The Daily Alaska empire Newspaper, January 28, 1934, Page 13

THE DAILY ALASKA EMPIRE “ALL THE NEWS ALL THE TIME” VOL. XLIIL, NO. 6559. DEVELOPMENT EDITION—JUNEAU, ALASKA, SUNDAY, JANUARY 28, 1934, 'SECOND SECTION TWENTY PAGES—13 to 20 PUBLIC LANDS IN ALASKA-—LAWS\ Promotion of Development Started in 1898 with Act| of Congress Authorizing Location and Entry of | Homesteads — Changes Subsequently Made | Making Easy Acquisition of Public Land | | FRANK A. BOYLE l E TERRITORY of Alaska contains an area of approximate- | 596,000 rquare miles. The southern portion of the Terri- | ory, particularly that portion lying in Southeast Alaska, is| heavily timbered, and this timber belt extends for a considerable dis- | The land of the Aleutian Islands as well as all of | tance westward. the lands north of the Alaska Range, is without timber of any par- ticular commercial value, although there are valuable stands of birch | in western Alaska that might some day be developed. The timber | land is practically all included within the Tongass and Chugach | National Forests, and the development of the timber as well as its| care is under the supervision of the Forest Service of the United States Government. The timber in other portions of the Territory | is under the jurisdiction of the United States Land Office and pcr»‘ mits to cut the same can be secured from that office, but there are | no means whereby title can be secured to timber land in Alaska. | The Alaska Range, which extends from Portland Canal on | the south and follows in a general direction the ocean north and | west, is highly mineralized, there being development of mineral in | nearly every locality of this area. The Premier Mine, while lying in Canadian territory, adjoins various other silver-lead properties in that particular section of southeastern Aiaska. Gold properties have | been developed throughout the area from Ketchikan as far north as| Skagway, notable of these are the Treadwell, Alaska-Juneau, Chicha- gof, and Hirst-Chichagof. Going west from Lynn Canal the prop-| erties have principally produced copper, and near Cordova we have| the Kennecort Copper Mines which is considered one of the richest | copper properties in the world. Further west, along the shores of Prince William Sound and to Bristol Bay, there are many small gold properties and a number of smaller copper properties on the peninsula. North of Anchorage, in what is known as the Willow Creck section “there are a number of gold quartz properties that bave been operating for many years. In the Nuka Bay field, a short dis- | tance west of Seward, several gold properties have been developed. | North of the Alaska Range valuable placer deposits have been found | in many different sections, the most notable being the Fairbanks | and Nome districts. Mineral lands and the means of securing title thereto were the first subjects to receive the consideration of Congress, and on May 17, 1884, a provision was made for the patenting of | mining claims in the District of Alaska, in the same manner as title was given to similar claims in the States. This included the location of lodes and placers. Under this law, upon making a discovery of mimeral in rock in place on the public domain, it was possible to locate 1500 feet along the vein or lode containing the mineral and not more than 300 feet on each side of the same. Under an Act passed by the last session of the Territorial Legislature such a location must be evidenced by posts or monuments at each corner of the claim or tract desired to be included in the location. Placer claims depend | upon the finding of gold or other placer deposit on the public do- main and location of the same in rectangular shape as nearly as possible and in areas not to exceed 20 acres per claim. Under the | legislative enactment above mentioned, the greatest of care must be | taken in running the lines and marking the corners on either veins or placers, and the failure to do this immediately on making the loca- tions might easily result in losing the claim, since there is no addi- tional time given for staking the ground. claims, and this notice must be recorded within 90 days from the date of the location. Within each year following the location of a| | claim it is necessary to spend at least $100 on or for the benefit and in its development, and the failure to do this results, in the Territory of Alaska, in the forfeiture of all rights to the location. Evidences of coal and oil are prevalent throughout almost all of ihe southern section of the Territory, commencing with Admiralty Island where coal has been developed on a small scale and immense areas showing deposits of oil shale are found. The Yakataga beach, north of the Gulf of Alaska, has numerous seepages showing that there is oil underlying the surface there. At Katalla, along the Alaska Peninsula and north along Prince William Sound there are also evi- dences of oil deposits. In the Bering River Valley near Katalla, Alas- ka, veins of very good coal shave been found, and in the Matanuska Valley high grade coal has been developed. In the far north and along the shores of the Arctic Ocean the Geological Survey has ex- amined immense fields of oil shale which may some day have com- mercial value. In