The Cordova daily times., 1923-04-06
MIDDLE WEST HEARS0F OIL
 IN THE NORTH Chicago Blade Publishes Account Oil Prospects
 in Alaska IS GIVEN WIDE PUBLICITY kanatak Is Given Best of It as Regard Present
 Population
IS GIVEN WIDE PUBLICITY

The Chicago Blade, which boasts a circulation throughout all parts of the United States exceeding one mil lion, in a recent issue publishes the following:
 Oil, no less than gold, is where you find it. In this rather compromising light Alaska is today regarding the petroleum prospecting operations now being carried on by American oil con- panies in the Cold Bay region of the upper Alaska peninsula, that long, broad arm of the storm-harassed tun- draland which extends from the Southwestern corner of the Territory well out into the North Pacific.
 The attitude is only natural to people who have learned from long experience as gold prospectors not to put too much faith in signs as the general geological features of a min ing claim in relationship to it's mineral bearing possibilities are called. Too often have they seen what at the out set showed every indication of "pay dirt" turn out to be a complete fail ure, sometimes failing to yield even single nugget or ounce of dust after years of prospecting and development.
 It is not that Alaskans are at all skeptical as to the probable striking of oil in the Cold Bay district. On the contrary high hopes have been voiced everywhere. The popular opinion is that if there is any thing in the law of probability, a well will be brought in at less than 5000 feet. But at the same time, while expectations soar, observers are prepared to learn that the drilling has been in vain.
 Surface indications in the form of seepages, some of which are strength ened by a considerable flow of gas, abound throughout the field. The geo. logy of the country has been pro- nounced by both Government survey eeologists and experts from the two corporations to be usually favorable to the occurrence of oil. Samples from seepages have been tested. The petroleum is a refining oil similar to that of Pennsylvania, having paraf- fin base and but little sulphur.
 Cold Bay is an indentation on the Pacific shore of the peninsula nearly opposite the south end of Kodiak Isl and, the home of the worlds fiercest and biggest bears, the Kodiak brown grizzly The adjacent area, which is untimbered, consists of rounded hills rising to attitudes of less than 1000 feet. Terrible gales sweep over the whole area from off the Pacific on the south and Boring Sea on the north. This is the most disagreeable aspect of the climate, which is more or less temperate.
 Kanatak, on Portage Bay, is the only town on the coast near the fields, which lie fourteen miles inland from this port. Before the rigs, drilling out fit and crews landed on the beach last Fall, Kanatak was a typical fishing village of some fifty inhabitants. Now it has increased in population to near ly 400; several hotels and restaurants have sprung up and the entire town is bursting with that frenzied industry and excitement which is so marked wherever "oil' is the watchwcrd. The constantly increasing universal demand for petroleum, especially re- lining oils, has renewed interest in the oil fields of Alaska. Seepages are known in Alaska at four locat ms, all on the Pacific seaboard. These named from east to west, are Yakataga; Na- talla, on Controller Bay; Iniskin Ray, on Cook Inlet and Cold Bay, on the Alaska peninsult. A petroleum resi- due has been discovered near Smith Bay, on the Arctic coast. At katalla several productive wells have been opened. The discovery of oil seep- ages in the Yukon basin notably ill the Panama Valley, has been reported