The Daily Alaska empire Newspaper, May 5, 1936, Page 5

THE DAILY ALASKA EMPIRE, TUESDAY, MAY 5, 1936 FAC TS ABOUT ALASKA LIFE, HISTORY COPPER IS GREAT PART OF WEALTH IN TERRITORY Contributed Virtually Half; as Much as Taken Out in Gold Alaska has been known as a gold | country so long that few persons are aware that the value of copper mined in the Territory during the| last 25 years was almost half as| great as Alaska’s gold production for fifty years. Figures of the Ter- ritorial Department of Mines show the gold production to the end of | 1935 to be approximately $450,- 000,000, against which copper shows a total value of about $217,000,000. The remarkable fact in connec- tion with the copper totals is the mines near Kennecott, contributed perhaps 90 per tent of the Alaska copper” in the words of the, United States Geological Sur- vey 1933 bulletin on mineral re-| sources of Alaska. Unofficial esti- mates place the value of the Ken- necott mines copper output to date at $200,000,000. The reports to the Department of Mines show a pro, duction of more than one billion pounds. Kennecott while operating, con- ristently averaged 80 or 90 per cent of all the Territory's output.| After reaching war-time highs of 119,654,839 pounds for 1916 and 88,793,400 pounds in 1917, Alaska's copper production was fairly steady for nine years, showing an average | of about 70,000,000 pounds from 1918 to 1926. The 1918 total was 69,224,051 pounds and the 1926 fi- gure 67,778,000 pounds. The high-| est figure in this period was 1923,| 85,920,245 pounds, and the lowest| was the post-war slump year of| 1919, 47,220,771. With the excep- tion of these two years, the output for this entire period was at prac-| tically a constant level. Outputs Starting in 1927, Alaska, which means Kennecott, showed a steady decline down to the present level. The 1927 output was 55,343,000 pounds; 1928 was 41,421,000; 1929, 40,510,000, 1930, 32,651,000, and 1931 practically the same as last year,| 22,000,000 pounds. For 1932, 1933| and 1934 Alaska showed negligible copper production, because Ken- nicott was closed down entirely, as; the extremely low price of copper | made it unwise to mine their ore. Regardless of whether the ex-| haustion of Kennecott is a mat-| ter of two years or many more, the | “inevitable” depletion forecast in the Ceologic Survey report indi- cates the possibility that some- where in the near future Alaska may find her copper production shut down until discovery of the additional rich lodes that mining men say must exist. As to the pro- duction from the present known de- posits, outside of Kennecott, this is declared to be possible in somg| considerable quantity but only if much higher market prices prevail. In this line the Geological Sur-| vey says: 1 “That there are other places in Alaska where copper minerals oc-, cur is well known. That some of these deposits contained enough copper to enable them to be work- ed at a profit under past conditions is a matter of history. For instance, the old Beatson mine, on Latouche Island Kennecott during its per- iod of activity, yielded copper ore worth millions of dollars, and some of the old mines in Southeast Al- aska, notably in the Ketchikan district, contributed ore worth a few million dollars. Believe More Deposits “It is extremely doubtful wheth- er any of the known copper de- posits that are not now being mined can be worked at a profit under present conditions. As a conse- quence, practically all field investi- gation of these properties has been discontinued and doubtless will not be resumed until the price of cop- per has materially advanced. That there may be deposits, as yet un- known, which might repay' develop- ment is possible, but the incentive to search for them is so small and the probability of failure so great' that . prospectors are not willing to take the gamble.” Increased Demand An increasing demand for such governmental surveys, not for cop- | per alone but for all minerals, is evident in mining circles, where the examples of other nations are point- ed out. Those who have examined the copper formations in Alaska, and particularly in the Copper river country, insist that there should be vast deposits still to be found, for it seems incredible that the Kennecott lodes would con- tain in a few concentrated depos- its the bulk of all Alaska copper, when copper ores are found in so many other areas. This contention is given strength by the fact that some of the richest of the Kenne- cott’s ores showed no surface in- dications, and were found while working other deposits. The richest lode in Kenne- cott, and ' by far the ;:zhn sin-) Know Alaska! The Alaska Daily Empire is conducti of the resources of the Territory. a continuous survey Each Tuesday articles and statistical information will be published on one or more of the following subjects: History of Alaska communities and the men that are building