El Paso herald. (El Paso, Tex.) 1901-1931, 1916-05-13

per River railroad was it's accessibility
70 the Bering river coal lied, when Is
only 81 miles from the present tracks
ana about 20 miles from COrdoNa. rms
Is the coal thai was so widely us
Cussed when Clifford Plnchot ana others
maze their great campaign Tor con
scrVation. IL S OF excellent character
and It could be brought here 10 Cor
dova for smelling and reducing inc
ores.
There are at present being mined
about Prince William sound and ln the
mountains nearby ores amounting 10
10000 tons per month. Much OIL TINS
goes overrthe railway to Cordova, ana
II all has to be transported from here
to the shelters at Tacoma, 1900 miles
away With shelters at COrdONa, tue
cost Of reduction would be greatly de-
creased and new mineral regions could
be opened up. At the same time. the
coal from the Bering river field would
have a local market and both the coal
and the ore would furnish a steady ana
valuable traffic to the railway.
The Copper River * Northwestern
road now reaches the town Of Chitina.
and the extension from there to Fair
banks would require 313 miles more 10
be built The cost of this the Tait
commi ssion estimated at something like
S14,OOO.OO0. The Copper River road, 1
am told here, was offered to the gov
eminent at its physical valuation, or at
its cost to the owners. which was
something like $15.000,000. making a
total for the through line Of $29,O00,OO
The extension Of the road would have
passed through the rich farming lands
OF the Tanana valley, and the mineral
regions developed thereby would have
been greater. it is said, than those
reached by the extension Of the Alaska
Northern railway. The Copper river
route to Fairbanks would have been Is
miles shorter than the road now being
constructed and Il would have had the
advantage OF a terminus 200 miles near
err Seattle. AS it is now the steamers
going to Seward call at COrdova on the
way.
One OF Worlds Picturesque Routes.
The Copper River & Northwestern
railway is one Of the picturesque routes
of the world. It is the only railroad
that carries you right to the foot OF
magnificent glaciers and allows you to
examine these greatest wonders OF ma
ture while the train stops. Within an
hour of our arrival at COrdova an eX-
cursion train started out from the
wharf. and the tourists on board were
carried a distance o fabOut 50 miles up
the Copper valley to 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.
It hangs to rocky cliffs, which are
covered with dense vegetation. lit
tie later it enters the mouth Of the Cop
per river valley and skirts Eyak lake.
which fills "a depression scooped out by
some prehistoric glacier. The lake Is
star shaped and is almost entirely shut
I'm by high wooded mountains. which
rise abruptly from the waters edge.
skirts shores Of Lake.
The road goes for four miles along
the winding shores Of this lake. and
- d sann az
ries the glacial waters Of the lake out
TO the sea. II 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,
rowbosts and power crafts OF every de-
scription The lake teens with fish and
IL has excellent trout During the win
ter il is sometimes frozen over and IS
then used for skating and sleighing.
There is some fishing done at that time
through holes i'm the ice
Leaving the lake we passed through
dense forest OF spruce. some OF the
trees Of which were four feet iE diane
ter. We then wound our way over the
Copper river delta, crossing stream ar
ter stream. which come from the great
glaciers Of the interior The flats eX-
tend for q distance Of 1G miles east and
west a wide eNpanse 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 betwce, us and
them. The ice seemed TO 10 looking
az MS over the trees.
Fox Farms and Lonely Graves.
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 Klondike i'm
the gold rush Of 1898.
Some parts OF the flats are flooded by