The Alaska citizen., 1915-09-13
RAILROAD MEN
 WILL SOON BE
 THROUGH WORK
COMMISSIONER RIGGS SAYS SUR. VEY WORK IS NEAR
 " DONE.

1 After an absence of a little more i than two weeks Commissioner l Thomas Riggs. Jr., of the Alaskan i Engineering commission, in charge l of all railroad work in the Interior. reached headquarters here yester- l day afternoon. He came up the river from Nenana on the govern l ment launch. Midnight Sun. Skipper
 Rotch also brought up |. s. Survey ] or Kierulff. who has been survey
 ing the coal fields. and Howard l Curtis. in charge of the govern, ment commissary at Nenana
 1 Commissioner Riggs left here on l the sun August 26 and since then l has personally inspected the main l trunk line Of railway as far up as | the heaviest work in Nenana can
 yon. just this side of Riley creek. a distance of 70 miles up the Ne
 nana river He has travelled by l launch horseback and afoot, mostly
 the latter method. As a "musher" l he allcwS none of his men to out mush" him and he really prefers ] this method of travelling about on i is work
 The end of his work here for this ysTr i5 about at hand, and will be l reached three weeks earlier than i he anticipated early in the season. | His survey crews have made excel l ienr records in the field. and in l fact everything has moved with | clocklike precision. By the first of l the month the main trunk line from i Seward to Fairbanks will be located
 ready for construction next spring
 There will be left only the coal branches. These. the commissioner says, will be two in number, one running up Lignite and one up
 Healey creek. and they will be sur yeyed next summer, as it is the governments desire to open these coal fields fol traffic at the earliest possible moment.
 Tn all probability he said
 "Bailey's party will be here by September 9 and Weir's party about 1 October ,. They will meet just above Nenana Crossing, 35 miles above Nenana. and both are now camped within 15 miles of each ether Bailey is working up river while Weir is coming town Carlow creek on the head of the Nenana
 where he began his work early in | Iune'
 When Bailey reaches Fairbanks 1 he will have a few days work to l do on the Garden Island terminals after which his party will be dis banded and Engineer Bailey will ] leave for Seward over the big trail. Weir will also go to Seward from l Fairbanks, both engineers taking
 their office and instrument men
 who were brought in from the Out side over to the commission s Alas l ka headquarters. I myself shall go
 there as soon as the work is com 1 pleted in the Interior.
 "Packmaster Raebun will winter
 at Nenana this year, where We have
 already established a commissary
 quarters in charge of Howard Cur l tis Plans affecting the Fairbanks office this winter have not been
 matured and 1 cannot therefore an
 nounce anything definite just at present. No winter work will be
 rarried on at this end, our apropria
 tiOn not being sufficient, but we are aiming to commence operations i just as early in the spring as possi- ] ble and as soon as congress will
 make construction money available.
 The line from Fairbanks has now | pldtllCdlly DtSu lOCdteu dHu luc
 next stage of work is construction.
 The engineers have located an | excellent line throughout on a grade | surprisingly low. Between Fairbanks
 and Nenana f is 56 miles in length,
 with a maximum grade of a little
 better than half of one per cent. | The Goldstream route is all that
 we could ask for easy construction. i The Panama river will be crossed 1t Nenana of course, just opposite
 he Duke place.
 While in the Healey river coun-
 try I secured some samples of sur
 face Ignite, which I have turned
 over to A. H. Brooks, in charge
 of A1askas geological work. He
 will take them Outside and have
 them tested at once, so that we
 nay have report on this coal soon. Mir Brooks was very much pleased
 to get the samples and is greatly interested in the development of tNe Nenana field"
 While on bis trip. riding along
 the Nenana, about 45 miles up the
 river Commissioner Riggs had the
 good fortune to sight caribou just
 across the stream. He took a
 shot at him, but the distance was
 too great to secure the result he
 wished Both the caribou and the
 commissioner moved on down the
 river losing sight of each other for the time being Then the caribou