The Nenana news. (Nenana, Alaska) 1921-1923, 1921-05-03

enough could ever be found to put
in supply store large enough to
do any good at way station. A
better store and larger business can
be done right in the Kantishna dis
trict. This fact has been proved out
in every mining camp since the
days of '98 in the Dawson country.
This law holds good on every rail-
road. Take the railroad between
Tacoma and Portland. In The early
years it was hard to find in those
little towns, with thousands in
vested, anything you wanted to
stock up farm.
This little town of Nenana is
paying taxes on over 100000 in
property and goods and the invest
ment will total close to 4 round
million dollars. But if miner
came to town and wanted little
prospecting outfit, he could hot get
it at the present time, although all
this money has already been in
vested here. He would have to go to
Fairbanks, where men have catered
to that class of business. The chance
is. he could not get the outfit he
wanted even if he went to Anchor
L
that what is needed in the Interior
is a good supply point where you
can get the right kind of goods
and get them quick, before half the
season is over. There will never be
enough work go to the coast to
pay any one to establish such a
business there. You will have to
go all the way to Seattle, to some
of the large firms there And if you
get your outfit back the same sea-
son, you will be in luck. The chances
are you will see the bill for it first.
There can be no doubt that if
it ever paid to build the railroad
to Interior Alaska, the town of
Nenana will be a flourishing little
community, and shops of all kinds
will be established here. All the
freight and passengers for the In
terror, with the exception Of those
consigned to Fairbanks. will get Off
here. If the wagon road is built
direct from Kantshna to Nenana,
the miner can come right into a
supply point, just having travelled
: ten or 12 miles farther. lie vii! have
dozen stores to do business in,
with the option of going to Fair
banks or to the coast on the same
train he would have taken at Lig-
mite. So there would be no lost time
in either case.
According to Julius Warner, who
has lived score of years in this
immediate vicinity. there is only
one stream to bridge on the Ne
nanaToklat route, and that is the
Nenana, right here in town. At all
the other crossings, the road can
be built on the log jams, which
never are disturbed by high water
The Nenana bridge should not be re-
garded as a serious obstacle. For
more than dozen years at Fair
+ banks we had no permanent bridge.
We simply put in a piling bridge
and used ferry when the bridge
went out, and hundreds of thousands
of tons were handled without any
expense to the Government. The
same thing can be done right here.
At Fairbanks, the main Tanana
river water comes through the
slough during periods of high water
and there is more water there on
such occasions than there is in the
Nenana river. l believe place
could be found on high ground and
connecting on one of the little is
lands in the Nenana where a good
bridge could be built that would
never go out, and at small cost.
We all agree that when it comes
to building roads, the miner should
be considered first, as he cannot
move his mine, and he pays the
freight. But at the same time, I'M
less he can get supplies reasonably
he will be unable to work his mine.
And for the same reason, business
man will not invest his money un-
less there is business enough to pay
him to do so.
Were the wagon road to connect
with the railroad at Ignite, the
man out in the hills would have
to know time tables in order to
avoid delays in making connections,
train schedules, he would not know
about it until he reached the station.
Arriving at the way station, he
would have to find some one to
look after his dogs or horses until
his return, and his cash outlay
would start Immediately. At the
present time there are many men
at work along the railroad. and the
trains run more often than they
will when the road is completed. 1t
can easily be seen that trains will
probably not run more often than
once in two weeks later on. In the
mean time, dogs and horses would
eat their heads off at way station
awaiting the return of their owners,
not to mention the cost to those
who CHANGED to miss train.
The train rules at the present
time require that a shipper have his
goods at the depot before noon on
the day previous to shipping, and
this probably always will be the
case. 1t can be plainly seen that
when a miner has his goods ready
for SHINING there is nothing for