them. Conditions in the different mining districts. Information about the fishing and trapping con- ditions. Reports on experimental and practical farming in Alaska. Aviation activities and future possibilities. You will want to keep many of these articles. And if you have friends or relatives Outside who are interested in Alaska, you can give them information never before asscmbled by mail- ing these issues to them, or subscribing for The Empire. TELLER HISTORY COLORFUL PART OF ALASKA EPIC “Best Medi—l‘xhn;“in World” with No Advertisers Pub- lished There in 1866 Seventy years ago the first news- paper in the morthern part of the Western Hemisphere offered itself as “a better medium for advertisers than any paper published in the world.” This modest statement was made | upon the geographical showing that it was the only newspaper in the higher northern latitudes for a span of half the globe. The “hcme office” of this paper. called “The Esquimaux” was at Grantley Harbor, north of Nome and the site of the preseent town of Teller. The town then was called “Libbysville” and was established in 1866. Libbysville was named for Cap- tain Dan Libby, who was in charge of the station established jointly by the United States Army and the Western Union Telegraph Company while constructing a route for an ifiternational cable that had been started at that.time due to diffi- | culties encountered trying to lay the first cable across the Atlantic. Cable Laying Headquariers The Western Union Company had failed in two attempts to lay the Atlantic Cable, when they conceived the idea of an overland connection through British Columbia, Alaska, Siberia and then down to the Euro- pean cities. With the assistance of the U. S. Army, a small fleet of vessels car- ried workers and supplies to several points on the coast of Alaska and Siberia. The Alaska headquarters was called Libbysville, and the main ! station in Siberia known as Camp | Libby, Plover Bay, Siberia. John J. Harrington, a San Fran- cisco printer employed as a laborer | setting posts and hauling supplies on dog teams at Libbysville, start- ed the paper in 1866, the year be- fore United States purchased Al- aska from Russia. A copy of the first issue of “The Esquimaux” is on file at the Territorial museum at Juneau. About twelve issues were put out, all in long-hand, the final one being published in Siberia. Later, when Harrington returned to San Francisco, he had the issues set up in type and reprinted there. The first issue contained this naive statement: Best Medium in World “Our readers and the public gen- erally will at once perceive the benefits of extending to The Esquimaux their patronage. It is the only journal circulated in this territory, and none other is published north of Victoria, B. C., on this continent, or in China, in the Western Hemisphere, between the longitude 130 degrees east and 120 degrees west of Greenwich, nearly half the globe. “It is the official organ for all matters connected with the West- ern Union Telegraph, Russian Ex- tension, in the vast extent of coun- iry to be traversed by this gigantic IC | enterprise of the 19th century, and is therefore a better medium for advertisers than any paper pub- lished in the world.” Needless to say it had no adver- tisers. The third attempt to lay the Atlantic cable succeeded, and a steamer from San Francisco brought news to the company’s em- ployees in Alaska and Siberia to abandon any further work on the Russian extension and return to San Francisco. More than $3,000,000 gle copper treasure yet discovered on the face of the globe, was an in- clined ore body that ranged from 200 to 1,000 feet in width, from 50 to 100 feet in thickness and ex- tended downward for a distance of over 1700 feet. Millions of pounds of this ore. averaged consistently between 65 and 70 per cent pure At the height of war pric- es, had been spent on the Alaska-Si- beria cable at that time. Left to Eskimos Grantley Harbor then aban- doned to the Eskimos for more than 20 years. Afler the gold sirike at Nome in 1898, prospectors of course ranged for miles both above and be- low Nome, and a number of them were working in Grantley Harbor | when, in 1900, Herman Ring made a strike on Gold Run Creel butary of the Bluestone River. proved to be a bonanza, and a stam- pede from Nome followed at once. As the new town grew up, the name of Libbysville was discarded and the title of Teller adopted, in honor of Senator Teller of Colorado. Nuggets taken from Ring's claim ran as high as $500, and Ring soon had a comfortable fortune. The whole surrounding country was staked and restaked, and for a time intense excitement ruled, with many believing that Teller would surpass Nome as a permanent mining camp. By the fall of 1900 the population |is estimated to have exceeded 1500. |Dance halls, churches, stores and homes were built and crowded, and a newspaper established. Many Lawsuits With the mad staiing