The Alaska citizen., 1915-09-13
NENANA GOAL LAND SURVEY
 IS FINISHED
LAND OFFICE SURVEYORS ARE THROUGH WITH WORK
 FOR SUMMER

After completing the survey Of
 between five and six townships in
 the Nenana coal fields. the United States surveyors who have been at
 work in that district the past sum-
 mer are now bringing out their crews. Approx imately 160 square
 miles of territory have been plated into sections ready for the utilza tion of the land for commercial pur- poses.
 w K. Kierulff, one of the four
 5ur1 eyors, reached Fairbanks yes
 terday afternoon on the Midnight
 Sun to attend to some business for
 the department Most of his men came down with him and U. $. Sur veyor A. T. Harris. who also came
 out to Nenana. Woodbury Abbey preceded both of them out from the coal fields by a day or two, and w. II. Thorn, who Is the surveyor | in charge of all four crews, is like | ly by this time to be on his way out.
 When the parties broke up, the
 men who were brought in from the Outside were sent down first, sour doughs who are residents of the country being retained until the last. The Outside men are expected to catch the steamer Alaska at Ne
 mana this morning.
 There were 34 men in the coal
 survey parties sent out by the gen eral land office under the direction If Assistant Supervisor of Surveys Walker, of Juneau, They went into i the Nenana country about the mid dle of June with two big pack trains and have been doing their work fully so miles from the base of sup
 plies at Nenana. While the Geo i logical surveys covered the coal fields of the district, no land sur veying had been done until this | summer. The construction of the | railway made such surveying an | immediate necessity This land, | after being surveyed, will be sub | iect to a reservation of 5000 acres | by the government, then will be | open for general leasing under the provisions of the bill passed by the | ast congress.
 Surveyor Thorn has been in charge | of the field parties. He did not get | through with the work assigned, which was greater than anticipated | by the officials and the survey will l without doubt be continued next summer. Just how soon the gen eral public will be allowed to SC | ect lands for leasing is not known at this time but it cannot be until | the government reservations have been made.
 When asked what lie thought of
 the coal fields, Surveyor Kierulff said that they had used the coal all summer in their kitchens and for their campfires. He said that
 it was a Ignite that threw out a steady heat and was very sati5- | factory. Of course they could not | get the best of the veins but had
 to content themselves with surface
 outcroppings.. These outcroppings
 slack just like lime when exposed
 to the air and are not fair tests.
 "I saw eleven veins in one place
 on upper Lienite," he said. They
 ranged from mere fingers to veins forty feet in width and were exposed
 for several hundred feet along an
 open cut of BOO feet along the creek
 It is remarkable, the number of such veins and the size of them We
 surveyed enough coal this summer
 to last the Interior of Alaska for
 some time to come and will likely be back on the job again next year
 to cover the rest of the field.
 Our survey stakes are iron posts
 three feet in length and varying from an inch to three inches in
 diameter, capped with brass The
 brass caps are marked with dies | 70 designate the corner they mark. l These posts are durable, permanent | ard far more correctly set tGar vas pos ssibe with the old style wooden | stakes. One of our main ditficui- ties was in getting these heavy posts freighted into the district on pack horses and placed on the ground | which in itself was a feat The pack horses used by the sur Vey were under Forbes and son
 and Cooney and Sproule. They are 1 being assembled at Nenana rapidly
 now, and will be sold at public quo
 tion either there or here in the