Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1916-05-14

Fairbanks would require "l3 niies
more TO be built. The cost of this
the Taft commission estimated at
something like $4,000. 900. The Copper
River road, am told here: was ohered
to the government at ITS phSSicai Nalu-
alton. or at its cost to the owners,
which was something like s15.0o0.00O,
making a total for the through line
of 500 1000. 060. The extension or the
road would have passed through the
rich farming lands of the Ianana val
lev and the mineral regions developed
thereby would have been greater, II is
said, than those reached by the exten-
sion of the Alaska Northern Railway.
The Copper river route to falfpanks
would have been eighteen miles short
er than the road now being construct
ed and II would have had the adVan-
tage of terminus 200 miles nearer
Seattle. As it is now the steamers GO
ing to Seward call at CordoVa on the
The Copper River and Northwestern
railway is of the picturesque
routes of the world. 1t is the only
railroad that carries you right to the
foot of magnificent glaciers and allows
you to examine these greatest WONDERS
of nature while the train stops. w ith-
in an hour of our arrival at CofdoNa
an excursion train started out. from
the wharf and the tourists on board
were carried distance of about hfty
miles up the Copper River valley 10
the Miles and Childs glaciers. two
mighty rivers of ice that stand almost
facing each other on opposite sides of
the track.
Leaving Cordova the road winds
around the hills high over the water
1t hangs to rocky cliffs. which are
covered with a dense vegetation. A
little later it enters the mouth of the
Copper River valley and skirts Eyak
lake, which fills a depression scooped
out by some prehistoric glacier. The
lake is star shaped and is almost en-
trely shut In by high wooded noun
tains. which rise abruptly from the
waters edge. The road goes for four
miles along the winding shores of
this lake, and then crosses the E.yak
river, which carries the glacial waters
OF the lake out to the sea. 1t is by
this river that the boats from Cordova
go into and out from the lake, and
during the summer months the stream
is gay with canoes, rowboats and
power craft of every description. The
lake teens with fish and it has excel
lent trout. During the winter it is
sometimes frozen over. and is then
used for skating and sle:shins. There
is some fishing done at that time
through holes in the ice.
Leaving the lakeswe passed through
dense forest Of Spruce. some of the
trees Of which were two feet in di-
ameter. We tnen wound our way over
the Copper river delta, crossing stream
after stream. which come from the
great glaciers OF the interior. The fats
extend for a distance of sixteen miles
east and west, wide expanse of green
level land. half swamps. with water
here and there showing out of the
green. There are ducks and geese on
the ponds. They fly up and away as
the train comes. We could often see
walls of green ice from the train The
glaciers reached the clouds that dark.
rainy day. There was dense forest
| between US and them. The ice seemed
to be looking at us over the trees.
We rode by several fox farms, com
posed of cages of wire netting. with red
and black foxes within; and further
on at one side we saw the graves OF
some miners who tried in vain to get
through by this way to the klondlke In
the gold rush of 1898.
Some parts of the fats are flooded by