The Birmingham age-herald., 1917-04-15

i town has already several thousand peo- pie. The government Is putting in a tele- phone and electric light system and is looking after the towns sanitation. A baseball team has bee>, formed, and a
 game was recently held between the teams of Nenana and Fairbanks.
 The town of Nenana promises to be one of the largest of central Alaska It lies at the junction of the Tanana and Ne mana rivers, where the railroad crosses the Panama on it's way to Fairbanks. The
 Nenana river is navigable for small boats, and the Panama has about 600 miles of navagable waters before it flows into the
 Yukon. Nenana will be distributing point for the lower Panama valley and
 the Y Yukon valley The place is in good agricultural region and not far distant from the great Nenana coal fields. The town is now under the control of the government, the townsite manager, or mayor, being associated with the com mission. No liquor or gambling is al lowed, and lot owner who dared to sell
 liquor would lose his lot.
 Anchorage, which was started less than two years ago as a camp of tents among
 the stumps of Ship Creek, is now the
 largest settlement in Alaska outside of Juneau. It has perhaps thousand pop ulaton more than Fairbanks and is sev- eral times as large as Seward It is growing steadily. 1t has passed out of the tent stage and it has now many substantial wooden buildings, and it is beginning to erect structures of con crete. The place has waterworks and electric lights. It has a Y. NJ. c. A., several churches and not a single saloon. The town is one of Uncle Sans munich pal babies, and he still keeps control of the government All liquor selling and 1l,1 1st,fr t@A nd a1t tfrI, frontier city, made up of much the same characters that you find in such places, it has not a dance hall nor a gambling joint Its people are, for the most part. Americans, and I might say they repre- sent the best of Americanism.
 Among the other towns recently laid out is Matanuska So far this is being managed by> the townsite organization at Anchorage. The municipality now con- tains only about 200 people, but it will rapidly grow, and arrangements are be- ing made for considerable population. The government is already grading the streets and putting down sidewalks. It is instituting waterworks and arranging matters for the health and sanitation of the people. The first sale of lots there was held the latter part of last July, on which date 59 lots were sold for al- most $10D00. As is usual in such sales, the buyers paid one-third down and they are given five years to pay the balance without interest. So fur nearly every such sale in Alaska has been at a profit for the purchasers, lots in Anchorage having gone up 800 and more per cent. Lots which sold there last year for $aO0 are now selling for 5000 and some sold at $1000 are worth s5900 today. So far the government has received $217. 600 for the lots sold at Anchorage, and the sales at Nenana will eventually be quite as great. The commission is advising that half of the amount received at Anchor age be devoted to the improvement of the town, and especially to the establishment of schools. Anchorage has already 200 children of school age, and it has 30 children who are fit for the high school.