RAILWAY ROUTES. 
13 
nery at Yakutat. The Alsek Valley is almost unexplored, but no doubt a railway could 
be built through it. It would intersect the Pyramid Harbor-Tanana route about 200 miles 
from the coast and would there attain an altitude of about 2,400 feet . 
Yakutat Bay, which is about 1,150 statute miles (1,000 nautical miles) by sea from Puget 
Sound, is but an indifferent harbor and, so far as known, the proposed railway would not 
tap any mineral deposits, though such may exist in the unexplored St. Elias Mountains. 
It is open to the same objection as the Pyramid Harbor route, inasmuch as it passes 
through Canadian territory. Much of the route being unexplored, a table of distances and 
altitudes is not given. 
ROUTE FROM CORDOVA BAY TO EAGLE, 
RIVER VALLEY." 
BY WAY OF COPPER 
Cordova Bay is an eastern arm of Prince William Sound and lies about 30 miles west of 
Copper River. (PI. II.) A proposed railway route is to follow the coastal margin of the 
mountains to Copper River and thence along that river. A corollary to this plan is to con- 
struct a branch line about 35 miles in length to the coal fields of Bering River (Controller 
Bay). (See map, PL XII, and p. 76.) The line up the Copper will require two bridges 
to avoid the glaciers which discharge into the water, but otherwise there appear to be no 
difficult engineering problems. As the route follows the river valley, the grade is easy. 
One of the purposes of this railway is to develop the copper district, and it is therefore 
proposed to extend a branch line up Chitina River, which, with its feeders, will aggregate 
about 100 miles. 
The extension of this road to Eagle would be carried through Mentasta Pass, which is a 
broad depression, with an altitude of about 2,900 feet. The cost of construction along the 
Copper Valley above the Chitina will be increased, because of the necessity of bridging the 
many tributary streams which flow in deep broad valleys. (Pis. V, VI, B.) A branch line 
could be constructed to tap the copper district, at the head of White and Tanana rivers, and 
another branch could be built down the Tanana to Fairbanks along the route already 
described. The following table gives the approximate distances and altitudes along this 
route : 
Elevations and distances, railway route from Cordova Bay to Eagle, by way of Copper 
River delta. 
Point. 
Cordova Bay (Orca) 
Copper River 
Tasnuna River 
Taral 
Copper Center 
Chistochina 
Mentasta Pass 
Tanana crossing. . . . 
Eagle 
Elevation. 
Distance 
between 
points. 
Distance 
from 
Orca. 
Feet. 
Miles ~ 
Miles. 



50 
30 
30 
200 
45 
75 
500 
50 
125 
1 , 005 
56 
181 
1,810 
58 
239 
2,900 
45 
284 
1,650 
Hi 
330 
SOI) 
L60 
491 
Cordova Bay, an excellent harbor, is about 1,350 statute miles (1,200 nautical miles) 
from Seattle by sea. The adjacent region affords some good timber and water poWer. 
a This route is described in the following reports: Schrader, F. C, and Spencer, A. C, The Geology, 
and Mineral Resources of the Copper River District, Alaska, U. S. Geol. Survey 1901. Brooks. A . 1 1 
A reconnaissance from Pyramid Harbor to Eagle City, Alaska: Twenty-first Ann. Kept. U. S. Geol. 
Survey, pt. 2, 1900, pp. 331-391. Mendenball, W. C, and Schrader, F. C, The mineral ^resources of the 
Mount Wrangell region, Alaska: Prof. Paper U. S. Geol. Survey No. 15, 1903. Mendonlij.il. \\ ,< ■» Geology 
of the centra! Copper River region, Alaska: Prof. Paper U. S. Geol. Survey No. 41, 1905. Prindle, D. M., 
The gold placers of the Fortymile, Birch Creek, and Fairbanks regions: Bull. U. S. Geol. Survey No 
251, 1905. 
