The Alaska citizen., 1915-03-08
LANE FAV0RS
POWER PLANT
FOR NENANA
SECRETARY OF INTERIOR TELLS
CONGRESSMAN ABOUT
RAILROAD.

appropriations committee Of the
fouse Of representatives on February
/, and asked for an appropriation
OF 100000 for construction work
on the proposed Alaska railroad for
this year.
The Citizen received a copy of the
plea made by Mr.. Lane for the ap.
preparation at that time. 1t Is too
long to reproduce here in detail,
but the following. taken from the
official report OF the committees
meeting tells about the whole story,
it being remembered that the mem
1ers were studying a map Of Alaska
at the time:
LANE EXPLAINS
Secretary Lane | think l can
give you a rough outline Of the
situation. This Is supposed to rep
resent Prince William Sound and
this is Cordova, and here is the
present Copper River & Northwest
ern road, which goes up to place
called Chitina and turns on down
south Undicating).
The Chairman. 1s that what is
called the Morgan road?
Secretary Lane. That is common
ly called the anGuggenheim
road. This is Seward. and up here
runs the Alaska Northern. That
is the road that Br. Ballaine was
interested In originally, and that
runs UP to mile II. Here is Port
age Bay, and this is Turnagain Arm,
and this Is Cook Inlet, and this is
the Pacific ocean here Undicating).
Mr.. Gllett. Why should they have
that railroad up there (indicating).
Is not this deep water!
! Secretary Lane. Yes; that is
deep water, but there is a mountain
range and 1t would require 80 miles
of tunnel to get to Portage bay, and
besides there is very good territory
in here with lot of small gold
properties and a considerable amount
of agricultural land in small valleys.
! The commission divided itself in
this way: Mr.. Edes went to point
here called Slip Creek, at the head
of Cook Inlet. He then surveyed
this route down to Portage bay. He
surveyed this route and also a re-
J Dry No %
and made an appraisement Of that
road. He also went from Ship creek
up to the head Of Matanuska valley
where the coal fields are, a dis
lance OF about Is miles. Then Mr..
Mears went from that junction point
at the mouth of the Matanuska val
Broad Pass. There he was met by
| Mr.. Riggs, who had come down the
j Yukon river and had made his head
quarters at Fairbanks, and at Fair
banks he surveyed the route from
Fairbanks over to Broad Pass. They
met there and went over the route
] IAAH'l 1859 iifiu Oil Cudy sui HCy tN
and attempted relocations. Right
here are the great Nenana coal fields
to the north Of Broad Pass, a great
field OF Ignite where they have
veins exposed for 40 or so feet;
perfectly marvellous thing. 1t is
a good grade Of Ignite. 1t will last
under exposure for perhaps 80 days.
EXPLAINS POWER PLAN.
/ II they could do here as they do
over on the border line between
Alaska and Canada-transform the
coal into power at the mine-they
could use it most Drofitably. They
attempted to mine that Ignite and
| transport it down the Yukon valley
and found that to be failure be
cause the coal would slack in a
very short time after exposure, so
they have to put up the power plant
right at the mine and use the coal
as soon as it is taken out and trans
port the power to Dawson and all Of
the mining field around there. and
that is a very practical scheme and
it is being done to some extent at
the Pennsylvania field now for sup
plying some of the Pennsylvania
cities with power instead Of trans
porting the coal.
After Riggs and Mears got to
Fairbanks they came down over this
route to Ckitina. making a reconnais-
sance survey over this line that had
already been surveyed by the COM
mission of two years ago. Then
they went down over the Copper
River road to Cordova. then across
over to Seward. and came up over
this line again and made an ap-
praisement with Mr.. Edes, of the
Alaska Northern, and an estimate Of
the cost OF the Portage Bay pro-
ject The commission also sent a
company Of men through the Susit-
ma valley and through the Alaska
range on the west side Of the Susit
ma valley over into the Kuskokwim
and Iditarod country, which lies to
the west Of the Susitna valley about
$50 miles. They found a new pass.