The Appeal. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn. ;) 1889-19??, 1923-07-14
ALASKA TO GET
MORE TRAFFIC
Operation of River Boats Makes
One More Step in Opening
Up Territory.

when the government begins operation
of river boats on the Yukon and Tan
ana this summer.
"Thus Fairbanks, interior metropolis
Of Alaska, becomes officially the place
where rails and rivers meet" says a
bulletin from the Washington head
quarters Of the National Geographic
society. Fairbanks marks the apex Of
q traffic triangle with one leg planted
at Seward, southern terminus Of the
Alaska railway, and the other on
Boring sea, where flow the waters Of
the Tanana and the Yukon.
"The Yukon is one of the worlds
great rivers If it's mouth were at New
York city it's source would be near
Salt Lake City,,
"The Tanana, the less familiar por-
ton Of the new government boat route,
is the Yukon's chief southern tributary.
It drains the vast Tanana valley, rich
In gold, other minerals and virgin farm
lands.
"This Imperial valley Of the Far
North, as large as West Virginia, now
has a white population of less than
1000. In a dozen years after the first
substantial gold output, in 1903, yellow
ore worth $66,OOO,OOO was mined.
Town Of Flowers and Birdhouses.
Streaming up the Yukon in summer
time the visitor will reach a town Of
many flowers, where numerous homes
have hothouses, some have bird boxes
on their peaks, and practically all have
vegetable gardens. Wild roses and
Scotch bluebells grow in the fields.
HE rubs his eyes and exclaims,
This can't be Alaska! ! But it is, and
Alaskans would have their fellow
Americans recover from the idea. due
to misleading textbooks Of generations
gone that theirs is a forbidding, ice
covered, glacier-crowned land of dog
teams and polar bears The quotation
is from the most recent report of the
territorial government, and it is re-
peated at every opportunity.
"The Alaskans are not 49, denying
marked climatic differences from the
states. A novelist recently sent the
proof Of serial story he was writing
to a native. This writer had the pitch
dark of Fourth Of July night illumi-
mated by fireworks. The fireworks
were all right-the Alaskan celebrates
with the rest of us-but there is no
night in July.
Fairbanks had to pass a curfew law
that all children must be put to bed
summer evenings by ten o'clock, lest
the youngsters get inadequate rest.
After your host has tucked the chill
dren to bed and takes you to a dance
or to the movies it is a queer sensa-
ton OF walk home in daylight.
1.-THE town Of flowers and birds and
gardens is Tanana. Turning into the
river of that name the visitor is as
sailed by less pleasant evidences that
Alaska is not all winter. Mosquitoes
and mooseflies abound.
'"The Tanana is broad and placid.
Green willows and poplars push out
over the waters edge, for the earth
banks are soft and the dirt melts away
az In many places the water digs a
cave beneath.
"Often turning and twisting, your
boat will pass Tolovana, where, on
clear day, Mt. Mckinley, a hundred
miles away, Is visible. Farther on is
Nenana, now the terminus of the
broad-gauge Alaska railroad from
Seward. Today passengers must
change here to the narrow gauge line
to Fairbanks. With the opening Of the
7OO-foot, single-span bridge across the
river at this point, the narrow gauge
will be converted to the standard track
width and trains will run through.
''The government railway made Ne
mana busy little town Of neat build
ings and up-to-date stores. So anxious
are it's citizens for 'spotless town
ideal that they prohibit any dogs with
In a mile of their community.
1.-THE next town is Cinema, which
hopes to wrest future laurels from
Fairbanks as the St. Louis of inland
Alaska
Electric Lighted Chicken coops.
"Then Fairbanks! Here, as in Daw-
son. sandwiches once cost a dollar
apiece, fortunes were dug up and
squandered, and the hilarity Of a big
city's night life extended through the
"a daylight hours.
To-day Fairbanks retains little
trace Of mining town. 1t has cleo
trio lights, stores. telephones, an az
ricu'tural college, jitneys run out to
nearby towns and camps, and it's
women are reputed to be the most mod
ishly dressed in the territory.
'The electric lighting plant is used
for the chicken houses as we'll as
homes in the dark winter, small farms
and diaries are springing up around
the city, and their celery, growers in
sist, is on Fairbanks tables before that
Of Massachusetts reaches Boston con-
Sumers.
Fairbanks has its slogan, too, like
its sister cities back in the states. 1t
wants more roads and railroads, and
capital for development of it's sur
rounding coal fields. Therefore its ap-
peal, about to be realized in part, Give
us the railway and motive power, and
we will pay the nations war debt!"
ks. ..4>