The Cordova daily times., 1922-11-25


 viewing Alaska's greatest scenic at- fractions. Heretofore Alaska tour ists contented themselves with trip along the coast, viewing the Territory from the deck of one of the rommod iOus steamers which ply the northern waters along the Inside Passage. This | was supplemented with river trips fin ! side-wheeiers down or up the Yukon. l But with the gradual development 1 and improvement of the Richardson Highway into a better and better road, has come the automobile to add it's comforts to the general joy of seeing Alaska" The. first motor travel over the en- tire highway was accomplished in 1913, at time when the Alaska Road Commission was making no pretenseI of accommodating autos and trucks. The increase of auto traffic on the road has been steady. with slight interruption during the late war. To day one can ride from Valdez to| Fairbanks or from Chitina to Fair banks during the summer months, and cover in two to three days dis tance which in the old days of the Abercrombie Trail, with conditions at the best for dog teams in winter would take from ten to twelve days. The 'trail hounds" as the drivers who pilot the bulk of the automobiles on the highway are called, offer trip I.umique in character, unsurpassed fn scenic attraction, reminiscent of the old days with their roadhouse life, and uneuualled in opportunity for gaining an understanding of "Ameri- ca's Last Frontier"
 From the Pacific to the Panama Xiv I CT the highway crosses two mountain ranges. First is the Coast Range, heavily glaciered, myriad streamed with patches of snow on the summit even in midsummer. Here and there as the car rolls along after passing 400 feet above the magnificent Key stone Canyon and over the awe-in spring Thompson's Pass, one notes a solitary grave. mute but eloquen, reminder of the hardships and dan gers suffered by the pioneers who traversed this route on their fren zied rush to the gold fields. Thomp son's Pass is the summit of the Coas Range of mountains, 36 miles iron the ocean at Valdez. and $500 fee , above sea level. Leaving the Pas! the road crosses glacier streams. me anders by small, placid lakes, occasion ly leaps over a waterfall, and cuts down to the first active roadhoust , out of Valdez, at Tiekel.
 The road houses on the highway are not the least of its attractions In the early days these havens O. food and shelter appeared every ter to fifteen miles between Valdez an( Fairbanks With the coming of the automobile, the number of roadhouses has decreased, the traffic being now able to make longer journeys between stopping places which now average perhaps fifty miles apart. Here are furnished excellent accommodations fOl guests. The meals are particularly being served in season. The woman fine, moose, caribou, mountain sheep, mountain goat, and other delicacies dition of the sheets need have nc fear of the roadhouses on the Rich ardson Highway. Splendid types of pioneer women are found at them all women skilled in the domestic arts capable, courteous, kindly and hospit- able. The writer can truthfully state that of the many delicious meals he has eaten, some of those which stand out most clearly in his memory for roadhouses on this highway, and were i composed almost exclusively of Alas ka products.
 Besides the roadhouses at frequent intervals the traveller along the high way passes groups of neat attractive log cabins, spotless in their coats of whitewash with red trimmings, and always with the Stars and Stripes prominently displayed These are the stations of the U. S. Signal Corps which maintains the military tele- graph line to interior Alaska. At Cop per Centre, the next roadhouse after i leaving Tiekel, large Signal Corps station is maintained, and the boys have conspiciously on display before i their quarters a sign which reads: 'Wanted--Twelve wives. Apply at Garage"