In the district which comprises the entire coast from the southern
boundary of Oregon to the northernmost point of Alaska there are but
forty-five lighthouses. Included in this district are the Strait of Juan
de Fuca, Washington Sound, the Gulf of Georgia, and all the tidal waters
tributary to the sea straits and sounds of this coast. There are also
twenty-eight fog signals, operated by steam, hot air, or oil engines;
six fog signals operated by clockwork; two gas-lighted buoys in
position; nine whistling-buoys and five bell-buoys in position; three
hundred and twenty-two other buoys in position; and four tenders, to
visit lighthouses and care for buoys.
The above list does not include post lights, the Umatilla Reef Light
vessel, and unlighted day beacons.
It is the far, lonely Alaskan coast that is neglected. The wild, stormy,
and immense stretch of coast reaching from Chichagoff Island to Point
Barrow in the Arctic Ocean has two light and fog signal stations on
Unimak Island and two fixed lights on Cape Stephens. A light and fog
signal station is to be built at Cape Hinchingbroke, and a light is to
be established at Point Romanoff.
No navigator should be censured for disaster on this dark and dangerous
coast. The little _Dora_, running regularly from Seward and Valdez to
Unalaska, does not pass a light. Her way is wild and stormy in winter,
and the coasts she passes are largely uninhabited; yet there is not a
flash of light, unless it be from some volcano, to guide her into
difficult ports and around the perilous reefs with which the coast
abounds.
A prayer for a lighthouse at the entrance to Resurrection Bay was
refused by the department, with the advice that the needs of commerce do
not require a light at this point, particularly as there are several
other points more in need of such aid. The department further advised
that it would require a hundred thousand dollars to establish a light
and fog signal station at the place designated, instead of the
twenty-five thousand dollars asked.
Meanwhile, ships are wrecked and lives and valuable cargoes are
lost,--and will be while the Alaskan coast remains unlighted.
Along the intricate, winding, and exceedingly dangerous channels,
straits, and narrows of the "inside passage" of southeastern Alaska,
there are only seven light and fog signals, and ten lights; but where
the sea-coast belongs to Canada there is sufficient light and ample
buoyage protection, as all mariners admit.
Is our government's rigid, and in some instances stubborn, economy in
this matter a wise one? Is it a humane one? The nervous strain of this
voyage on a conscientious and sensitive master of a ship heavily laden
with human beings is tremendous. The anxious faces and unrelaxing
vigilance of the officers on the bridge when a ship is passing through
Taku Open, Wrangell Narrows, or Peril Straits speak plainly and
unmistakably of the ceaseless burden of responsibility and anxiety which
they bear. The charting of these waters is incomplete as yet,
notwithstanding the faithful service which the Geodetic Survey has
performed for many years. Many a rock has never been discovered until a
ship went down upon it.
Political influence has been known to establish lights, at immense cost,
at points where they are practically luxuries, rather than needs;
therefore the government should not be censured for cautiousness in this
matter.
But it should be, and it is, censured for not investigating carefully
the needs of the Alaskan Coast--the "Great Unlighted Way."
* * * * *
Seward is situated almost as beautifully as Valdez. It is only five
years old. It is the sea terminal of the Alaska Central Railway, which
is building to the Tanana, through a rich country that is now almost
unknown. It will pass within ten miles of Mount McKinley, which rises
from a level plain to an altitude of nearly twenty-one thousand feet.
This mountain has been known to white men for nearly a century; yet
until very recently it did not appear upon any map, and had no official
name. More than fifty years ago the Russian fur traders knew it and
called it "Bulshaia,"--signifying "high mountain" or "great mountain."
The natives called it "Trolika," a name having the same meaning.
Explorers, traders, and prospectors have seen it and commented upon its
magnificent height, yet without realizing its importance, until Mr. W.
A. Dickey saw it in 1896 and proposed for it the name of McKinley. In
1902 Mr. Alfred Hulse Brooks, of the United States Geological Survey,
with two associates and four camp men, made an expedition to the
mountain. Mr. Brooks' report of this expedition is exceedingly
interesting. He spent the summer of 1906, also, upon the mountain.
The town site of Seward was purchased from the Lowells, a pioneer
family, by Major J. E. Ballaine, for four thousand dollars. It has grown
very rapidly. Stumps still stand upon the business streets, and
silver-barked log-cabins nestle modestly and picturesquely beside
imposing buildings. The bank and the railway company have erected
handsome homes. Every business and profession is represented. There are
good schools and churches, an electric-light plant, two newspapers, a
library and hospital, progressive clubs, and all the modern luxuries of
western towns.
