The Alaska daily empire., 1921-06-14
C0TWALS LEAvES' FOR JOURNEY OFF OVER 5000 MILES:
Will Cover Large Area of Territory by Steamship,
 Pack Train, Automobile.

On the first leg of journey which will extend until well into the fall months and on which he will cover approximately 5000 miles in Interior and Coastal Alaska, Col. J. c. Gotwals, engineer officer of the Alaska Road Commission, left town last night on the Estebeth for Skag- way. Col. Gotwals will use ocean steamers, motor launches, railroads, automobiles and pack train for transportation in making the trip
 Colonel Gotwals was accompanied from here by Fred Price, formerly foreman for the commission on the Mendenhall road, who will have charge of the work in the Eagle 1 Forty Mile district this season. From Skagway Colonel Gotwals will go to Whitehorse, thence by river steamer to Eagle, where he will pick up pack train of seven horses, under Guy Burch who went down river from Whitehorse on the first steam onel Gotwals will go over the Eagle Seventy Mile trail question with J. J. Hilliard and John B. Powers, who will look after the work to be done there. He will then proceed out to the Forty Mile district, Investigating the trail situation relative to Chick en Creek, Jack Wade, Canyon Creek, Walkers Fork and the branch con- meeting Mosquito Creek with the old Ketchumstock trail and leave MT Price in charge of the work there. Hits Old Trail
 Leaving the Forty Mile district, Colonel Gotwals with his pack train, packer and cook, will hit the old Ketchumstock-Gulk trail, the early route from the coast to the Yukon, and head for Gulkana pos sibly making a side trip down Healy Creek or Goodpaster River, with the idea of determining the feasibility of connecting up the Upper Yukon country with the coast by way of the Richardson Highway at McCarty. 1 Before making Gulkana, Colonel Got walls will go over the Chistochena route, inspecting the site for the Co., kona bridge, to be erected on that road. The bridge will be 300 feet long, erected in three 100-foot spans on piers. Finishing this work, he will proceed to Gulkana.
 From there he will send his pack train to Paxson, while he goes to Valdez and returns to Fairbanks, in 1 specting the organization of crews and the work being done on the Richardson Highway. He will then return to Paxson and taking his Investigating the mining develop ment there and determine the final location of winter trail from Val deg Creek to the Alaska Railroad north of the Broad Pass
 Into kantishna
 After striking the railroad, Colonel Gotwals will turn north along the road for some distance and then mush west into the Kantshna dis, trict. He will make a thorough i'll. vestigatiOn of that region, obtaining an idea of summer trail conditions and general mineral development. Completing that, he will swing the north fork of the Kuskokwim, which he will follow to Nixon and the scene of the quartz development region. From Nixon he will go to McGrath and to the Ophir-Tacotna project and if time permits will go from there over the Long-Ruby route which he inspected last win ter.
 Return Route Undecided
 If he is able to make the trip to Ruby, Colonel Gotwals will return to Fairbanks on river steamer by the way of Panama. Should he find it too late for this, he plans to turn back from Ophir, leaving his pack train in the district. and retrace his steps by McGrath, Nixon and using a small launch to go back up the north fork of the KYskokwim via Lake Minchumina into the Kantish- na and thence to Nenana and Fair banks.
 He plans to leave Fairbanks at the end of the working season, coming out to Valdez over the Richardson Highway, inspecting the seasons work on that route. From Valdez he will go to Anchorage and pos sibly go north of that town to Tal- keetna and over the Talkeetna>Cach Creek route.
 The journey he has mapped out is one of the longest, if not the most extensive ever undertaken by a member of the Alaska Road Commis- sion and will cover majority of the most important projects both undertaken and planned for the fu- ture by the commission.
 From Anchorage he will return di