THE KUSKO TIMES)
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A. X. Grant, Publisher, Sole 1
Owner and Editor. 1
Published Every Saturday
$1 Per Month
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Entered as secona-ciass matter An- i
•gust 29th, 1923. at the poatoffice at (
Tnkotna, Alaska, under the Act of
Htarch 3, 1879. j
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Takotna, Alaska, July 12, 1930.
SAWYER WRITES OF DIVERSE
RESOURCES OF ALASKA;
- |
^‘Diverse Resources of Alaska In-!
-vite Development,” is the title of an |
interesting article recently appearing I
in the Washington Daily. It was I
from the pen of Ernest Walker Saw- (
yer, representative of the Alaska j
jRailroad, as follqws:
Alaska is a very great country. If
^you place a map of Alaska on a map
•of continental United States the j
inorthern part of Alaska will fall over !
♦Canaaa; the southeastern part of
.Alaska will extend to Florida, ana
some of the western sections of Alas
Jka will fall in northern California.
Alaska extends from 130 degrees j
^west to 173 degrees east longitude, I
♦covering a total of 57 degrees of Ion- j
•gitude. Continental United States,;
from Seattle to Jacksonville, extends i
from 123 degrees west to 81 degrees
’west, or a total of only 42 degrees of
Uafigitude. ; j
In other words, there are 15 de
crees more longitude—33 per cent
more—in Alaska than in continental
United States. Longitude measure
iments are, as you know, east and
'west measurements.
Now, the north and south eompar- 1
iisons are almost as amazing. Seattle
5s 47 degrees north latitude and Jack- |
isonville is 30 degrees north; Los An
jgeles is about 34 degrees north. That
ns a total difference of only 17 de- j
.grees in latitude from northern con-,
tinental United States to Florida.
Alaska, on the other hand, extends
jfro n»51 degrees north to 72 degrees
morth, or a total of 21 degrees of lat
itude—23 per cent more latitude. This
shows why Alaska can have within
its huge boundaries a great variety
•of climate.
In some sections of Alaska the an
nual rainfall is 200 inches, while in
•others only 10 or 1 2inches. High up
•on Mount MrKinley it is always cold,
while in some sections it seldom if
«ver has a frost.
]
:
The summer temperatures at Fair
banks are similar to those of Chicago.
The winter temperatures at Seward
are like those of Boston. The annual
temperatures of Juneau are very
much like those of Washington, D.
C„ but Juneau has more fog in sum
mer than Washington.
Let us return to our measurements
again. The first Alaska town you
come to after 45 hours’ delightful
boat trip from Seattle is the busy
fishing center of Ketchikan. Ketchi
kan is bt>0 miles west of Seattle. It
is also 600 miles nc(rth of Seattle.
While Ketchikan is the first town
you come to—and it is therefore the
closest Alaska town to continental
United States—it is not by any
means the most southerly point of
Alaskan territory. Dutch Harbor on
the Alaska Peninsula—part of Alas
ka—is over 100 miles south of Ket
chikan, as well as 1,600 miles west.
If- we goj'another 1,000 miles west
*
0 Attu Island we find we are still
:onsiderably south of Ketchikan, al
hough w eare 2,500 miles west of
hat settlement. In fact, Rat Island
>r some of the others of the Aleutian
croup are as much as 300 miles far
her south than Ketchikan.
Rat and Attu Islands are so fan
iway from us they even have a dif- j
erent day. When it is Sunday with l
is in the United States, it is Satur- j
lay in parts of Alaska.
Point Barrow, which is our farthest j
lorthern settlement, is over 1,400 j
niles north of Ketchikan; but Point
Barrow is over 1,200 miles south of
he North Pole. The North Pole is
■lose to Greenland, but a long ways
'rom Alaska.
The huge Alaska country has 378,
)00,000 acres of land, mope than 12
;imes the area of the great Empire
State of New York; 10 times the size
>f the proud State of California, and
1 times the size of France, which sup
ports a population of 65,000,000, while
Alaska with all its wealth has a pop
ulation of less than 65,000.
Most people think of Alaska as a
land of ice and snopv. We have one |
glacier, called the Malaspina* which
covers 1,500 square miles—roughly a
little larger than the State of Rhode
Island. Yet with all our wonderful
glaciers we lnd that less than 4 per
cent of Alaska is covered with ice
throughout the year.
An interesting table prepared by
the Geological Survey shows that the
area of Alaska is three times that of
Sweden and four times that of Fin
lnnH turn northern miintriPs nf Eu
rope which it resembles. The popula
tion of Alaska s in no way compar
able to that of these countries, how
ever.
Alaska has much larger areas of
agricultural land than either Finland
or Sweden. The mineral resources of i
the Territory are far greater than j
those of these European lands, while j
its water power is comparable with j
that of either Sweden or Finland,
Alaskan fisheries are far more ex-i
tensive than those of Finland and!
Sweden. The European nations have ]
an advantage in communication, as
each has considerably more miles of
railroads and wagon roads than
Alaska.
