Vol. XIII, No. 3 WASHINGTON 



March, 1902 



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THE POSSIBILITIES OF ALASKA 



By C. C. Georgeson, of Sitka, Alaska 



Special Agent of U. S. Department of Agriculture in Charge of 



Alaska Investigations 



HE would have been considered 

 a rash prophet who five years 

 ago had the temerity to pre- 

 dict that Alaska would one day become 

 a great and powerful state. 



Yet, today, such a prediction' would 

 not be ascribed to prophetic sight, but 

 simply a common-sense view, a fore- 

 gone conclusion, based on the resources 

 and possibilities inherent i n the territory. 

 The change of opinion is due to the fact 

 that it has been demonstrated that 

 Alaska has agricultural possibilities of a 

 high order. The development of agri- 

 culture will enhance the value of the 

 other vast and varied resources of the 

 territory a thousand fold. It will make 

 it possible .to work the extensive placer 

 mines not rich enough in gold to pay at 

 the present prices for foodstuffs, as well 

 as the enormous deposits of low-grade 

 quartz ores found nearly everywhere in 

 the mountains. 



Alaska has been maligned, abused, 

 and totally misunderstood. It has been 

 regarded as a frozen, worthless waste, 

 whose only value consisted in its seal 

 fisheries, and totally incapable of fur- 



nishing homes for a civilized people. 

 These ideas are still current even in 

 quarters where one would naturally ex- 

 pect to find a knowledge of the facts. 

 Through the instrumentality of Secre- 

 tary Seward, Alaska was purchased from 

 Russia in 1867, for the sum of $7,200, 

 000. It has already paid for itself many 

 times over, and still we have scarcely 

 begun to realize how enormous the re- 

 sources are. What the profits to the 

 lessees of the sealing privilege have 

 been will probably never be made 

 known, but it is interesting to note that 

 the rentals received or due the govern- 

 ment for the lease of this privilege from 

 1870 to 1895 amounted to almost the 

 original cost of the territory, namely, 

 $7,192,540.41 (Senate Document No. 

 81, 54th Congress, 2d session) ; and 

 as to the income from mines, it is com- 

 monly reported that more than an equal 

 sum has been taken from a single mine 

 near Juneau, to say nothing of the mil- 

 lions taken out in other places. 



Alaska has an area of 591,000 square 

 miles, in round numbers ; that is to say, 

 it is as large as all of the United States 