of claims | that was going on, fights of all kinds developed, and court litigation soon became one of the principal activi- ties of Teller. It is estimated that several hundred thousand dollars were spent in lawsuits over con- flicting claims. The miners were not doing so well, however, as few of the creeks outside of Gold Run showed any great values, and inside of a year most of the prospectors returned to Nome. Today Teller still has a population of about 200 and is an important trading post for the Port Clarence District. Quite a number of the ori- ginal stampeders have stayed through the years and Teller con- tinues to this day with steady gold production in the Gold Run Coun- try. Senator Frawley of Nome re- | cently organized a mining company and installed a dredge in this dis- trict, and last year reported a suc- cessful ‘season. Old Timers Among the old timers who went in to Teller about 1900 and are still there are the Tweet family, Charles Miller, Mrs., Ethel Marks, Mrs. ‘Thomas Peterson, Henry Muller and Percy Blatchford. Tom Ashby, now of Juneau, mined on Gold Run in 1900 and 1901 and took out a ELLISSEESAR |FORTYMILEIS Desirable Homestead Tracts | Available in Southeast Alaska in Addition to Manyy Home PLAY PART IN -~ DEVELOPMENT Aviation Providing Freight- ing and Passenger Serv- ice Before Impossible The Juneau to Nome air service starting this week is just another step in a program that should with- in a few brief years link Alaska with all the world, according to 'Bob Ellis of the Pacific Alaska Airways. Ellis was questioned by The Em- pire upon his ideas of how much and how quickly aviation might speed the development of Alaska. He said that aviation freighting is certain to increase rapidly in the Territory, but that in addition to that he expected to see Alaska on one of the main routes of around-the-world air passenger service “very probably within five years,” and that such a service would be certain to speed the growth of the Alaska cities that are selected as depots for service. “Of course everyone knows that the air link from Seattle to Ju- neau is inevitable in the near fu- ture. After that it is largely a matter of international arrange- ments for landing stations that will determine how quickly air lines to the Orient will be established. “The present ocean route to China requires such long over-the- water hops that the fuel capacity |of the planes seriously cuts down their pay load, and the result is CONTINUING TO to Machinery in Fa- mous Mining District | The oldest mining district in the ‘Imnrim‘ of Alaska is coming forth with new production records that ! furnish strong support to the theory | that the half billion dollars worth |of gold taken out of the Territory to date is considerably less than the ,remaining store. | Before the days of Klondike, placer mining started on Forty | Mile in Yukon Territory, and work- ed up Forty Mile river into Alaska as early as 1882. For more than 50 years this district has been a steady producer of gold for Alaska, with a total output to date in excess of $7.000,000. And recent figures and operations ,reports show, according to Com- missioner B. D. Stewart of the Ter- ritorial Bureau of Mines, that this district may assume a greater im- such portance in the future of Alaska | | gold mining than it has held in the past | There are four post offices in the | district, all on the South Fork of Forty Mile river, and through the years the creeks and bench lands near these four towns have made living expenses for 75 or more per- manent residents. For a decade or more the gold production has rang- ed back and forth in the neighbor- 10od of from $50,000 to $150.000. | Last year, due largely to the op- eration of the first dredge of the Walker’'s Fork Mining Company, SHOWRETURNS Hand Operations Give Way | Y lunder the U. S Sites| For the benefit of persons de- duced in abundance, but are apt sirous of acquiring larger land|to be more watery than the import-| | holdings in Southeast Alaska than|ed kind. The potatoes in most are available under the & ycre |cases will not keep so well as those| | Homesite Law, the Regional For-|from the Outside, but are other-| ester of the Tongass National For-| wise of good quality | | est has prepared a list of the most “Beets do not grow well. Toma-| | suitable locations that have been| toes, cucumbers and corn cannot | eliminated from the Forest Re-|be grown successfully. Fruit trees | serve and are open to homesteads.