The Seward gateway., 1915-10-07

beforehand, while it may lessen local interest in the Review, will not have the result, it is hoped, of causing the people of this section to regard the monthly's contents as stale.)
 Seward, the ocean terminal of the Government built railway in Alaska, is situated at the head of Resurrec- tion Bay on the south side of the Kenai Peninsula.
 Al the present time it is probably the most talked of town in Alaska on account of the general activity caus- ed by the railroad construction, and the fact that after the most careful investigation on the part of the United States Government, it has been chosen as the salt water termin- al Of the first Coast to Yukon rail road In selecting Resurrection Bay, the Government engineers have simp- ly confirmed the reports of govern ment and private engineers, since the days when the Czar had officers studying the coast of Alaska search ing for the most favorable location for future cities. Tn the seventeenth century, Russian officers landed in Resurrection Bay, and christened it Wasscasinski Bay or, as lterally tran slated, Sunday Bay. These officials wintered just below what is now known as Lowell Point and founded a ship yard, where a number of small ships were built. Later on, on ac- count of the sea otter and seal fish ing, they moved to St. Paul or Kodiak, on Kodiak Island, but Wasscasinski Bay was their headquarters and start ing point for trips into the Interior.
 The first white settler to land ana start a home on what is now the town site of Seward was Frank Lowell, a trader who built a home and moved his family over from Kodiak in the spring of 1884. The Lowells lived at the head of Resurrection Bay or Low ell Bay as it was commonly called un- til after the founding of the present town of Seward, some of the des- cendants are still residents and prop erty owners in Seward.
 The first steamer to enter Resur- rection Bay was the steamer Dora in the spring of 1896. At this time the Dora was on the run from Sitka to Dutch Harbor.
 In the month of June 1902, the first survey party looking for a route to the Interior landed at the head of Resurrection Bay ard began to map out a route to the Interior of Alaska for the then newly organized Alaska Central Railroad Company. The party under the command of Engnieer Jack Scurry located and surveyed the line from Resurrection Bay to the head or Turnagain Arm, and in the fall of 1902, after consultation of the heads of the various locating parties in the field, Resurrection Bay was chosen as the Ocean Terminal of the Alaska Central.
 In July of the following year, 1903, the present townsite was surveyed by Frank L. Ballaine and as soon as the plat of the townsite was completed, the town was chritened Seward in honor of William H. Seward, the man who was chiefly responsible for the purchase of Alaska from the Rus sians.
 On August 2Sth, 1903, the first con struction crew was landed from the steamer Santa Ana, and immediately began the construction of wharf, at the foot of Fourth Ave, and in April 1904 the first actual railway con struction was started under the super vision of Chief Engineer A. w. Swanitz. Work was rushed and by Fall the railroad had been completed as far as Mile 20, and as fast as pos sible the line was finished as far as Mile II, when owing to the withdraw ing of the Matanuska Coal lands by the government, the construction work was stopped at that point and has never been resumed until the rail- road was taken over by the govern ment this past summer.
 During railroad construction days