American Forestry 



VOL XX 



JULY, 1914 



No. 7 



UNLOCKING ALASKA 



IN SPITE of the fact that Alaska 

 has belonged to the United States 

 since 1S(?7', and in the face of the 

 great advertisement which this im- 

 mense territory got in a few years fol- 

 lowing its gold exploitation some eigh- 

 teen years ago, when treasure-seekers 

 from every part of the United States 

 visited it, the ordinary citizen is sur- 

 prisingly deficient in knowledge of the 

 country and its wonderful resources. 



To some it is a land of glaciers and 

 ice ; others picture it as a vast area of 

 tundra and mosquitoes ; others, more 

 recently since the devastation of Kadiak 

 Island, think it is blanketed with vol- 

 canic ash. Still others, having read 

 glowing accounts of the agricultural ex- 

 periment station, have changed their 

 point of view to allow for large possi- 

 bilities of fruits, grains, and vegetables. 

 Jack London has long since persuaded 

 many that all is snow and ice, glacier 

 and freezing streams, dog teams and 

 abyssmal brutes of men, supernatural in 

 height, breadth, strength, and tough- 

 ness. 



In short, the individual conception of 

 Alaska varies in direct ratio to what 

 one has read. Yet only a few who visit 

 it can have an adequate conception of 

 all it means. The revenue cutter offi- 

 cers who guess their way about from 

 fog to fog in bleak Bering Sea know 

 one side of it, which they have cele- 

 brated in a Bering Sea Hymn. This 

 hymn has some sixty-nine odd verses- 

 some more odd than others to say 

 nothing of the chorus religiously re- 

 peated at the end of each. The song is 

 not complimentary, and the final verse 

 goes as follows, with variations : 



"And when they sound my last farewell 

 They'll say I've had my share of 



Well- 



My welcome sure in heaven will be 

 For I have sailed the Bering Sea !" 



Scientists of the Geological Survey 

 perhaps know it best of all, because they 

 have explored it from one end to the 

 other, for everything from gold, copper, 

 and coal to fossil mammoths and mas- 

 todons. 



As a matter of fact, an individual has 

 less chance of knowing much about 

 Alaska than about the United States. 

 In the first place, the transportation 

 facilities are decidedly primitive. In 

 the second place, Alaska is so large ! 

 Few realize that it is about as far from 

 southeastern Alaska to the end of the 

 Aleutian chain as it is from Jackson- 

 ville, Florida, to Los Angeles ; and from 

 north to south is farther than from the 

 Great Lakes to the Gulf of Mexico. Its 

 range of temperature is equally great- 

 greater indeed than that from Florida 

 to Maine ! 



And now that Congress has fur- 

 nished the key, by authorizing the build- 

 ing of a Government railroad at a cost 

 of $35,000,000, Alaska is to be un- 

 locked and her immensely valuable 

 natural resources are to be open for the 

 uses of civilization. 



While it will take all of this year and 

 probably longer to complete surveys and 

 select the route for the railroad, and 

 fully four or five more years to finish 

 the road, the manner in which the great 

 country's resources are to be best man- 

 aged and controlled for the benefit of 

 all the people is already inspiring pro- 

 posals for legislation. 



469 



