Seward daily gateway., 1923-12-22
SEWARD SHOWS MUCH
 PROSPERITY PAST YEAR
By J. P. Hannon,

Seward is the salt water terminus of the Alaska railroad, constructed by the United States government at a cost of $53,000,0O0, and extending ;a Fairbanks on the Tanana river. Sew ard was first selected as railroad terminus in 1893 when John E. Bal laine and associates started to build an All-American road to the great pla- Ger strike at Fairbanks. This road was surveyed through to the Tanana over the route of the present road, and later about 80 miles were built from the Seward end, but money became tight and construction work was aban-I doned Later the railroad was pur-, chased by the government and com pleted to Fairbanks.
 Seward is progressive town of 75O population, the gateway to the Vest ward" and has uii.ny fine dwellings, stores, churches, schools and lodge rooms. The Standard Oil company has one of the largest sub-stations on the coast located here, with a fuel oil capacity of 100000 gallons, besides large tanks for distillate, gasoline and petroleum. It has bank and express office, the former having deposits ap- proximating $50O0 per capita, and the latter connections with any city in the world. Seward has averaged a steam ship every three days the past sum- mer, and President Harding on his recent visit here pronounced it the finest natural harbor he had ever seen. In fact, so delighted was the President with Seward and its sur rOundings that he returned from the Interior and spent two nights and a day before sailing south.
 Seward has several large business 1 houses, carrying complete outfits of all descriptions, two sawmills, an up- to-date machine shop, railroad ma chine shops and roundhouse, fine wa ter system, electric light and tele- phone system, woodworking establish ment, sash and door factory, large cold storage and fisheries plant. one cannery, daily paper, radio station, kept up by the navy department, cable office, fine federal building, numerous hotels, restaurants, bakery, hardware 1 and paint stores, curio and news stands, clothing stores, jewelIy store, three barber shops, auto garages, ladies furnishings stores, furniture and household goods, tailoring estab- llshmentS, cleaning and dyeing works. transfer businesses, several fuel con- cerns, moving picture shows, gas en- zine agencies, and every other busi. ness represented in a modern town.
 Living is reasonably cheap in Sew ard, furnished houses costing from S5 to S25, apartments $50 to $75, coal s1O to S14 per ton, water $25O per month for residences, electricity 15 cents per kllowatt, taxes as low as any town in Alaska, and more modern homes than any other town north of Vancouver. Concrete and stucco are largely used ln construction, and make warm. durable dwelling. Climatic changes are not sudden. and the town up to the present time, has very little snowfall. autos running every day last winter and the winter before. During the past three years the rainfall has not been excessive save during the month of October the present year, when II inches fell. The coldest weather re- corded during the past two years is two above zero, Fahrenheit.
 Seward grows every kind or vege- table needed, but the market is limit ed to the demands of Seward, exclu- sive of those persons who do not raise their own garden truck. During the year 1924 there was sold on the local market from a few small farms about Seward 2S tons of potatoes, q tons of rutabagas, 12 tons of miscel- laneous garden truck, including cab- bages, lettuce, radishes, onions, etc., there was also sold in Seward from these farms, 75 gallons of cultivated berries and domestic currents. Ap- proximately 300 gallons of wild cur rents and blue berries were picked for preserving within a few miles of Seward. All of the above supplies were hauled into Seward over the Seward-Kenai highway, a road unsur- passed anywhere for beauty, from the standpoint of the tourist, and. altho only completed during the present year, has been patronized by 59 cars, three trucks and two motorcycles, all registered from Seward, these cars having totaled in miles during he past season about 100000 miles, haul ing 1900 tourists, and the number of trips of local residents would run the persons hauled over the Highway toI 14,0C0.
 Seward as Fishing ccneter
 While Seward is comparatively but a few miles from one of the greatest halibut banks in the world, we have at present but one cold storage plant, and one cannery. This however, can not last but short time longer, the transportation rate on cold storage is the same from Southeastern Alaska, and now that the Standard Oil Con- pany has erected station here, the