extending the mining laws to Alaska it was made possible to secure title to oil lands and under it claims were located in various parts of the Territory, particularly in what is known as the Cold Bay District, along the west side of Cook Inlet, and the Katalla field. No particular development was attempted except in the Katalla field, where 2 number of shallow holes were drilled and a small amount of oil was extracted and refined in the field. The refined product was marketed in Cordova and vicinity. A number of claims were patented under this law in the Katalla field and these claims are now | ihe property of the Chilkat Oil Company. In 1904, a special Act of Congress permitted the location and patenting of coal lands in the District of Alaska under provisions similar to these at that time existing in the States. A total of 1292 of such claims of an approximate area of 160 acres each were located, and in some instances developed to a small extent. Five of these claims were ultimately patented. But in 1910 a charge of fraud and collusion was made against a number of other locators. These charges were given great publicity, and while practically without foundation they resulted in the cancellation of all of the remaining claims. Fol- lowing the cancellation of these claims all coal and oil lands in the District of Alaska were withdrawn from sale and entry, which was in effect a repeal of all laws authorizing the patenting of either coal or oil lands. In 1914, Congress authorized the leasing of coal lands in the Territory, under certain conditions, and there are about 5 such leases now in operation, the most important being the Healy River coal | mine at Healy, Alaska. Others are located in the Matanuska coal field, and one lease was issued in Southeast Alaska. In 1920 a law permitting the prospecting of oil lands came into effect and thousands of applications were received for permits to pros- pect for oil. Only two attempts were made to drill, under this law, one of these being by the Standard Oil Company in the Cold Bay District. They drilled two wells to a depth of more than 5,000 feet cach but failed to secure oil in quantities sufficient to make the prod- uct commercially valuable. The second attempt at development of Following the discovery | and marking the corners! a notice must be posted at the point of dis- | | covery showing the fact of the location and a description of the field. Two shallow holes were drilled, but oil in commercial quan- tities was not found. Because of the very rocky, precipitous character of the land in southern Alaska very little of it has any agricultural value and farm- ing is confined to small areas lying at mouths of rivers and streams. | for this reason there is little agricultural development in southern Alaska and none is to be expected in the future. In western Alaska, | and particularly north of Anchorage in what is known as the Mata- nuska Valley, there is a large area of very good land suitable for homesteading. This land is gradually being appropriated and, it is hoped, will in a short time be a source of much of the agricultural products used in the Territory. North of the Alaska Range there is plenty of land suitable for agriculture, but because of the extreme cold winters it is not likely to be so developed for many years to come. This land has a value, however, because of its use in the graz- ing of vast herds of reindeer, which are now being shipped to the States and sold in competition with beef in the markets there. A handicap to agricultural development is the absence of mar- kets. It can readily be seen that it would be impracticable for farmers in the Maranuska Valley to attempt to compete with the products from the fertile fields of Washington and Oregon in the sale of ag- ricultural products. This means that the agricultural crops of Alas- ka must depend upon local consumption, .and local consumption upon consumers who are able to purchase the products. In other words, the principal object in Alaskan development should be in those in- dustries which would create communities and thereby leave an opening for products raised by the rural population. If the Matanuska coal mines were developed to the point that they would employ a large number of miners, there would be an outlet for the farm products of the Matanuska Valley. The same is true of the gold and copper mines, and of the oil fields. For this reason every encouragement should be given to the development of mines and the drilling for oil in the Territory. The next step in promoting the development of Alaska was the passage in 1898 of the Act of Congress authorizing the location and entry of homesteads in the Territory of Alaska. The provisions of this Act were so limited that it was inoperative, and on March 3, 1903, the 1898 Act was amended so that homesteags could legally be located, entered and patented. Under this law as it exists today, the public domain, except where it has been officially subdivided into townships and is not included within the National Forests, can be located and ultimately patented. The procedure required is; 1. An examination of the land by the person desiring to locate the same. 2. The posting on the land, in a conspicuous place, of a notice of the location, which notice shall give the name of the locator, the date of the location, and a brief description of the claim. A copy of this notice must be recorded with the Recorder within 60 days. 3. Monuments or stakes should be placed at each corner of the claim. Within 6 months from the date of the location settle- ment must be made, and from that time residence for 7 months of each year, for a period of three years, is required to be made on the land. This residence must be to the exclusion of a home elsewhere. 