| such as apples have been tried in} | According to the Juneau Forest @ number of cases and bear crops | Service office of the Deparlmem‘occnsxolmn_\' Hay and grain are} | of Agriculture, there are from 30| hardly practical due to the diffi- to 40 desirable locations, l'anginxzic\llly in getting sufficient drying in size from 2 1-2 acres to full | weather. As a result of this un- | homesteads of 160 acres. | certainty, stock raising is rather All these tracts are now open| hazardous for tests have demon- homestead laws, ' strated that where the winter feed- land filings can be made either| ing period exceeds 100 days, it is | through the United States Com-|hardly profitable to raise cattle, | missioner at Juneau or direct to| and it is almost always necessary; the Land Office at Anchorage. Ap-| to supply feed for cattle in this re- plicants must be American citizens | gion during a considerably longer or have declared their intention of | period than 90 days. | becoming citizens, must establish| “Poultry grow well enough, but | residence within six months fromagain one comes against the prob- | time of application, and must con- |lem of buying feed from Outside, | tinue residence at least seven|and the cost of this imported feed months of each year for three years. |leaves slim chances for commercial To hold the property at least one- success. sixteenth of the acreage taken must| |be under cultivation after two| “Dairying has, so far as our in- | years, and one eight after three|formation shows, been successful in | years, although the Land Office practically all cases, although the is authorized to waive this per- dairymen are faced with the same formance upon satisfactory show-|problem of importing their feed for ling of why such extensive cultiva- a considerable portion of the year. |tion has not been dome. At the “It would appear that under pres-| | time of first applying, filing fee ent transportation and population | must be paid. This varies accord- conditions, the chances for success- | ing to size of tract, but is less than ful agricultural undertakings in | 810 on 80 acres. Alter three years Southeast Alaska are limited to residence, occupant may apply for|those instances where the grower has either some arrangement in the community for his produce, or Dairying Successful that flylng boats of the ODINA yhe gisirict showed an increasing Clipper type, while tremendously yoyenye, and this year, according to more costly and more expensive t0 nr. gtewart, the second dredge of operate then smaller plar G0 1Ot (o Walker's Fork Company, will have correspondingly large carrying pe operating, and the indications capacity lare that well over 100 men will be engaged in mining in this region Machinery Moving icular interest attaches Cheaper Planes “It is entirely practical with the present state of aviation develop-' ment to use comparatively pensive planes, say about $30,000 that a large part of the $7,000.000 each, and maintain a fast and vorth of gold thus far reported has {handy service to Japan and China been taken out by hand methods. 'by way of Alaska and Siberia. The Heavy machinery is just moving equipment is available today and in. The last published government if arrangements were completed bulletin on Forty Mile district was with the Japanese and Siberian prepared in 1928 by Dr. J. B. Merty governments the service could be Jr, and this document showed a established in short order.” | total of 38 separate mining opera- Mr. Ellis said that perfection tors with a working personnel of ‘ol air travel in Alaska will comey omly 75 men, clearly indicating that with the completion of all desired the individual miner was holding landing fields, and the installation’ his own. of new radio equipment that has been perfected, radio beam stations tard the large-scale development of to control landing ships while fly- tHis area—difficult and expensive /ing blind in the thickest kind of transportation and unsatisfactory fog. |experiences with earlier-type “The equipment has been proven dredges. Freight has been hauled by tests at Newark, New Jerscyv-v;irom Eagle, a distance of 90 miles, he said. “The Department of Com- |OF from Forty Mile on the Canadian merce supervised the tests, which Side, about the same distance, or were made when the entire Atlantic {rom Dawson, a slightly longer trip. |seaboard was covered with a fog| Freight Cost that was recorded as reducing visi-| The freight cost ranged from 5 bility to zero, and when not an|to 7 cents a pound from Eagle in airplane was off the ground. ’winter. to 15 to 25 cents a pound Direction Beams jfor the same trip in summer. The “A plane equipped for utilizing | Winter rates from the Canadian the landing beam, in a manner similar to which most planes now use direction beams, took off from the field at Washington, D. C.