THE FORESTS OF ALASKA. 21 



Chena and Salchaket rivers. The Fairbanks mills pay $20 per 

 thousand feet for ordinary white spruce logs, delivered at the mills, 

 and $25 per thousand for extra long logs for special purposes. It 

 takes about twelve 16-foot logs on an average to make a thousand 

 board feet. The usual stumpage charge by the Land Office for timber 

 cut from public lands is $1 per thousand board feet for saw timber, 

 and 25 cents per cord for firewood. 



Three sawmills are now in operation at Fairbanks and one at 

 Chena, 9 miles distant. Two of the mills at Fairbanks have a daily 

 capacity of about 20,000 board feet each, while the third is smaller. 

 One of the mills is equipped to make all the usual styles of finishing 

 material, and carries a stock of about 1J million feet. The lumber 

 is very knott} 7 , and the most of it would be considered of the box 

 grade in the States. About 10 to 20 per cent of it is surfaced. 

 Common lumber brings about $35 per thousand at Fairbanks; boat 

 lumber, which is of extra length and must be entirely sound, $80 a 

 thousand. 



There are small sawmills at Rampart, Council, and along the 

 Copper and Susitna rivers, and also mills operated by the War 

 Department at Fort Egbert (Eagle) and Fort Gibbon. Altogether 

 the present annual cut of lumber by the interior sawmills probably 

 does not exceed 4 million feet. The chief uses of the lumber are for 

 flumes and sluice boxes, boat building, and to some extent for dwell- 

 ings and business buildings in the towns. Most of the residences 

 are log cabins. 



Several times as much timber is used each year in the interior of 

 Alaska for fuel as is used for lumber. The interior of Alaska de- 

 pends entirely upon wood for heat, light, and power. The annual 

 requirements in the town of Fairbanks, the only large camp in the 

 interior, and on the adjacent creeks where mining is in progress, are 

 probably about 60,000 cords. Fairbanks alone, with a population 

 of about 3,000, uses 15 or 20 thousand cords of wood a year. Wood 

 is burned by the Tanana Valley Railroad, which has 45 miles of 

 track out from Fairbanks, and on river steamers, with the exception 

 of three large boats on the Yukon, which burn oil. Wood is sold by 

 the dealers in Fairbanks at from $9 to $10 a cord, with an added 

 charge of $2.50 for cutting to stove lengths. Slab Avood can be 

 purchased for $2 a cord at the sawmills, but for heating in the win- 

 ter it is not as satisfactory as round wood. The river steamers pay 

 $6 to $8 per cord for 4- foot wood, ricked up on the bank. Wood 

 choppers are paid $3.50 to $4 per cord. Both spruce and birch are 

 used, though birch is preferred. Poplar and aspen are generally 

 left uncut. Aside from this the wood choppers make clean cuttings 

 and utilize the timber closely, often taking the limbs and tops down 