Alaska has a population of only!
about 0.1 person per square miles, as
compared with 19 for Finland and 32
for Sweden. Alaska will, in time,
support a population of 10,000,000,
and have a population per s quare
mile at least as great as that of Fin
land.
DUR HIGHLY DEVELOPED MOD
ERN CIVILIZATION.
To hear some people talk, one
would think mining is a highly spec
ulative business, a mere gamble, an
investment for easy marks, a voca
tion for stock salesmen and for pa
thetic dreamers. As a matter of fact
the mining industry has made possi
ble our highly developed modern civ
ilization. Bac kof all industry are
producing, active, paying mines. If
we are to accept the statistics as au
thentic, mining has fewer failures
than any other business. Take any
field of human endeavor and you will
find it dotted with the bleaching
skeletons of people who gambled ill
advisedly.
The Boise (Idaho) Statesman, in
an editorial upon the mining industry,
says: “It is time to quit kicking the
mines around,” and goes on to show
how our mines make possible bur
modern civilization, citing a few ex
amples:
“Our mines gave us the steam en
gine and the cqal that feeds it, the
dynamo and the bulb it lights, the
telephone transmitter and the re
ceiver and the wire that carries the
message, the automobile, the safety
razor, the pen point, the typewriter,
the linotype machine and the battery
that- drives the radio and the repro
ducer that makes the phonograph
work. One could go on for five col
umns.”
And those individuals who believe
that mining is a speculative business
also lopk askance at the promoter,
the optimistic fallow who initiates
things. If it were not for promoters,
who would start things <off? What
would the ultra-conservative gentle
men do if some optimist didn’t estab
lish a business of some kind for
them? Both types seem to be neces
sary—the promoter to start some
thing going, and the conservative to
carry on when the business is a going
concern. •
Before you condemn mining as an
industry, just take the trouble to in
form yourself on the subject. You
will probably find that your own vo
cation, or business, depends to a more
or less extent in .mining, perhaps the
greatest of all industries.—Fairbanks
News-..«»ueE.
TOO MANY QUESTIONS, NOT
SUFFICIENT BOOZE.
The following fro mthe Engineer
ing and Mining Journal is believed to
echo the sentiments of a .lit at old
hardrock miners and prospectors in
the West:
“One of the functions of tre
United States Bureau of Mines is to
compile statistics of .production, and,
naturally, the original- source of the
data is the miner. The little fellow
gets attention as .well as the big com
pany. The f ollowfng .reply to one of
the Bureau’s standard production
questionnaires cam eto one of the
Western offices, .by which the.authen
ticity is vouched for. Spelling, phi
losophy and all, the letter is produced
verbati met literatim:
“ ‘Gents you just take my name of
please as the les foolishness we have
the better. I get out so little gold that
its not worth mentioning, about all I
can do is assessment work, have no,
water and only, expenses. Yes, I have:
even been in jail a whole year for the
violation of the blessed 18 emend- j
ment. We need a few more such
amendments then our country will
prosper—like Hell. Yes its time when
a man works hard all da comes in
wett and hungry and then aint al
lowed a drink of boss. Yes its . nice.
Yours respectfully
“for free*Beer and Wine.”
Mt. McKinley Recording District.
The papulation of Mount MdKinley
recording district, as shown by a pre
liminary count of the .returns iof the
fifteenth census, taken as of v October
1, 1929, is 256, as compared with-246
on January 1,1920. The 1929 figures
are preliminary and subject .to cor
rection.
The number of farms enumerated
in this area at the I5th census was 3L.
McGrath
Fresh Fruits,
[Candies
Tobaccos
JPipes
Cigarettes]
Soft Drinks
Cigarette Holders
FRANK LANGE
Proprietor
Wbat load of letter writer are yo
if mv,
Roy Otaris -of.>the ’business admn
utratwe. faculty, -Boston university
says rf different, ^professional groups
and the .kinds of letters they write:
“PrefoaoB: . They . are careless ir
their letters.'- Scientsts:.«Their.. letters
are excellent. Clergymen: Very ver
bose; it takes them two pages to sa>
what Bright. be said in one. Authors:
Usualferwry good but poorly typed
or, penned. Lawyers: Very good. Phy
sicians: Very poor. College presidents:
Pretty goad..Editors: The most brutal
of all writers.. Dentists z Tljey rarely
write."
The area of Scotland ± is 29,796
square miles, including islands,
186 in number.
Potatoes were first . planted .in
France in J761.
. Frank J. Guskgy
Notary Public
McGrath, Alaska j j
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Fijaits ‘ Gandies > Soft SXrinks I
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•Tobaccos ^Cigars ' ©garets l
Apples i Oranges k
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ChaflfeiO’Hattoran - - 'Prop. I
Takotna IFool Hall
‘Pioneer
Trader
STATION: * ? A CUV IE W* iNXOHft RITOR. f
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Miners’, Prospectors’ and §
CEr^pperS’ Supplies !