112 ALASKAN MINERAL RESOURCES IN 1905. 
banks before the opening of navigation and will probably be traveled extensively dining 
the winter season. The rates on supplies shipped from Seattle to Fairbanks vary greatly 
according to the freight classification under which they come. On ordinary supplies the 
rate has been $75 per ton. The rate on similar supplies from Seattle to Dawson has been 
$45 per ton, and from Dawson to Fairbanks $55 per ton. Supplies shipped in the spring 
from Seattle to Fairbanks by way of Dawson reach their destination earlier in the season 
than if shipped by way of St. Michael, as the upper Yukon is first open to navigation. 
First-class passenger rates from Seattle to Fairbanks by way of St. Michael have been 
$125: from Seattle to Dawson, $80, and from Dawson to Fairbanks, $60. 
The town of Fairbanks is situated on a slough of the Tanana, near the head of what 
might be called easy navigation. Its population during the summer of 1905 was about 
2,500. During dry seasons the quantity of water in the slough is so small that some of 
the steamers have difficulty in reaching the town. The larger boats that ply occa- 
sionally on the Tanana are unable to reach Fairbanks, and their supplies are left at Chena. 
As illustrations of the prevailing summer prices the following may be quoted: Flour, $8 
to $12 per hundred pounds; beans, $12 to $15 per hundred pounds; bacon, 18 to 25 cents 
per pound: sugar. 12^ cents per pound: overalls, $1.25 to $1 .75 per pair; picks and axes, 
with handles, $2.50 to $3 each; shovels, $1.75 each; manila rope, 30 cents per pound; bar 
iron, 15 cents per pound: steam points, $8 to $14 each; lumber, $75 to $100 per thou 
sand feet. The town is lighted by electricity, and a large part of the business section is 
heated by steam from a central plant. Water is sold for domestic purposes at the rate 
of $3 pei- month. Wages for ordinary labor have been 75 cents per hour; for carpenters, 
$1 .50 pei- hour; for miners, generally $5 and board, and in some cases $0 and board, per day. 
Fairbanks has a daily newspaper, a school system, three banks one of them a national 
bank, with currency of its own in circulation — and a court which has jurisdiction over the 
whole of the interior of Alaska. 
The town of Chena is situated at the entrance of the slough intc the main river. It is 
accessible for the largest boats, but has the disadvantage of being several miles farther 
from most of the gold-producing creeks, and thus far its development has not kept pace 
with that of Fairbanks. The construction of the railroad, however, will probably have 
a favorable effect on the growth of the town. 
The transportation of supplies from the towns to the creeks, in the absence of good 
roads, has been a source of much trouble 1 and expense. The railroad, however, has made 
conditions easier. This road connects Fairbanks and Chena and extends from an inter- 
mediate point, the junction, to the valley of Coldstream Creek, and along this valley to 
the junction of Gilmore and Pedro creeks, where the present terminus is located. The 
total length of the road is about 20A miles. It is a narrow-gage road, and the problems 
of construction which the unstable, water-soaked muck presented have been well met. 
The difficulties of transportation from the outside to Fairbanks are well illustrated by the. 
fact that the rails for this road were handled eleven times before reaching then- destination 
and that six Hat cars, also destined for the road, are now at the bottom of Yukon River. 
Preliminary surveys have been made for wagon roads to be constructed by the Gov- 
ernment. One is to be built from the terminus of the railroad at Pedro Creek over the 
divide to Geary Creek. The summer rates during the last season from the town of Fair- 
banks to the most distant points of this region where mining is being done, about 25 miles, 
have been 12 to 15 cents per pound. The winter rate to the same points was 5 cents per 
pound. 
The region, while dependent on the outside for the greatest part of its supplies, is ii 
the matter of lumber and fuel mostly independent. The spruce timber along the slough.- 
of the Tanana and the lower parts of the valleys of its largest tributaries is of good quality 
and much of it exceeds 2 feet in diameter at the butt. The small spruce and birch so abun- 
dant on the hillsides furnish a supply of fuel which has not up to the present time been 
heavily taxed. The nearest coal is that on the Cantwell, described by Brooks as follows: a 
a Brooks, Alfred ED., note in The coal resources of the Yukon, Alaska, by Arthur. I. Collier: Hull. 
U. S. Geol. Survey No. 218, !<»<):'>, pp. H Hi. 
