Evening star., 1924-08-28
|DEAt NAVAL ' \ BASE !.
~ y - =, t.ssq
|SF0UND IN alaska
Great Harbor of Cordova
Bay Could Accommodate
b, Many Large Fleets.

Since the United States Army air
men flew to Asia along the Aleutien
Island chain and emphasized what
navigators have known all along
that the shortest way across the Pa
ciflc is by the Great Circle Route"
near Alaska-there has been a grow
ing recognition of the need of
naval base in Alaskan waters. Cor
dova. most recently mentioned as
possible selection. is described in
bulletin from the National Geo.
graphic Society, as "a sort of Amer
lean kirkwall, since it has Alaskas
Scapa Flow at its door"
Cordova is on Cordova Bay a deep,
commodious, well protected harbor
itself, says the bulletin. But that
is only the beginning of harbor IA
cilities. Just around an island corner
is Orca Bay. also an excellent haven.
and Orca is a vestibule to Prince
William Sound. Alaska's Scapa Flow.
Fine RETREAT for ships.
Here is huge anchorage, bull
warked from the Pacific by islands,
dotted with others, and with it's
margins opening up into great fjords
which spread out in every direction
like the tentacles of octopus.
Many navies could float in the open
waters of Prince William Sound; or.
II unusual weather conditions brought
rough water: even beyond its island
bulwark, could find snug, peaceful
havens in it's fjords behind it's
high islands.
Prince William Sound can be
oriented by the fact that its waters
form the extreme northeastern corner
of the Pacific Ocean. The oceanward
line of Alaska's pan handle" ex-
tends roughly in straight line to
the northwest and this line is con-
tinued to the innermost part of Prince
William Sound. There the corner is
formed and the general direction of
the coast line veers off at right
angles to extend into the Alaska Pc
ninsula and sweep eff along the
Aleutians toward Asia. A group of
islands has fenced this corner off and
pade huge deep-water sound out
of II.
Port for Copper Mines.
The town of Cordova has not yet
reached its majority. but it has be-
come the modest metropolis of the
Prince William Sound region. though
several of its competitors are well
over score of years old. Unlike
most Alaskan towns. Cordova was
made by copper, not gold. 1t is the
port for the rich copper mines of
the Copper River and the coast
Northwestern railway, the first rail-
road of considerable length to be
built in Alaska. The town is not at
the mouth of the Copper River. being
situated some 20 miles farther west
along the coast The river develops a
broad, marshy delta, whose coast is
without harbor sites.
l.
was dramatically illustrated by the
situation in the Copper River valley
Vastly rich copper mines existed 200
miles up the valley, but even pure
copper nuggets Zone weighing )
tons was discovered) could not be
brought out save at a cost greater
than their value. The first train from
the mines in 1911 carried 100000 tons
of ore to CoEdova, and in one week in
1916 the port shipped ore worth more
than $1,000, 0,000Aabout the price paid
to Russia by the United States in
1867 for the entire territory.
HarbOrs Open Year Round.
Cordova and Valdez, its neighbor-
Ing competing port, are two of the
very few survivals of the Spanish
names given to Alaskan places by
early Spanish navigators. For, though
1t is not generally known, the Span
la rds considered Alaska their own,
possibly following out the somewhat
inclusive claims of Balboa, who, when
he waded into the Pacific off the
Isthmus of Panama, asserted that he
was taking possession of all lands
washed by the ocean, from pole to
pole. In common with numerous
places given Russian designations by
the Muscovite owners of the region.
the features named by the Spanish
discoverers were blithely renamed by
Cook, who came later on the scene,
and by Vancouver Prince William
Sound was originally Chugach Gulf
the Copper River was Rio de los
Pedidos (river of the lost or damned),
and Resurrection Bay, to the west
was Eoskresseski Harbor.
The Prince William Sound region,
in the same latitude as that of SOUTH
ern Norway. has a fairly mild clim-
ate The harbors of Cordova and Val.
deZ are open all winter: the average
winter weather, in fact, is no more
severe than that of Washington, d.
C. The shores of the sound are
heavily wooded. Altogether this
great sound covers an extent of more
than $500 square miles.