Omaha daily bee., 1911-09-10
ON RAILROADING IN ALASKA
Will Mccune Says Construction is as
Tame as in This Country.
VAST FIELDS WAIT OPENING
Returning RaiIroader says that Road
Building IL Not Unique, but
Much Rough work
il Done.

Dosent "Rallroading in Alaska" seem
to you quite 3 proper sounding title for
book filled with booo and thunder sto-
ries OF adventure II docs 20 the sverage
person. but viii McCune. 1918 Binney street,
lust returned from nearly four years OF
railroad construction work in Uncle Sans
farthest north territory bess to differ,
MY experiences have been anything but
exciting" is the way Mr. McCune puts It.
"Outslde OF a lot Of mountain climbing
and q lite danger now and then from IN
overlooking Of the streams and rivers, my
life hasn't been any more exciting than
that Of a dry goods clerk during the time
have been absent from the states.
Alaska Is naturally a rugged country
he continued. but the difficulties encoun-
tered by railroad construction gangs aren't
any greater than those encountered In the
same sort of work here. We have TO make
big cuts and bis fills, but those are things
by no means unique in railroad oonstrue-
ton Naturally the construction work Is
not done in so finished a manner as It is
here and that fact decreases considerably
the labor Of putting through a pioneer
road"
Mr.. McCune has been connected as as
Northwestern railroad. which stretches
from Cordova, in the southwestern part Of
/ Alaska on Prince william sound. north
and east to the great Bonanza copper
mine. distance Of approximately go
miles. The new lire follows the Copper
river Cor a considerable distance back from
the coast and then leaves that water
course striking almost exactly east to its
objective point.
outlet for Copper.
The road was completed in July and now
trains are running over It. The great
object Of the capitalists who backed the
project was of course to furnish an out
let for the great Bonanza mine ana the
vast number of copper mines near It, nu'
the road has tapped a country rich not only
in copper, but in other metals as Wen ano
If HAS fair to be a well rewarded ven
ture for its promoters.
Gold mining has long since ceased to be
the sole occupation of the citizens oil
Alaska and the people are beginning 70
wake up TO the fact that their country Is
one which abounds in other Valuaole
metals, coal tin, copper and the like ana are
turning their attention to uncoverins these
metals. There is still considerable pros
| pecting for gold quartz. but the amount
dug each year is comparatively unimpor-
/ tant
Alaska is quiet Just at present. says
| Mr.. Mccune Business Of all sorts seems
to have taken a perceptible lull pending
the settlement of the matter Of opening the
vast coal lands there.
'If Alaska is ever to reach her fun de-
velopment these lands must be thrown
open. with these rich deposits once opened
Alaska can have manufactures and COM
merce, things entirely impossible today, anc
it seems TO mo that 1t is imperative thai
they be opened.
ut makes very little difference to the
average man in Alaska" he continued
what plan lie adopted for opening, whether
the lands be rented or some other dispo
sition be made of them, but the vas
Matanusha fields near Seward and thu
Boring river fields near Katella should
certainly be opened, and that very soon.'