UNCLE SAM'S MOST NORTHERN WOODLOT 



BY L. C. PRATT 



(WITH PHOTOGRAPHS BY THE UNITED STATES FOREST SERVICE) 



THE Chugach National Forest of Alaska has more 

 than the average share of romance common to 

 Uncle Sam's spacious woodlots and playgrounds. 

 This Forest of the far north is the namesake of the 

 Chugach Mountains, which are in turn godfathered by 

 the Chugachamint Indians, a local tribe. The very names 

 of its bays, channels, and islands Turnagain Arm, Point 

 Gore, Fire Island, Resurrection Bay suggest the thrill 

 of adventure ; a directory of the scattered settlements 

 along the shore, such as Aurora, Seldovia, Hope, Neuel- 

 chuck, Sunrise, Roosevelt, Kussiloff, Latouche, Home, 

 and Valdez, would bear the impress of many tongues 

 and signify the dramatic history of the country. 



This romantic National Forest occupies a narrow strip 

 of land along the coast of Alaska in the great crescent- 



shaped bend formed by the head of the Gulf of Alaska 

 and stretches from Cape Suckling on the east to Afognak 

 Island on the west, with an airline distance of nearly 

 400 miles between its eastern and western extremities. 

 The great irregularity of the coast, with its countless 

 islands, fiords, sounds, inlets, and canals, gives the 

 Chugach Forest a coast line of more than 3,000 miles. 

 This Forest contained at one time about 12,000,000 acres, 

 but has been reduced from time to time until its present 

 area is a little over five million acres. The headquarters 

 are located at Cordova, a thriving town, which is the 

 beginning of the Copper River Railroad. Rangers are 

 stationed at Cordova, Anchorage, and Katalla. 



The Chugach Forest contains a stand of merchantable 

 timber roughly estimated at eight and one-half billion 



A LITTLE COLLECTION OF ALASKAN SCENERY 



First is shown a typical picture of a stand of virgin timber, after a forest fire caused by carelessness has swept in uncontrollable headway 

 through the country. Then, hunter's lure, in big-game country, but not quite game enough to escape the camera. Below is seen a fine 

 crop of Alaskan tomatoes grown in a ranch hothouse on the Chugach, and lastly we see that the Alaskan pioneer has and uses "spuds" as 

 well as spades. This field of potatoes was grown near Knik, in the Cook Inlet region. 



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