| |flew on direction beam until in the vicinity of the Newark Field. Par to per pound. Winter freight is hauled on sleds, but the summer haulage from Eagle is largely by pack horses, thus accounting for the high cosf Efforts to build roads in from Eagle have cut but slightly into the Homesites Homesites are available in tracts up to five acres in selected loca- atent upon payment of $1.25 per acre where the gardens are planted for home use, to reduce the cost of |living for families who follow some | inex- 'this section by reason of the fact! tions, throughout most of the hab- itable parts of the Tongass Na- ticnal For district. They im- |pose no requirement of cultiva- tion, but require that a house suit-| ably to live in must be built other activity for a part of their| income.” | Regarding the possibility that ad- ditional local markets might de- velop, Mr. Holbrook said that the difficulty lles in changing buyers applicant must make it his per-|from their present habits. Can- | manent home for three years. Per-iperjes and stores operating in and mit for occupancy of a homesite is| near the various towns in South- obtainable through the Regional|east Alaska are large consumers of | Forester at Juneau. The charge iS/ihe very kind of vegetables that $5.00 per year. After the required|can pe grown near by. The buyers, tenancy of three years the land|powever, have been accustomed to may be eliminated from the Na-| egylar delivery of such foods in | tional Forest, and the occupantigefinite quantities, and growers ex- may then file for patent throughiperience difficulty in arranging to the Anchorage Land Office O gerve them with vegetables ad-| “Two factors have operated to re-| towns ranged from 3% to 5 cents| through the U. S. Commissioner at Juneau. In discussing the practicability of commercial farming in Southeast Alaska, Wellman Holbrook of the Forest Service office said that transportation problems offer han- dicaps that are difficult to over- come in most cases, and that up to the present agriculture in this country has proven successful chief- ly in those instances where it is undertaken to serve home needs, or meet the demands of immed- iate communities. “The fertility and the produc- tivity are beyond question,” he said. There is room for argument about the practicability of growing gar- den vegetables in Scutheast Alas- ka. Such things as cabbages, car- rots, cauliflower, rutabagas green peas, lettuce, onions, potatoes and radishes, thrive as well as any where. Strawberries can be pro- mittedly equal or better, due to the fact that the buyers hesitate to stop their Seattle orders for fear of failure to deliver on the part of local growers, and the local grower | on the other hand is hardly able to undertake truck gardening on a scale to supply such demands, with- out first being assured of sales. Limited in Size The areas suitable for farming are for the most part of limited | size, according to Mr. Holbrook, and this precludes the possibility of large scale production that would warrant establishment of a can- nery for such products as peas. The smallness of these areas and their scattered locations lends them additional advantages, however, as homesteads or homesites for those who wish the land to product much of their own foods and intend to work at fishing or mining for ad- ditional income. |awaiting with fair sized poke for his trouble. A hi i | Approaching the field the plane, to Gold Run is about 20 miles from {keep in the range of the landing the town of Teller, but back in the \peam, was started downward at an days of excitement it cost 20 cents easy gliding angle. After a certain tance. Thirty miles to the North- | low wer rad ignal, which told west of Teller is Tin City, noted for | (e pperator that Al o s a pound to haul freight that dis- | gistance it came in range of a very | its production of placer tin. With large tin nuggets running about 75 per cent pure, tin mining has been carried on successfully in this dis- trict for 30 years, records showing a production of $500,000 to date, as well as some gold. Dredges as well as sluice boxes are used in tin min- ing there, and due to the present good world demand for tin, several new outfits are prospecting in the district, hopeful of striking larger deposits than those now worked. TRACTOR FLOWN INTO BOUNDARY Another demonstration of trans- porting heavy freight by air was |given last month when the Pacific Alaska Airways flew a tractor into |PAA has named it. The PAA established Boundary as a landing field. It is located about 130 miles southwest of Dawson, on American territory at the junction No roads of any kind enter the country, and the company needed the tractor in there to build their field. They flew their Ford single- motored all-metal freighting plane from Fairbanks to the field where they had the tractor, dismantled the heavy machine into three ship- the new station of “Boundary,” as| of the Scottie and Chisana rivers. | |outer boundary of the landing field. |In a few seconds he was through |the range of this signal and came /into the range of a second low |power signal, which again identi- |Hed his location as a certain part of the field, and continued at the |same angle through a third such !signal, finally coming to a land- ling in the midst of the field that |was so densely covered with fog that he had to find his way to |the hangar by signals from the crew.” | Ellis declared that when Alaska’s Imajor, fields