Seward daily gateway., 1925-09-14
ALASKA ISLAND
 SAID BE LAST
 OF FREE RANGES
CATTLE COUNTRY OF OLD WEST HAS VANISHED, BUT-A NEW COWBOY LAND IS PREDICTED IN THE FAR NORTH.
Jack McCord Tells Reporters
Seattle Post-lntelligencer Gives Col umn, relating Interview with Dy- mamie Seward Resident.

A canvass of the insistent, persist ent and consistent boosters for Alas ka fails to bring out anyone who, wherever they may be travelling, breaks into print so often-and to the credit of the Territory-as Jack McCord, who departed from these climes few weeks ago, to complete final plans for drilling for oil next spring in the Inniskin region, which work this season has kept him and a force of men employed all sum- mer, and at a cost of several thous- ands of dollars. MT. McCord is giv- en a column in a recent Sunday edi- ton of the Seattle P.I., which pa per has one of the largest circula- tions in the Pacific Northwest, reach ing thousands of home and places of business. The article follows.
 Cattle and sheepmen, ever forced westward by tiIIers of the soil and builders of cities, soon will make their last journey West. This final Westward march will take them with in the shadow of the Far East.
 This is the belief of Jack McCord of Seward, Alaska, dynamic leader in Alaska development, who describ- ed in an interview, at the Olympic Hotel, lands of milk and honey" which are awaiting the coming of modern Josephs and their flocks. ALASKAN OPPORTUNITY
 These last ranges of the West, McCord disclosed, are on the is- lands lying just to the eastward of the Alaskan peninsula in the vicinity of Kodiak Island and are part of the territory of Alaska.
 Warmed by the Japan current, which gives them mild year-round climate, lush grasses grow waist high in their rich soil, while cool, clear streams insure ample water supply for the herds of sleek, fat cat tie and droves of sheep McCord vis- ions in their valleys.
 Few people have visited these is lands" McCord pointed out, "and consequently their mild climate is little known. But I have made a close study of them and I know that cattle and sheep can graze eleven months out of the year, while ample hay to feed them the other month can be produced with minimum of effort. Government statistics show that in thirty-fve years the lowest temperature experienced at any of these island points along the Japan current was two degrees above zero." IN kATMAI REGION
 Tn majority of the islands, McCord related, lie within range of the fa- nous Katmai volcano, wonder of the Valley of Ten Thousand Smokes on the mainland, and their soil has been enriched by volcanic ash deposited in eruptions of the volcano many years ago.
 And they are not without romantic legions such as are often told on Al askan trails about the island of Chir- lkoff, one of the group farthest from the mainland, which was used as a penal island in the days when the Russian cZar ruled Alaska.
 T have been assured by steamship companies of the utmost coperation in efforts to place cattle and sheep on these islands," McCord said 'The shipping question should not prove difficult barrier to surmount, how ever, as it is we'll known that ocean freight is moved far more cheaply than can be done by the railroads. AS TO STOCK SALES
 There is one fact that should be made plain at the outset however, It is not field for a stock com pany promoter. As matter of fact any such promotion scheme would be doomed to failure because the general public could not be induced to buy shares in this kind of an en- terprise. They couldn't be properly informed concerning the islands, and the average small speculator, would not care to risk investing in cattle or sheep.
 "But for the cattIemen and sheep