The weekly Alaska citizen., 1920-01-19
DAVIS URGES NECESSITY FOR CONSTRUCTION
 0F CENTRAL POWER PLANT FOR DEVELOPMENT
 OF MINING INDUSTRY OF ALL INTERIOR ALASKA

l PtI CtIll ol ltl Quoid ilt neal tSt approach to this b, any other state was 1855 per cent.
 Alaska divides itself naturally into four main divisions; Southeastern, Southwestern. Seward Peninsula and Interior, corresponding approximately to the four political and judicial divi- sions, each of which has different in- terests, industries, climate, geography and resources. The interior division, to which we will now confne our attention, includes the main heart and bulk of the territory lying north and east of the Alaska range. con, taining the great valleys of the Yukon and Panama rivers.
 The characteristics in addition to that of climate, which most distin- guish the interior from the other dis tricts are remoteness and inaccessf- Alaska may be reached by deep water routes turnout the entire year; and even tho the Boring Sea Is ice-bound in winter, Seward Peninsula has ocean transportation during the sum mer months for the shipment of sup plies and equipment. But supplies for the interior must be shipped by sea to Skagway, over the White Pass railroad to the headwaters of the Yu- kon river and then on steamboats down that river by way of Dawson. |. or else by sea to St. Michaels and on steamboats up the 2 900 long miles against the current of the Yukon. The distance and rehanding thus en- tailed make for very high freight rate with a consequent increase in the cost of supplies. But what Is more important, these routes tre available only during the summer months from May to October when the rivers are open, so that supplies must be pur- chased at least a year ahead and large stocks must be carried. which also add materially to the ultimate cost The government, however, Is building railroad from Seward to Fairbanks, which will give the dis, trict access to tidewater thruout the year and do much to remove the dis advantage of inaccessibility.
 The principle industry of the inter for is gold placer mining. The de posits near Fairbanks, at the head of navigation on the Tanana river. were discovered in 1902 and since thar time have yielded something over s70000 000 almost ten times the price paid to Russia for the entire territory of Alaska The Hot Springs Rampant district, next In importance extends from the Tanana to the Yu- kon rivers long a line about 50 miles from their junction, and has produced nearly s7.OOo,OOO. The Tolovana dis trict. lying between Fairbanks and the Hot Springs-Rampart region was not discovered until 1914, but In the five years of its history has yielded over s3 900 000 The Bonni- field and Kantishna districts are south of the Panama river in the northern foothills of the Alaska range. They were discovered in 1903 but their development has been severely handicapped by an entire absence of any transportation facili- ties worthy of the name. In spite of this the Kantishna district has produced nearly s4500O0 in gold. and the Bonnifield approximately $500 900.
 Altho there had been considerable prospecting for gold quartz veins in the Fairbanks district as early as 1905, it was not until three years later that discoveries of any import ance were made. Since then lode mining has had a remarkable growth when due consideration is given to the difficulties caused by the winter climate, by the large amount of frozen overburden which makes the sinking of shafts to solid rock an arduous task by the high cost of supplies and by the increasing scarcity of fuel. The production of gold and from this source amounts to one and one-quar ter million dollars, but in addition the district has produced antimony ore to the extent of s200.000 ant tungsten valued at $100 900. Lode mining in other districts has beer out of the question as yet, but there has been a large amount of pros
 pecting which has shown that lode mining is to be an important industry as soon as transportation and power can be had at reasonable price.
 The mining industry of the interio, , has suffered heavily during the pas' three years because of the increasing cost of supplies. the shortage of labol , and the high cost of fuel for power The first two were caused directl! hy the world war while the thir(