have been equipped 'with landing beams, the problem |of flying through any kind of visi- bility will have been completely solved, and few obstacles would remain to the development of air | transportation in Alaska. SELUREAT T | STEAMSHIP MEN MAKE AUTO TRIP A thousand-mile trip through eastern Washington, including vis- |its to Spokane and Coulee Dam |was made by Purser Bert Gillespie |and Assistant Freight Clerk George (Missouri) Holferty of the steamer North Sea which sailed south from Juneau yesterday, the last time the steamer was in Seattle. The en- tire trip was made in less than vessel, according to Purser Gilles- difffculties of the trip, for a total of $200,000 was expended getting a road built 20 of the 90 miles. But ilittle saving resulted in the use of automobiles on this first 20 miles, as the cost of trans-shipping to pack animals for the remaining 70 miles offsets much of the saving. The history of earlier dredging on Forty Mile river showed such operations practical, .but a series of circumstances prevented various owners from attaining sufficient success to encourage them to bring n additional equipment in the face of existing high transportation sosts. The first dredge was put to vork by Davidson Bros., at Sour- lough Island, in Yukon Territory n.1907. This dredge worked success- ‘ully until 1912, when it reached the dge of the canyon walling in that ‘eglon, and had to quit. It was noved to other property in Yukon erritory. A smaller dredge by the ame owners was worked for a time n 1907 at the International boun- ‘ary line, and it too was then moved o other territory. At Pump Bar A third dredge was started on \merican territory at Pump Bar, our miles below the town of Frank- in in 1907, but according to the eports to the Mining Bureau, it vas of the wrong type for this dis- rict and was not a success. In 1910 the first Australian type 'redge was shipped in from San | long toms. They are stil doing it ( in any replacement equipment or [u)dny, and taking out good values.” supplies. A series of break-downs land delays for repairs consumed | . most of the season, and the new Orosh Baiens | i discouraged: ' that| In addition to workiag these bars | gwnets. Jbve. 89 HSCOURRE in the main river, good values are |they never tried to operate it again. r o One other dredge, brought in ""E:::di:"abf::f:;irflg? f:‘neum:fe: Walker's Fork in 1909, operated qy.co pranches include Walker's successfuly there for a time, bub | p . ong jts tributary, Wade Creek, was then moved to other property o . .con pork Moa.]ulw Fnrk' g e i Tett4-! Dome Creek, Franklin Creek, Chick- | |99 : len Creek and its tributaries, Stone- | Drag Line Shovel house Creek and Myers Fork. Ingle Aside from these operations, Creek, four miles west of Chicken the GILL NETTERS BEGIN FISHING NEXT MONDAY About 10 Boats Going Out from Juneau and Doug- last Next Week The gill net season on king sal- mon will open May 10 in the Taku river section and about ten local boats will go from Juneau and Douglas to fish for the Libby, Mc- Neill and Libby cannery there. As the tenth is next Sunday, most of the boats will start fishing Monday. A tug from the Libby company will tow over most of the boats, pro- bably Saturday, although others will 30 around under their own power. The fishermen will fish for kings until the end of next month and then change to smaller mesh nets for cohoes and dog salmon. The fishermen will be paid by the pound for kings and by the fish for the smaller fish. According to some of the men, an average catch for the season will be 2,000 or 3,000 pounds of kings and from 2,000 to 3,000 mixed cohoes wnd dogs. High boat is expected to e around 5,000 fish. Most of the gill net fishermen from this section are from Doug- las. Among those from Douglas, who will fish in their own boats, are limmy Fox, Albert Jack, Thomas Bowman, Henry Stevens, LeFevre Weaver and Jake Marshall. Henry Stevens is the veteran of them all, ving fished there for 34 seasons. son, George Stevens will also using one of the company's boats. Victor Hodge of Haines and George Johns are also preparing their boats to join the fishing. i e gt WIDE INTEREST IN RED BLUFF BAY CHROMIUM New York Concern Report- ed Interested in Bar- anof Island Property Local owners of chromium min- ing claims on Baranof Island are interest the report on tests just completed on their property for New York interests said to represent some of the largest hromium concerns in the country. The tests were made by P. Cortel- you, who came here from New York three weeks ago and left last week after spending ten days on the property, which is located on Red Bluff Bay. He was taken to the property by J. C. B. Hawks of Ju- neau, one of the owners. According to surveys of necessary resources that the United States would require to be entirely self- sufficient in time of war, there are 36 needed minerals, and chromium up to the present is one of the