The Pioche record. [volume] (Pioche, Nev.) 1908-1925, 1912-09-07

& -FluIlttvyxH where, dCNoi uihe
: llIV\W to writer in the
.S Overland Month
ly, the builders
of the line are laying off the perma-
nent roadbed itself ON ice.
There are several thousand square
miles OF glaciers still In Alaska II
the walking were good enough one
could tramp northward from the sea
500 miles without leaving the ice ana
could branch off on side trips OF sew
eral hundred miles in various dlrec-
lions with ice always under foot
But it isn't the ice, at least not as
ice. that has made the task OF the
railroad builders so hazardous. Every
summer masses of the glaciers break
| off so that they are rapidly retreating
| But that only makes conditions worse
| for the men who are fighting their
way across this remnant Of frozen
age For not only is the ice reduced
from fairly permanent to a most un-
stable and dangerous material by the
summer warmth but the land is re-
duced by water to Its least navigable
condition.
The pushing OF the railroad over
the Copper river fats involved enough
logged courage to supply a dozen
books of old-fashioned romance.
These soft, shifting silt beds, with
their innumerable river channels and
quicksands, are impossible in sum-
mer to either man or beast. This was
winter work.
swept fats. covered with eight or ten
feet of snow, alternately flooded with
water and frozen solid. Over or
through this it was necessary to move
not only men and horses but hun
dreds OF tons of supplies, timbers ano
pile drivers. Sometimes rails were
laid on brush piled on the snow. In
other places ten feet Of snow was
shoveled away for track laying.
As spring broke the flats became I
lake of slush and water and still TIT
work went forward. The moving o
supplies ahead of track laying became
Increasingly difficult with warn
weather To get in horses, for In
stances, scows just large enough t.
hold one animal were built and towet
by launch across the river channels.
Long lines were then attached ant
the loaded scows towed by force o
main strength over the soft mud AM
,uicksand where men could hardl!
and foothold and horses would hope
essly mire mile an hour wa
often good average time for this trav
cling. even with big crew OF ever,
horse. and 1t went on hour after hou
and day after day.
But this was all below the glaciers
At the three-mile face Of Miles gla
cier the river is contracted within
deep narrow channel. Hour after hou
through the summer this glacier dis
.harges bergs into the stream, maxim
wash that climbs hundred feet u
the opposite bank. Nothing can stan
before 1t.
Just above Miles glacier the rive
makes sharp double turn and on tn
). other side meets another great di
charging glacier. Between these tw
- Ice cliffs the railroad runs The pro-
10 lens involved are unique in railroa
n construction. Where the river
- bridged between the glaciers the cha
NJ mel Is 1900 feet wide. and piers mu
y be set that would withstand the poun
~ Ing of the enormous bergs from Child
=. besides the field ice which is in a f
h .een-mile current often six feet dee
~ These piers were built of solid co
I'D crete reinforced with heavy ste
ke rails set foot apart all around al
an they were carried sixty feet to be
%. rock. Their greatest horizontal {
mension also is sixty feet. In additit
lv the piers are protected by concre
mr. breaks also sunk to bedrock and
m unexamplied solidity.
he Just above the river at this poi
or 4 long and rather high trestle was
oil. CURED. and in order to fulfill &C
ps tract this had to be built after wi
"a ter had set in With the thermomet
va. around zero and fifty to sixty-m
wind beating heavy snowstorm
most horizontally the men worked
this trestle, while on the level I
ed wind gathered snow and gravel into
irt frightful mixture and hurled It at I
raj workers with terrific fury.
se' One hour was a long shift. Engin
ip we're stalled and had to be dug O
Shovelers sometimes could make
las Roadway whatever against the fyi
drifts In digging out supplies +
m days the wind blew more than eigl
ior miles an hour and then no man CO,
face 1t. Eighty miles of warm wi
lor is too much for most people. At 2,
ark and we'll mixed with ice and gra
1t is too much even for an Alaskan