When Mr. Seward was asked what he considered the most important measure
of his political career, he replied, "The purchase of Alaska; but it
will take the people a generation to find it out."
Since the loftiest and noblest peak of North America was doomed to be
named for a man, it should have borne the name of this dauntless, loyal,
and far-seeing friend of Alaska and of all America. Since this was not
to be, it was very fitting that a young and ambitious town on the
historic Voskressenski Harbor should bear this honored and
forever-to-be-remembered name. If Seward and Valdez would but work
together, the region extending from Prince William Sound to Cook Inlet
would soon become the best known and the most influential of Alaska, as
it is, with the addition of the St. Elias Alps, the most sublimely and
entrancingly beautiful.
Voskressenski Harbor, or Resurrection Bay, pushes out in purple waves in
front of Seward, and snow peaks circle around it, the lower hills being
heavily wooded. There is a good wharf and a safe harbor; the bay extends
inland eighteen miles, is completely land-locked, and is kept free of
ice the entire year, as is the Bay of Valdez and Cook Inlet, by the
Japan current.
It is estimated that the Alaska Central Railway will cost, when
completed to Fairbanks, at least twenty-five millions of dollars.
Several branches will be extended into different and important mining
regions.
The road has a general maximum grade of one per cent. The Coast Range is
crossed ten miles from Seward, at an elevation of only seven hundred
feet. The road follows the shore of Lake Kenai, Turnagain Arm, and Knik
Arm on Cook Inlet; then, reaching the Sushitna River, it follows the
sloping plains of that valley for a hundred miles, when, crossing the
Alaskan Range, it descends into the vast valley at the head of
navigation on the Tanana River, in the vicinity of Chena and Fairbanks.
All of the country which this road is expected to traverse when
completed is rich in coal, copper, and quartz and placer gold.
There is a large amount of timber suitable for domestic use throughout
this part of the country, spruce trees of three and four feet in
diameter being common near the coast; inland, the timber is smaller, but
of fair quality.
There is much good agricultural land along the line of the road; the
soil is rich and the climatic conditions quite as favorable as those of
many producing regions of the northern United States and Europe. Grass,
known as "red-top," grows in abundance in the valleys and provides food
for horses and cattle. It is expected that, so soon as the different
railroads connect the great interior valleys with the sea, the
government's offer of three hundred and twenty acres to the homesteader
will induce many people to settle there. The Alaska Central Railroad is
completed for a distance of fifty-three miles,--more than half the
distance to the coal-fields north of Cook Inlet.
Arrangements have been made for the building of a large smelter at
Seward, to cost three hundred and fifty thousand dollars, in 1908.
* * * * *
Cook Inlet enjoys well-deserved renown for its scenery. Between it and
the Chugach Gulf is the great Kenai Peninsula, whose shores are indented
by many deep inlets and bays. The most important of these is
Resurrection Bay.
Wood is plentiful along the coast of the peninsula. Cataracts, glaciers,
snow peaks, green valleys, and lovely lakes abound.
The peninsula is shaped somewhat like a great pear. Turnagain Arm and
an inlet of Prince William Sound almost meet at the north; but the
portage mentioned on another page prevents it from being an island. It
is crowned by the lofty and rugged Kenai Mountains.
Off its southern coast are several clusters of islands--Pye and Chugatz
islands, Seal and Chiswell rocks.
In the entrance to Cook Inlet lie Barren Islands, Amatuli Island, and
Ushugat Island.
On a small island off the southern point of the peninsula is a lofty
promontory, which Cook named Cape Elizabeth because it was sighted on
the Princess Elizabeth's birthday. The lofty, two-peaked promontory on
the opposite side of the entrance he named Douglas, in honor of his
friend, the Canon of Windsor.
Between the capes, the entrance is sixty-five miles wide; but it
steadily diminishes until it reaches a width of but a few miles. There
is a passage on each side of Barren Islands.
The Inlet receives the waters of several rivers: the Sushitna,
Matanuska, Knik, Yentna,--which flows into the Sushitna near its
mouth,--Kaknu, and Kassitof.