5. A habitable house must be erected and maintained on the land. oil claims was by the General Petroleum Company in the Yakataga |Great Northland Contains Five Hundred and Ninety | Six Thousand Acres of Diversified Lands Includ- | ing Timbered Sections, Oil, Gold and Other Rich Minerals—Quartz, Placer Sections 6. One-sixteenth of the land must be cultivated before the end of the second year, and one-eighth before the end of the third year, but this requirement may be reduced by the Secretary of the Interior, on request. Soldiers and Sailors of the World War, and other wars follow- ing the Civil War, are entitled to credit for residence and cultivation for the period of their active service during such wars, but in every case 7 months residence in the first year is required, and a habitable house placed on the land. When the homesteader has qualified as above a survey will be made by the Government, without expense to the applicant, and pat- ent ultimately issued. Where the land desired to be entered is included within the Tongass or Chugach National Forest, application must be made te the Supervisor of such Forest to make entry of the land, and if it 1¢ agricultural in character it is eliminated from the National Forest, and patent will follow the same procedure as mentioned above in connection with homesteads on the public domain. The Act of May 14, 1898, also provided for the patenting of lands used for trade or business, by the payment to the Government of $2.50 per acre for the same. This law restricted the entry to the smount of land actually used and occupied. Provision was also made in the 1898 Act, as amended by the Act of March 3, 1903, for the use of Soldiers’ Additional Home- stead script in securing title to land in Alaska. This script is based upon a right of a soldier or sailor who had served in the Civil War, or some of the wars prior thereto, and who had, prior to 1874, lo- cated a homestead of less than 160 acres. If the homesteader located less than 160 acres, he would be entitled to a certificate showing that he had a right to enter the public domain anywhere in the United States for the difference between 160 acres and the amount actually included in his homestead. This right could be assigned and the as- signee could use it at any place without additional expense, except that of the survey of the land. Under the Act of March 3, 1927, fishermen and others desiring to secure homes, to the extent of 5 acres or less, were permitted to do so upon the location of the same, the erection of a habitable house | upon it and such residence and imprqovements as to show faith, by the payment of $2.50 per acre for the land. Since no provision was made for surveying these tracts, it is necessary for the locator to se- sure such survey. There are a number of other laws whereby title to lands in the Territory of Alaska can be secured but they do not apply to the individual and need not be mentioned here. It might be stated here, that mining and homestead locations can be made by persons having their first papers, but patent will not issue for any land unless the applicant has become a bona fide citizen of the United States and bhas submitted evidence of that fact. Territory’s Financesin naesin | Meeting a Social Problem With In these days of governmental deficits Alaska stands alone in that it has none. Not only does it not have one now, it never has had. It pays its way as it goes. It is the one political subdivision of the Nation that measures its expendi- tures by its revenues and has the money in its treasury before it spends it. For that reason, mainly, its taxes are lowér than those of any other Territory or State, and its system of governmental administration is freer from red tape and bureau- cratic supervision. B. F. HEINTZLEMAN U. S. Forest Service, Alaska Division HE Emergency Conservation | Work idea originated in the| mind of the President. The pri»l mary aim was to provide relief for | The picture of the Territory's fi- nancial status is presented by the report of Walstein G. Smith, Terri- torial Treasurer, for the last cal- endar year, which is typical of every year preceding it. A net balance of $314,803.84 in the Territorial Treasury on De- cember 31, 1933, shows a tidy in- crease over the net balance for the same date a year previous, which was $239,953.40. In parf, this increase is due to the widespread unemployment ex- isting among the youth of the Nation and thus to combat the vicious effect of enforced idleness on the characters of men approach- ing or just past the majority age, who, under normal economic con- ditions, would be enthusiastically entering the working ranks of our | extensive industries. For a number of years prior to the spring of 1933 