered with a thick growth Of
moss, which ends at the sea- and
which for many miles inland is bed
ded on perpetual ice.
The mountains are wooded. Those
at the south have a vegetation as dense
as the jungles of tropical countries,
and the whole southern slope has d
rainfall which in places aggregate
more than 100 inches per year. Across
the mountains we find IN arid region
where the rainfall is scanty. It is
not as dry as the great plains Of the
Rocky Mountain plateau, but SO dry
that the vegetation is scrubby and the
big trees disappear. It is through
this region that flow the chief rivers
which are fed by the SHOWS of the
mountains. The Yukon, which runs
for 1900 miles from the Canadian
ried to any market on earth. Another
-four billions or more lie in the interior
of Alaska, In the plateau region of
which l have written. and it is safe
to say that it will never be worth
anything except for local consumption.
The greater part of the balance, COM
prising more than six billion tons by
conservative estimate Is in southeast
ern Alaska, near the Pacific coast.
These last beds are a live working
quantity. and they will some day have
O Rd1i III III 1l1uuStIS dnO
wealth of the world.
Coal at Half a Cent a Ton.
In my talk with DR.. Brooks I asked
him as to the Government values Of
these lands. He replied that all are
now withheld from sale, pending the
Government investigation and the
trouble concerning the titles, and that
he had estimated their value at a
half a cent "a ton in the ground. This
seems r~idiculously low, but even at
this rate he says the lands near the
adific coast would be worth from
500 to $500 per acre.
I here ventured suggestion tina im
Pacific coast would be worth from
genheims wished to perpetuate his
wealth he might invest $1,000 in
such lands with the understanding that
they We're to be mined only by his
Observation-Disclosures one hun
dred years from now.
1T would seem So" replied DR..
Brooks, but we have had a discussion
boundary to Boring sea, is the largest,
and the Kusko KWim. which flows
through the same plateau further
south, comes next. The plateau
where it joins British Columbia is about
as high as the average altitude of the
Allegheny mountains, and it slopes
from there north to the sea.
The Mighty Coal Beds.
Of this rough territory DR.. Brooks
tells me that only about one-ffth Of
the whole has been g~eologicaIly ex-
plored. The biologists have gone
over the most accessible and most de-
sirable parts of it and have tramped
across the other portions, making ex-
ploratfons here and there, SO that IN
general they know about what the
country contains and have specific
knowledge of at least one-fifth Of 1t.
A great part of our conversation to-
day related to the coal fields, which
are now attracting so much attention
in the mind of the people. Or.
Brooks says there is coal all over
Alaska and that the beds are of such
an enormouys extent that they prba-
bly, contain hundreds of billions Of
tons, and there is no doubt that hey
contain al the least L. Ann nnn nnn