RAILWAY ROUTES. 11 
has been recognized in the Seward Peninsula, but the gold and copper fields of the interior 
have received relatively little attention, largely because of the absence of means of commu- 
nication. An adequate transportation system, involving the construction of railways, is 
then the first requisite for more rapid advancement. 
To speak broadly, there are three provinces in inland Alaska of whose resources there 
appears to be sufficient knowledge to warrant the construction of railways, namely, the 
Yukon-Tanana region, the Copper River basin, and the Sushitna River basin. The first 
produced about $7,000,000 in placer gold last year and includes large areas of auriferous 
gravels which could be exploited if costs were lessened. In the Copper River basin there are 
valuable copper deposits and some placer districts. The Sushitna basin includes an impor- 
tant coal field as well as some placer deposits, and also more arable land than any areas of 
similar extent in the Territory. Railways, to aid the development of the resources of these 
districts, must be built inland from good and accessible harbors on the Pacific and follow one 
of the natural highways through the coastal mountains. 
GEOGRAPHIC CONTROL OF ROUTES. 
A rugged mountain mass (see PI. II) fringing the coast line of British Columbia and 
stretching northward into Alaska, presents along thousands of miles of the Pacific seaboard 
a serious barrier to inland travel. This, however, is broken by a number of transverse val- 
leys and low passes which form the natural highways into the interior. Beyond the coastal 
mountains lies a province of lesser relief, which presents but few obstacles to railway or road 
construction, and which continues eastward and northward to another mountain barrier, a 
northwesterly extention of the Rocky Mountain system. The Pacific coastal mountains, 
represented by a single range 50 to 80 miles in width along the boundary of British Columbia 
and Alaska, broaden out as they enter the Territory, reaching an extreme width of 200 
miles, and being there made up of a number of parallel ranges. Through this series of 
ranges the railway engineer who desires to tap the mineral resources of inland Alaska must 
seek a route. 
For the purposes here considered the coastal termination of an inland railway must fall 
between Lynn Canal on the east and Cook Inlet on the west. Furthermore, the geographic 
features limit the routes to four zones, which may be defined as (1) the Chilkat basin, (2) the 
Alsek basin, (3) the Copper basin, and (4) the Sushitna basin. Within most of these general 
zones there are a number of alternative routes, but in general terms the best routes follow 
the trunk streams mentioned above. These routes will be discussed in their geographic 
order from south to north. 
LYNN CANAL AND TANANA VALLEY ROUTE.a 
Chilkat River debouches into a western arm of Lynn Canal called "Pyramid Harbor," 
and its valley separates the St. Elias Range on the west from the Coast Range on the east. Its 
headwaters are separated from inland flowing streams by broad passes about 3,300 feet high 
50 miles from the coast. (PI. III.) From the Chilkat Valley the route would enter the 
Alsek basin (PI. IV, vl), following the inland front of the St. Elias Range. Two forks of the 
Alsek will have to be crossed, but present no engineering difficulties. Beyond the west fork 
of the Alsek the line would follow a series of depressions which represent abandoned valleys 
and afford ideal railway routes. (PI. IV, B). It would skirt the south shore of Lake Kluane 
2,400 feet above sea level and enter the White River Valley near the international boundary. 
After crossing White River at the canyon the line would be extended through a broad flat 
depression to the Tanana Valley, which would be followed to Fairbanks. (PI. V.) Branch 
lines not exceeding 30 miles in length could be built to the copper deposits on the heads of 
the White and the two sources of the Tanana. A branch to Eagle, which would tap the 
Fortymile placer district, would be about 160 miles in length. From Fairbanks the Birch 
o Brooks, A. H., A reconnaissance from Pyramid Harbor to Eagle City, Alaska: Twenty-first Ann. 
Rept. U. S. Geol. Survey, pt. 2, 1900, pp. 331-391. 