hundreds of thousands of | concern which relate to the con- Federal funds paid into the Treas- ury for emergency relief work, and in part due to earlier payments of young men had been ‘‘on the road” or were living as enforced Emergency Conservation Work | On March 21, 1933—17 days themselves of doubtful value. Al»‘ after his inauguration — President | most every one has long recognized «|the great desirability of taking to Con- . | Bostexele seus 8 impsie o | them _in hand but we have been | gress proposing the Emergencwwo busy with our individual en-| Conservation Work programs ‘“d! terprises to make the concerted ef- the measure became law on March | fort necessary to get the work 31. The first 25,000 youths were | done. | enrolled within two weeks there- This combination of useful pro- after and by the middle °f, the jects undertaken and the good summer 300,000 of them, with | success obtained in the rehabilita- renewed outlook on life and a| i W et T Wwho had the physical impro\{cmem that border-i misfortune to come to man's sta- e«d on the nm'vaculous, were ALl e during the present great eco- work from Maine to Alaska onf ;0 depression, has made the those highly useful but often over- Emergency Conservation W o rk looked projects of general publ"limmensely popular: with all class- es everywhere. Many persons are advocating its adoption as a perm- | anent institution. They argue that, at all times there are thousands of | | boys, especially those from the cit- | servation of the country's natural resources. The hundreds of com- panies of this army of men were replanting burned forest areas, can obtain their own fuel wood free of any stumpage cost. Among those projects that make for better living can be mentioned 18 to 25 years, small camps of 5 to 20 men rather than large ones of 200 are used, and the Forest Service alone, in place of a com- bination of agencies as in the States, was authorized to enroll, feed and clothe the men, as well as supervise their field work. The ing of brush and debris that has been done along the highways leading from all of the towns in In the vast amount of roadside clear-| Museum Is Sought Out By Tourists Visitors at the Alaska Historical Library and Museum numbered in excess of 5,000 persons in 1933, according to the registry record kept by A. P. Kashevaroff, Li- brarian and Curator. Based on an estimate of approximately 10 per cent of tourists who do not sign the register, the 5,002 who did sign would represent an actual total of nearly 6,000, when it is taken into consideration that even more local visitors do not sign. Signatures show that 122 per- sons visited the museum in Janu- ary, 119 in February, 209 in March, 197 in April, 214 in May, 654 in usually good. As the above indi- cates the island is practically in a primitive state. It is a very in- teresting wilderness and deserves| greater attention by the outdoor | | public. With the object of fostering| recreational use of this island by | Junit of the U. S. Army at Chil- | koot Barracks acts as paymaster. | The work started in May of last year and will be concluded in April, 1934, unless the period shall be extended or the program | be made permanen:. Camps have been operated over the entire Na- tional Forest region from Hyder| to the Kenai Peninsula. The Alaska camps are carrying | out a program of highily desirable the National Forest region. place of a high and almost im- penetrable barrier of stumps, logs and brush flanking the highways | for miles, the adjacent woods now have more of a park-like or at least a natural aspect. To foster outings many beaches and forest picnic grounds have been cleared of brush and debris and such im- provements as fire places and tables installed while foot trails taxes, according to Mr. Smith. Tax payments for the first quarter, which were due January 15, with grace until March 15, have been good, he said. Mr. Smith further indicated that he helieved the earlier tax pay- ments are a good index to increas- ed business and improved condi- tions generally throughout the Territory. Since 1929, the tendency has been to let taxes drag, and the picking up has been very no- ticeable during the past year. Treasury Balances Treasury balances showing the effect of the depression with a few other factors, follow: Date Net Balance December 31, 1928 ...$602,570.46 December 31, 1929 ... 667,248.84 December 31, 1930 ... 552,820.31 December 31, 1931 ... 265,363.84 2 (Continued on Page Seventeen) dependents of impoverished par- ents a condition that could only lead to their complete moral break- down and a consequent lowering of the moral standard of the entire country. The only satisfactory remedy was work. It must be a kind of work that the boys themselves| would recognize as useful if it were to accomplish the purpose sought. At the same time because of the huge outlay in money in- volved its usefulness must also appeal to the average citizen. Again, the jobs it afforded must be noncompetitive with those need- | ed by the family man. A program of improvement for publicly own- ed lands, Federal, State and coun- ty, occurred to the President as most nearly meeting all of the requirements. building fire trails, fighting forest| fires, reseeding barren cattle and| sheep