three that are not produced in American territory in adequate quantities. It is for this reason that great interest attaches to the pos- sibility that Alaska mines might supply this deficiency. pannings through all these years of high transportation costs offers encouraging prospects for the fu- ture if freighting costs can be brought down.” In this line it is noted that the Walker’s Fork Com- pany is hopeful of bringing their freighting costs down to 2 cents a pound or less by the use of trac- tors hauling in winter from Forty Mile, Yukon Territory. Mr. Stewart added that geologi- cal formations are favorable to Mining Bureau records show that until the Walker’s Fork Mining Company started dredging in 1934, most of the gold output was from hand miners. In 1929 a drag line shovel started operating, and this, | licking, has also proven successful. | There is plenty of water available, land three giants are used in the | hydraulic operation, the first being jto free the gravel, the second to pipe it to where the shovel will handle it, and the third for wash- | ing. While the record of the Walker’s | Fork Mining Company have not ! been made public, reports from resi- dents of the district say that the | operators admit their 1935 produc- [tion was “far beyond their most | hopeful expectations.” And this | company’s action in shipping in a second dredge to be working this !used in conjunction with hydrau- | | Creek, has shown the coarsest gold, |lode mining in many places, and | the largest piece found being worth | lowered transportation cbsts that 1$60. The gold in the district aver-|would permit the erection of mill- ages about 85 per cent pure. !mg machinery might easily be the The four towns in the district start of hard-rock mining in this are Steel Creek, Jack Wade, Frank- | region. lin and Chicken. Chicken has an| |aviation field, and is already reap-! Commenting upon the strides that | ing advantages from this closer con-'aviation is making in reducing |tact with Fairbanks. Lost Chicken | transportation costs in Alaska, Mr. | Creek, on a bench opposite the town Stewart called attention to the | of Chicken, has been steadily mined statement of Dr. Merty in his 1928 | since 1901. It averages highter v.hnn‘report on the Forty Mile District, ,most of the placers in the district, in which the government geolo- going about $1.00 per square foot gist said: “An interesting possibil~ {of bed rock. Chicken is also the, ity for Chicken Creek and vicinity | home of a proven coal mine, which |is the use of airplanes for commer- |according to the reports filed at cial freighting from Fairbanks. The the Mining Bureau, has been de- |air distance is about 200 miles, and veloped down a 35-foot shaft and'even at present commercial rates opened into a room 14 by 60 feet for air freight it should be possible and 10 feet high, exposing 22 feet|to deliver supplies at Chicken at & of coal. Tests on the coal show it|rate as low or lower than the pres- averages in heat units with the ent summer rate. The use of air- Aviation Strides pie, who attributed the fast time maintained throughout the journey | to the exceptional cattle-herding| francisco where it had been built|year is evidence of the same kind. by the Risdon Iron Works. This, Concerning the values averaged machine operated successfully|in the district, Mr. Stewart said the through 1914.-It was laid up in win- | records show about 35 to 40 cents three days, between voyages of the|teP, quarters at Franklin Creek.|a square foot of bed rock. “The dis- That winter the manager went to trict is one of the most interesting war, and was later invalided home |in Alaska,” he said, “Forty Mile unable to work the dredge. For | river flows on bed rock for much of seven or eight year it was laid up the distance that it is mined.. The ability of Assistant Freight Clerk 2nd finally changed hands. Holferty. 4--The new owners started-operat- {ing without having had time to BUY AT HOME! overhaul it, and without bringing | result is that only at bends have any bars accumulated. For more than forty years miners have been working these bars with rockegs snd l Healy River coal, and is entirely lplanes for mail delivery in Forty suitable to supply the neads of the district. Enlarged Operations In summarizing the future pos- sibilities of the Forty Mile district; Mr. Stewart sald that the long peri- od of successful operation by hand methods, and the relatively large area of proven placer ground offers evidence justifying enlarged me- chanical opesations. “And the abil- ityoalgesidents to survive on their Mile district, by providing regular business, should materially cheapen air freight rates.” . ORCHESTRA PRACTICE Community orchestra members will hold their regular practice tonight ;n mthe grade school auditorium at :30 o'clock. All those participat~ ing are requested to attend the practice which is preparatory to giving a congerte - - o T