220 GRAVEL AND PLACER MINING IN ALASKA. [bull.263. 
formidable conditions characterizing an alpine district make road 
building very costly. There is much rock work, and expensive bridges, 
trestles, and culverts are necessary. The cost of the wagon road from 
Juneau into Silver Bow basin was $3,750 a mile, and that of the wagon 
road built in 1898 from Skagway to the summit of the White Pass was 
$6,000 per mile. Compare this with the Yukon-Tanana gold district. 
In the vicinity of Fairbanks 13 miles of passable wagon trail, over 
what is known as the Ridge Trail going to the creeks, have been built 
at a cost of less than $100 per mile.« This road (see PI. XXX VIII, A) 
was made through a stretch of birch and aspen timber; the trees were 
cut out and many of the stumps removed; no ditch was made along the 
sides and the road was wide enough for only one wagon. But it is 
passable, and freight rates have already been reduced from 25 and 30 
cents per pound to 10 and 15 cents. 
It may be objected that transportation sufficient to meet the needs 
of the miner can be accomplished in winter when the freight rates are 
very much cheaper. This is far from being the case. The winter 
transportation itself would be greatly assisted by good roads on which 
sleds of 1 and 5 ton capacity could travel. As to winter freight- 
ing, it may be stated that in the winter of 1903 a man contracted to 
transport a boiler weighing 5,600 pounds from the town of Fairbanks 
to Pedro Creek, a distance of 20 miles, for $2,000, and lost $300. 
Furthermore, 75 per cent of the work of exploiting the gold-bearing 
gravels is carried on in the four months of the open season, and then 
the miners are in need of the bulk of their supplies. In summer the 
prices of commodities in the towns are frequently lower than in win- 
ter. The period during which supplies for the winter are generally 
brought in is from August 1 to September 1. 
COST AND METHOD OF CONSTRUCTING HIGHWAYS. 
Considered from a highway standpoint, Alaska, owing to its vary- 
ing topography and natural conditions, may be divided into three 
provinces — the South Coast province, the central Yukon province, and 
the Seward Peninsula province. Opportunity was had to inspect the 
excellent wagon roads which have been built in the northwest portion 
of Canada by the Canadian government. The figures courteously 
given by the officers of the Canadian department of public works rel- 
ative to the cost of highway construction in the Yukon Territory are 
considered representative of the probable cost of such construction in 
the central Yukon province of Alaska. This and other information 
is embodied in table 16, and portions of it are elaborated in the suc- 
ceeding paragraphs. The object of the table is to show, in a form 
easy for comparison, the costs of road building in the Northwest as 
exemplified by and estimated from previous experience. 
«So low a cost would not have been possible had not teamsters hauled all necessary supplies gratis. 