ranges, beautifying our de- bris-strewn roadsides, erecting thousands of small dams in gul-| lies high in the mountains to check soil erosion and consequent| silting of huge irrigation reservoirs, | improving the breeding and feed- ing grounds of water fowl and game birds, draining malarial swamps, opening up areas for hunting, fishing and other recrea- tional activities, restocking fish streams, fighting long-standing epi- demics of disease, insects and ro- dents on forest and livestock ranges, and numerous other class- es of work which will benefit the public as a whole and which can be done only by public effort. These projects are not ‘‘made’” work in the sense of being in ies, who should be provided with/ a season of work with the hands, |at a nominal wage, on useful pub- lic projects and especially in the | the mountains and plains which comprise the public lands. It would build up character and citi- zenship, as well as physique. At the same time the material results of their labor would be a consid- erable item in justifying the cost of the undertaking. The National Forests of Alaska were given a quota of 325 men to be selected from the resident population. Owing to peculiar local cofiditions several exceptions were made in the manner of handling the work in Alaska: some of the men enrolled are improvements on Forest lands| which under the ordinary annual| budget of expenditures could not have been fulfilled within a period | have been brushed out along fish terest. streams and other places of in-| Alaskans and outside sportsmen an important network of trails start- ing from tide water on the shores of the island, crisscrossing in the central portions, and joining up with the canoe portages and in- land lake travel routes were con- structed during the past season. built at logical locations along the travel routes. These improve- ments now bring into accessibility # | Four large log shelter cabins were the sections of the island of great- est interest and a more strenuous effort will now be made to bring June, 1641 in July, 1268 in Aug- ust, 248 in September, 128 in Oc- tober, 96 in November, and 106 in December. ‘While the register shows a stead- |ily diminishing stream of tourists to Alaska since 1930, the peak year, the further decrease in 1933 can be attributed in large measure to the World’s Fair at Chicago, and | the large number of important con- ventions held in the East and Middle West. The total number of visitors who have registered - since the record was started in 1921 has been 80,831 the island to the attention of the healthful, outdoor atmosphere of above the general age limits of! short of 12 or 15 years. Much | work has been done on Forest Service wharves, warehouses, boat| repair shops, fire control stations (on the* Kenai Peninsula) and other projects, to help give better | service. Most of the projects, | however, are of a character that contributes more directly to the local economic welfare or make | the country a better place in which to live from the standpoint of general recreation, sport and nat- ural beauty. In the strictly eco- nomic class can be mentioned the 110 miles of prospectors’ trails to mineralized regions built | the close of the past year; the| 45 miles of general purpose trails; | up to| the 4 spur roads constructed into | cordwood areas where the needy | forests, and a group. of large, con- | The most ambitious outdoor life project of the past year was the opening up of Admiralty Island for recreationists. This island of over 1,000,000 acres lo- cated within a few miles of Ju- neau, is of outstanding interest as a recreational area. Its scenery is good with a number of high, | rugged mountain ranges, excellent outdoor man and woman. The above is a resume of the starting of the Emergency Con- servation Work and accomplish- ments during the first nine months of its existence. As the name shows, it is an emergency measure, brought into being in an incredibly | short time to meet a desperate| situation and scheduled to come| nected lakes near its center. Beau-|to a close in April. Those whoi tiful harbors surround it. Admir- have been brought into close con-| alty is one of the few islands of | tact with it and are thus familiar | Southast Alaska that has the Al-| with its inner workings are highly| aska brown bear, of all the animals | pleased with the results of both in North America the one of great- | its functions *“‘Building Men nndi est interest to the really “Big Game Building Forests” and believe it Hunter,” and they occur here in| might well be continued indefin- | large numbers. The deer popn—[irely or at least until the condi-| lation is heavy and trout fishing tions that brought about its nged | in the lakes and streams is un-'are clearly behind us. | persons. When interpretated in the light of tourists who have not registered, local visitors, and Alas- kans from ofher cities passing through, the actual total is indi- cated to be in excess of 100,000. The following table shows the number of persons who visited the Museum during each of the past 13 years: 1921 ... 1571 1922 ... 3516 1923 . 2,129 1924 4794 1925 5,806 1926 5,765 1927 7,668 1928 8,891 1929 8,788 1930 - 9,230 1931 7,621 1932 6,967 1933 5,002 " (Continued on Page Fourteem)