The Alaska citizen., 1917-05-21
BIG RANCH TO
 BE EARNED ON
 A LARGE SCALE

One of the biggest farming pro
 jects ever attempted in Interior Al
 aska is now about to be launched by r. w. Caldernead. Frank Hud i dIestun and NJ. Honenadle. Tnese thlee men have taken lease on the Karshner homes cad at Hot | Springs and will farm the ground on a large scale dur'rg the coming summer. They are leaving town in a few days on he steamer Shusenna
 with a large outfit, ircluding all oi
 the necessities for farming not to | be found on the ranch. They eX
 peCt to commence work immediate ly after they leach Hot Springs. and
 will put in approximately sixty-five acres of potatoes, corn, wheat anC other grain. They also plan to do considera ble experimenting along oth
 CT lines of farming ,n addition to raising vegetables.
 The Karshner homestead is gener ally considered to be the best To cated lanch in the Panama valley. It is on a south hill slope and ad joins the town of Hot Springs. two miles rom Hot Springs landing, where freight is landed rom the steamers which ply the TInana. Part of the town of Hot Springs is on the ranch, and the hot springs from | which the town derives its name break forth from the earth on this ground.
 It is on account of these springs that the ground is considered the most ideal in the interior for farm 1 ing purposes For the warm water underlying the surface of the earth there in many places. keeps the ground so warmed up that it is al ways the first place to thaw out in the spring and the latest to freeze up in the fall.
 The homestead was staked in 19O l by J. F. Karshner. A lease on the 1 property was later made to Frank | G. Manley, and it was then that | the place became sem-iamous as "Manley's Hot Springs" MT Man | ley put up large hotel on the | ground, immediately contiguous to l the town of Hot Springs, and, after building several large tanks for bath
 ing pools, piped the water from th' i springs, approximately a halfmile | distant from the town, to the hotel He also prepared the ground fol farming by clearing and otherwise placing part of it in condition, bring | ing in a large quantity of machinery 1 from the Outside. It Is estimated that MT. Manley spent between s150, 900 end $2OO 900 on the property in l improvements.
 The hotel which is estimated tC ] have cost in the neighborhood Of s1OO,O0O and which, at the time it was constl ucted in 1906, was the most costly building in Alaska, was | h,,r in, tho win ta1 | of 191G13. Practically all of the | big tanks and pools at the hotel were ruined, but enc has since been placed in condition, and today serves as the bathing pool of Hot Springs to all who care to pay four-bits fol 1 the privilege of bathing there. A chemical analysis of the water made seve Il years ago, shows that it has medicinal qualities, and for that req | son, during the early days of the | hotel and after Fairbanks had be | come a boom camp, the place was | largely patl onized, but never to the extent of making 1t a paying propo- ston to Mr Manley
 The homestead is now the proper ty of Ms Cordelia M. Karshner, who has lived on it alcne since the death of her husband in May, 1913, | with the exception of intermittent 1 trips to Fairbanks. It was but a | few weeks ago that a patent was | issued to her for the ground by the government. She it was who leas ed the ground to MT. Caldelhead Messrs. Celde1head and Huddlestun are both we'll aware of the enormity of the proposition they are undertak ing. During the days when MT. Manley first farmed the ground, MT. | Calderhead had charge of all of the transportation on the ranch, while a year or two later MT. Huddle- stun, with his brother Harvey, now deceased, had a lease on the ground and farmed it successfully, but gave it up to come to Fairbanks and go into mining. But beth MT. Calder