The Alaska citizen., 1916-06-26

with the first party on the NenanS river. The Juncture was made late in September and the parties were disbanded, the engineers proceedin. to Seward over the wagon road. tt take up office work in connection With their surveys. A final lUca tion was made on l35 miles.
 A matter of wonderment 10 al engineers is the character of Coun try through which location has been effected. The maximum grades ar found in the mountainous kenai Peninsula, where grades Of 2.2 per cent exist in two summts It i- even possible albeit at great eN pense. to reduce this grade to q 1.5-per cent maxiumum. compersai ed. There exists a short sketch oi2l"-pcr cent compensated grade near Mile PTS. North of Broad Pass, the summit Of the Alaska Range, the maximum grade is l per cent compensated. Curvature IS held down tO l9 dcg. maximum except in very few instances where 1t approaches II deg. Broad Pass itself seems to have been de signed to carry q road to the in terior country With an elevation of only 24Oop f. above sea level 1t lies a great wide gash in noun tains towering on either side To the west stands Mount Mckinley with an altitude of 2O.3OO 1t, to the east are his husky offsprings. reach ing in certain peaks elevations of more than 14 1000 1t.
 With few exceptions difficult con struction is confined to Turnagain Arm and the Nenana Canyon where heavy rock work is encountered
 In the enabling Act authority is granted to utilize such equipment rom the Panama Canal as may be no longer required on the Isthmus. In pursuance of this authority sev. eral thousand tons of engines, cars. track and shop material were ship ped to Anchorage and are now there in use
 Another feature of the Act was the power granted to the President to withdraw from entry such town sites along the right-of way as might be of use to the railroad A mum eer Ot such tracts have been with drawn and on one. Anchorage. a thriving town is already established For it's own use the commission first selected such tracts as were needed, following which a portion of the withdrawal was subdivided into town lots and sold at auction to the highest bidder A one-third payment was made on the purcha se price and the remainder is to be raid in five equal installments with out interest So far the sale value of lots has reached $1771O5.
 The town is in rather anoma- lous position Title is still vested in the government, and the coru. munity has no authority by which it's needs can be met by taxation Unfortunately all money collected from the sale of lots is by lap' turned into the Treasury of the United States and in consequence the commission. as well as being engaged in the construction of rail roads, perfOrce must look 10 the welfare of the town Roads had to be cut and graded d postoffice jail and schoolhouse built wate1works installed anu sanitary regulations enforced
 III lllt ltS tIfltlo4l9 lpl ttIt' ulN IJNlSdI of lots was contained the clause that in no event, under pain of for feiture. should liquor be sold That this was a wise provision none can now deny, and as a consequence in this our nOrthernmost possession there exists a railroad construction camp in which disorder seldem ap- pears and the jail is seldom occl,- pied. The few illicit sellers of whis key have been rounded up and pun ished
 In February, 1916, Congress in cluded in an urgent deficiency bill the sum of $200000O, so that the commission might continue it's ac- tiVitieS until the regular apprOpria- tion contained in the Sundry Civil Act should become available With this amount the summers supplies are being ordered and contracts for construction being let. It is hoped that by the close of the calendar year great stride toward final construction will have been made.