The weekly Alaska citizen., 1917-10-22
kANT|SHNA IN
 NED OF ROADS

In an interview yesterday afternoon with James Haney. who just recent iy returned from the Kanushna country. he tells Of what the new government railroad will do for the districts which lie near the track ana for those which will have wa son roads as leaders to the railroad.
 Said Mir. Haney: There are dog ens of mining districts, practically speaking, which are almost inacCesi- bl" al present for just man and his pack, much less a team. The ground in these districts has been pros peCted. and it is known fact
 that the pay is there But up to his time and such time as the railroad will be put through there is no possible way for a man to get his grub and machinery and mining outfit to the ground.
 A good part of the ground is stalk. ed and men are justing waiting
 for developments in the railroad
 building so that they may go ahead
 and put machinery on the ground.
 Most of the mining would be in
 quartz
 "fhe railroad will run right through the Nenana mining district, forty
 miles from Talkeetna, and seventy
 miles from the Kantishna With the
 railroad as near as this. where it is
 now 1SO miles from trans portation, the appropriation should be sug- gested to Sulzer for the building l of wagon roads from the railway to the camps.
 This is logical, too, from the war issue standpoint" says MT Haney. l ''inasmuch as every piece of metal i that will come from those mountains and benches will be needed in the manufacture of munitions in this
 war. There is a shortage of labor | on the Outside in fact all over the world, and unless the railroad and
 wagon roads are completed In rapid i time and withoA any further delay, 1 it will be almos Van absolute impos- sibility to be aNe to get labor to 1 COllp pltlt Iut IpdI tollll, lO IdNt [ It 1 finished and with d few leaders to
 the outlying camps. the United States could realize in material aid from 1 the mines many times what the ap- l propriation amounted to-"
 l Mir. Haney is speaking for the
 many prospectors who have tested i their ground and are sure of it's
 worth if only they had some way jof transporting provisions and ma | Chinery. In the Willow creek and l Broad Pass country, where there is 1 35 per cent pure copper, one of the
 most needed war articles today
 there could be untold quantities of
 this useful metal taken out, were it i possible to combat in any way the ! handicap of the wilder and swamps and mountains, which is-no roads The men who know the country ] through which the road is now be 1 ing built can see another Occur d'Alene, Butte or Spokane in these
 districts. "The government" says ! MT. Haney, cannot be convinced of ! the returns from such a mammoth
 and continual appropriation as this
 railroad is, until the completion of
 the entire faction and operators be
 gin to ship out their produce; there | fore it is to be feared that the gov
 ernment, not seeing the future bene-
 fits for the United States as well las Alaska and other factors. will
 cease to appropriate and leave the road unfinished. In event of such
 a thing happening the mining inter
 ests of the remote but rich dis
 tricts would remain as they have
 been for centuries-un untouched"
 MT. Haney has brought to Fair
 banks with him some of the finest samples of ore from all parts of the 1 Nenana and Kantishna countries and
 is preparing a catalogue of specimens.