The Birmingham age-herald., 1917-04-01
THE BIRMINGHAM AGE HERALD, SUNDAY, APRIL l. 1917

eastern Alaska. The second will leave
 later and it's travels will embrace the greater part of the territory.
 The first of the Alaskan celebrations
 will be at Ketchikan. This port will be
 reached in two or three days from Se- attle, the whole journey being made
 through the inside passage. The ships will cross Puget Sound, sail for several hundred miles along the shores of Van couver Island and pass Prince Ruppert, the terminus of the Grand Trunk Pacific railway, on their way north After cross ing the Portland canal they will be in Alaska and. few hours later, in the
 Bay of Ketchikan. The catching, canning and curing of salmon will be shown by a visit to the great canneries and cold storage plants. The visitors may pos sibly see the salmon jumping the falls
 on their way up the streams to spawn. The wonders of halibut fishing will be
 exhibited, and there will probably be com petitive throwing of lines by the fisher
 men, The halibut lines are several miles ! in length, and there are hundreds of | hooks on single line. The lines must be cast so that the hooks lie on the bed
 of the sea, and they must be drawn in l without tangling.
 Ketchikan is the chief station of the | lighthouse bureau and wire drag service, and there will probably be a government
 exhibit of the latter. showing the vessels | in action.
 l Leaving Ketchikan, the next show
 will be at the town of Wrangel1 where l the marble industry will be featured,
 and following that will be a quartz
 carnival here at Juneau. The latter will
 be worth coming to Alaska to see.
 Juneau is in about the center of gold 1 belt which runs for POO miles up and
 down the coast. The country consists i of precipitous mountains rising almost 1 straight from the sea, and in these
 mountains are found vast quantities of 1 low grade gold. The mineral resources compare somewhat in character with those near Johannesburg, in South Af-
 rica. and for a century to come they
 promise to pour a continuous stream
 of gold into the lap of the world. Visitors will see the Treadwell mines
 in operation. These are on Douglas is land and have already produced be-
 tween s60,000, 900 and $70,000,000 worth
 of gold. The tourists will also be taken through the great mines and mills of l the Alaska -Gastieau and Alaska
 Juneau properties, which are on the mainland adjacent to Juneau Here they will see the finest of modern mining machinery and the most economical
 methods of quartz gold reduction that can be shown anywhere. Almost every
 thing is done by machinery, and the gold is gotten out of the rock at a
 cost of 60 cents of less per ton. | At Juneau the visitors will see the Icapital of the territory they will have | a speech from the governor and recep- tions of various kinds will be held One feature of the visit will be trip to
 the Mendenhall glacier, which is only 16 miles from the city and which may
 be reached by automobile.
 The next stop will be at Sitka, the
 historic town of Alaska. It was the
 site of the Russian capital, when the
 us, just 50 years ago. Many of the old
 Russian buildings still stand, and these 1 include the Russian cathedral, a log
 blockhouse and some of the old log
 warehouses which once held vast quan- titles of furs. There are many Indians
 about Sitka, and the Indian mission sch ools under the charge of the Presby-
 terian church will probably give exhi- bitions. Sitka is one of the most beau l tifu1 spots in Uncle Sams dominion and it has mountains in view that equal Fujiyama in their symmetrical grand eur.
 Leaving Sitka, the excursionsts will go to Ska gway, the port to the Klon- l dike, and will then make their way along the south coast to Cordova and Seward whence they will come back to Seattle.