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to the Territory of Alaska and to the United 

 States as a whole. 



A large-scale development of the timber 

 resources in southeastern Alaska, involving 

 the establishment of important business 

 enterprises and the employment of many 

 persons for extensive operations on a 

 year-round basis, is essential to the 

 maintenance of a prosperous and stable 

 economy in the Territory. Heretofore, 

 Alaska has been handicapped by the seasonal 

 nature of the principal industrial 

 activities conducted within the area. A 

 timber program of the sort mentioned by the 

 Secretary of the Interior would be of great 

 benefit in assisting the people of Alaska to 

 progress from the present dependence upon 

 seasonal business operations. Moreover, 

 such a development within the Territory 

 would be a great value to the Nation as a 

 whole, both from the standpoint of making 

 available to the national economy valuable 

 and sorely needed products from the great 

 forests in southeastern Alaska and from the 

 standpoint of promoting the national defense 

 through increasing the population and 

 industrial capacity of Alaska as our 

 "Northern Rampart." 



Culminating many years of effort and negotiations by Forest 

 Service officials on behalf of the U.S. Government, KPC entered 

 into the first long-term contract in 1951. KPC, a domestic 

 company from its inception, remains the holder of this 

 contract. This contract represented the Government's first 

 success in finding a private party willing to invest the huge 

 sums of money necessary to build a pulp mill in Southeast 

 Alaska . 



This was an undertaking with definite risks, but this 

 pioneering venture established the foundation for the many 

 operations working under the management of the U.S. Forest 

 Service to put to work and renew a small portion of a decaying 



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