THE ECONOMIC EVOLUTION OF ALASKA 



593 



constructed railways, on the low basis of 

 $50,000 per mile, have cost about 

 $17,500,000, and the cost of steamships, 

 telephones, telegraphs (omitting the 

 $2,000,000 plant of the United States), 

 stage equipment and stock doubtless 

 carries the values for transportation serv- 

 ices alone up to $25,000,000. Ditches 

 have already cost about $6,000,000. The 

 output of timber and game for local pur- 

 poses can scarcely be less than $2,000,000 

 annually, while the wood and coal locally 

 used is not less valuable. Doubtless the 

 agricultural products of Alaska, includ- 

 ing dairy, stock, and fodder, reach in 

 value between one and two millions 

 yearly. 



The commercial importance of a num- 

 ber of towns, such as Ketchikan, Juneau, 

 Nome, and Fairbanks, is far beyond the 

 usual ideas of mining camps. Take Fair- 

 banks : Steam heated from a central 

 plant, with water-pressure fire system, 

 electric appliances of all kinds, with ma- 

 chine-set newspapers, hospitals, schools, 

 churches, with a municipal budget of 

 about $100,000 annually, and without 

 debt. 



It should be remembered that in these 

 data and discussions there have not 

 been taken into consideration the sub- 



sistence and other materials involved in 

 the life of the 27,000 natives, whom no 

 well-informed individual can call either 

 savage or vicious. 



TRADE 



The extent, value, and scope of Alas- 

 kan trade astonishes every person who 

 becomes acquainted with its details. As 

 indicative of the somewhat harassing 

 conditions under which petty trade is 

 done, it may be stated that it is impera- 

 tively required that the trader shall have 

 a federal license. For such licenses the 

 people of Alaska paid in 1907 no less 

 than $384,395. 



The shipping manifests show that in 

 1903 the import trade of Alaska 

 amounted to nearly ten millions of dol- 

 lars. Four years later it aggregated 

 twenty millions, slightly more than 

 double the amount of 1903. In 1907 the 

 purely American shipments to Alaska ex- 

 ceeded those to Hawaii by four millions 

 of dollars, and those to the Philippines by 

 thirteen millions. 



These facts conclusively indicate the 

 commercial value of Alaska, which prom- 

 ises to steadily advance in its population, 

 its trade, and in all phases of a higher 

 and better civilization. 



MARKING THE ALASKAN BOUNDARY 



By Thomas Riggs, Jr. 



Chief of Party, U. S. Alaskan Boundary Survey 



With Photographs by Boundary Survey Patties 



THERE had been some dispute as 

 to what constituted the boundary 

 of the country bought fromRussia 

 by the United States in 1867, but until the 

 real value of the territory was known, no 

 one cared. The miners of the early days 

 managed very well with an approximate 

 boundary. They held miners' meetings 

 and any decision reached by them consti- 

 tuted the law. 



For the opening up of Alaska we are 

 indebted to the panic of 1893. Through- 

 out the West the hardier spirits pre- 

 ferred to brave the dangers of that 

 almost unknown region than to accept 

 the starvation wages then offered. They 

 knew that grubstakes and independence 

 were to be found on the bars of the Forty 

 Mile, the Stewart, and at Circle City. 



With the increase of population came 



