Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1915-05-02

untouched and apparently inexhausti-
groupings. which may be followed en-
tfrely around the mountain. These are
at different heights. and the veins vary
in thickness at different points. They
range from three feet to thirty feet In
thickness and average ten feet 1t
would appear that the coal miner would
. merely need climb up the mountainside
; and begin shoveling his fuel into a
chute that would carry it down to his
freight cars.
Cook inlet pierces most deeply into
this region. which is to be traversed
by the govern
Greatest Field ment railroad. 1t
Tapped by Inlet. mntxins into
this arm of the Pacific that tap the re-
gton of greatest known Alaskan re-
back as 1854 that the Russians, who
then owned Alaska, came for fuel.
Since that time the great wealth of
coal has lain hereabouts, but not more
than $4,000 tons of it have ever been
mined. In the meantime, Alaska has
imported 100000 tons of coal to keep
her hardy pioneers warm through the
have been spent in surveys and in To-
eating the coal fields, in attempts to
acquire them from the government. but
little has been done in development.
1t is fact, also, that little of the val
liable coal lands have passed from the
possession of the government. They
still belong to the hundred million and
the method of their future disposition
is still unsettled.
There are many fields of great value.
those at Behring and Matanuska rivers.
There is, for instance, the Tanana coal
field on the line of the proposed rail-
road. sixty miles before it reaches
Fairbanks. This field, 400 miles in the
interior. will, when the railroad is
completed. be brought in touch with
the Tanna river at Fairbanks, from
which it may be distributed, during the
open season of each year, throughout
the 1000 miles of inland waterways
afforded by the Yukon and it's naviga-
BILE tributaries.
Other sources of wealth that prom
Uses to become important when rail-
road facilities are provided are the cop
per deposits. Throughout much of the
region that is to be opened up by the
government road are excellent cop
per prospects. A copper mine, how
ever, requires much machinery and
dependent upon transportation facili-
ties.
-
From the copper district of Chitina
valley, however, there has been a
steady an d
Profit in Output profitable output
of Chitina Valley. Much develop
ment work has been done on copper
claims in the Nabesna river and the
White river districts. and these may be
expected to take on the role of real
producers as soon as transportation is
provided.
Alaska has given indications that she
materials when she is once thoroughly
prospected. The casual examination Of
her mineral resources that has so far
been possible, most incidental to
presence in many places of silver. lead
zinc, antimony, quicksilver. peat,
graphite, asbestos and mica. But the
difficulties under which mining has
been carried on in Alaska have made
it next to impossible that attention be
paid to anything but gold. All other
resources have been ignored. When
new conditions arise, it is but logical
to believe that the wealth heretofore
overlooked will be brought to light.
of Cook inle or get out copper ore. or
build railroads, for that matter, Will
live in a region where it rains about
100 days in the year. During the sum
mer they will find the thermometer
going up to fifty degrees, and In the
winter it will go down to about ten
above In the Matanuska and Susltna
valleys, a little further inland, the sum-
mers will be a few degrees warmer and
the winters a few degrees colder. Here
not more than ten inches of rain falls
in a year When the railroad builders
get over the coastal mountains and into
the great interior region they will hnd,
strangely, that 1t is still warmer In
the summer.
The mean temperature for the sum
mer months Is fifty-six degrees. In the
winter it is
Fifty.Six Degrees colder than
in Summer Months. coast It ranaes
around twelve degrees below. Here
the snow falls three feet deep In the
winter, and there is about tfelve inches
of rainfall In none Of the region Is
the climate SO severe as to interfere
with the normal activities at any sea
son. None of 1t Is so far north that
day and night cease to come and go at
any season of the year, though the
nights are very long in the winter and
the days correspondingly long in the
summer.
All of which promises to usher In
period of great activity, with base at
Seward, q village which had. at the
time of the taking of the last census
population of but 6S4 people. Likewise
does 1t promise new era Tor that
metropolis Of all Alaska. Fairbanks
All miles In the interior, which at the
same date boosted 3,541 souls.