Omaha daily bee. (Omaha [Neb.]) 187?-1922, 1911-05-14

ASHlNGTON, ID. C.-(Specal Correspond
NAIk ence to The Bee)-I write today of one
of the best investments of Uncle Sam
Patriarch. Our fatherly relative is
ISA(EESI shrewd speculator. He makes millions
SS@n1&S In real estate and his chief land invest
ments have paid many thousand per cent The first
was the Louisiana purchase by which the French sold
us territory two times large the state of IL
lnois. That block of land cost about cents an acre
1t is now worth $50 and upward per acre and it an
nualy yields crops to the of thousands of mil
lions of dollars 1t is producing more than billion
bushels of corn and two hundred and fifty million
bushels of wheat and is feeding live stock
valued at over nine hundred millions
The Wealth of Alaska.
The purchase 1 speak of today is that of Alaska
Uncle Sam bought it of Russia less than two cents
an fortyfour years ago He has already realized
more than sixty times the amount of his original in
vestment and he does not yet know what he owns
The land is netting 400 per cent every year, and
It will go up to 1000 per cent in the future We paid
for It little more than million dollars. We
have already taken out four hundred millions
We got than the purchase price out of the two
or three little seal islands, and the salmon fisheries
are bringing in ten million dollars per an
mum. The yearly output of gold is close to twenty
millions, and by the end of this year we shall have
realized more than thirty times its cost from the
minerals alone.
These are big figures but they are only pin pricks
on the surface of that land Of ice and snow. The
most of the gold SO far taken out has been from
placers and there quartz deposits incalculabe
value Alaska has copper beds which bid fair to flood
the markets of the world and it's coal veins esti-
mated to contain billions of tons of black diamonds
With Uncle Sans Prospectors
During the past week L have been looking over the
latest government Investigations of this mighty prop
erty. AS soon as 1t came into hands Uncle Sam
sent his experts explore the past genera
hoow kaIr4u
climbing the mountains and trampng the plains
and pateaus making maps of the land and prospect
ing for mineral wealth.
The greater part of the work has been done by
the geological survey which keeps three divisions
In the field One of these including three parties
is devoted to mapping the country and giving Its
topography. It is making plans from which you can
tell all the hills and hollows. the height of the
tains and depth OF the valleys Another division is
examining the water powers and third, and should
say, the most important of ALL is composed of dozen
different companies of biologists, who are looking
into the minerals and accommodating to the coal
iron, copper and gold which the country contains.
The mineral branch of the survey is under
the charge OF DR.. Alfred II. Brooks who has spent
more than thirteen years in the work of exploring
Alaska, and who knows more about the country than
any other man In the world. He has written a geog-
raphy and geology of Alaska with his scientific
assistants has spent about five months every year for
the past thirteen years in making explorations with
view to the mineral wealth. His parties have gone
through the wlds foot boats carrying their
canoes from stream to stream and making long tours
during which their baggage has been carried sleds
and drawn by dogs They have Travelled to the head
waters OF stream river then crossed to the
headwaters of another and down that, until they
have explored altogether thousand square miles
1t is from talks with Dr. Brooks that able to
give much Of the information contained in this letter
Alaska From AerOpIane
In the first place let us take a flying machine view
OF Alaska, have the maps from the geolo-
gists and the country is like nothing have ever i'm
agined. We shall suppose that have taken one OF
Orville Wrght's aeropanes and have sailed across IL
from the Pacific to the Arctic from British
Columbia to Siberia in Russia. What a big land II
Isl Beginning at the southeast the Pacific, where
the land Joins British Columbia. and flying straight
north, go almost as far from New York to Gin
enna before reach the coast OF the Arctic ocean
and from the same point, flying westward. should
go 200 miles before arriving at Boring Roughly
sDeaking Alaska would make square with more