Lying near the western shore of the inlet, and just inside the entrance,
is an island which rises in graceful sweeps on all sides, directly from
the water to a smooth, broken-pointed, and beautiful cone. This cone
forms the entire island, and there is not the faintest break in its
symmetry until the very crest is reached. It is the volcano of St.
Augustine.
A chain of active volcanoes extends along the western shore. Of these,
Iliamna, the greatest, is twelve thousand sixty-six feet in height, and
was named "Miranda, the Admirable" by Spanish navigators, who may
usually be relied upon for poetically significant, or soft-sounding,
names. It is clad in eternal snow, but smoke-turbans are wound almost
constantly about its brow. It was in eruption in 1854, and running lava
has been found near the lower crater. There are many hot and sulphurous
springs on its sides.
North of Iliamna is Goryalya, or "The Redoubt," which is a lesser
"smoker," eleven thousand two hundred and seventy feet high. It was in
eruption in 1867, and ashes fell on islands more than a hundred and
fifty miles away.
Iliamna Lake is one of the two largest lakes in Alaska. It is from fifty
to eighty miles long and from fifteen to twenty-five wide. A pass at a
height of about eight hundred feet affords an easy route of
communication between the upper end of the lake and a bay of the same
name on Cook Inlet, near the volcano, and has long been in use by white,
as well as native, hunters and prospectors. The country surrounding the
lake is said to abound in large and small game. Lake Clark, to the
north, is connected with Lake Iliamna by the Nogheling River. It is
longer than Iliamna, but very much narrower. It lies directly west of
the Redoubt Volcano.
Iliamna Lake is connected with Behring Sea by Kvichak River, which flows
into Bristol Bay. The lake is a natural hatchery of king salmon, and
immense canneries are located on Bristol Bay, which lies directly north
of the Aliaska Peninsula.
It is comparatively easy for hunters to cross by the chain of lakes and
water-ways from Bristol Bay to Cook Inlet--which is known to sportsmen
of all countries, both shores offering everything in the way of game.
The big brown bear of the inlet is the same as the famous Kadiak; and
hunters come from all parts of the world when they can secure permits to
kill them. Moose, caribou, mountain sheep, mountain goat, deer, and all
kinds of smaller game are also found. There are many trout and salmon
streams on the eastern shore of the inlet, and the lagoons and marshes
are the haunts of water-fowl.
The voyage up Cook Inlet is one of the most fascinating that may be
taken, as a side trip, in Alaska.
Large steamers touch only at Homer and Seldovia, just inside the
entrance. There is a good wharf at Homer, but at Seldovia there is
another rope-ladder descent and dory landing. There are a post-office,
several stores and houses, and a little Greek-Russian church. Scattered
over a low bluff at one side of the settlement are the native huts, half
hidden in tall reeds and grasses, and a native graveyard.
Seldovia is not the place to buy baskets, as the only ones to be
obtained are of very inferior coloring and workmanship.
My Scotch friend was so fearful that some one else might secure a
treasure that she seized the first basket in sight at Seldovia, paying
five dollars for it. It was not large, and as for its appearance--!
But with one evil mind we all pretended to envy her and to regret that
we had not seen it first; so that, for some time, she stepped out over
the tundra with quite a proud and high step, swinging her "buy" proudly
at her right side, where all might see and admire.
Presently, however, we came to a hut wherein we stumbled upon all kinds
of real treasures--old bows and arrows, kamelinkas, bidarkas, virgin
charms, and ivory spears. We all gathered these things unto
ourselves--all but my Scotch friend. She stood by, watching us, silent,
ruminative.
She had spent all that she cared to spend on curios in one day on the
single treasure which she carried in her hand. We observed that
presently she carried it less proudly and that her carriage had less of
haughtiness in it, as we went across the beach to the dory.
She took the basket down to the engine-room to have it steamed. I do not
know what the engineer said to her about her purchase, but when she
came back, her face was somewhat flushed. The Scotch are not a
demonstrative race, and when she ever after referred to the chief
engineer simply as "that engineer down there," I felt that it meant
something. She never again mentioned that basket to me; but I have seen
it in six different curio stores trying to get itself sold.
At Seldovia connection is made with small steamers running up the inlet
to the head of the arm. Hope and Sunrise are the inspiring names of the
chief settlements of the arm.
The tides of Cook Inlet are tremendous. There are fearful tide-rips at
the entrance and again about halfway up the inlet, where they appeared
"frightful" to Cook and his men. The tide enters Turnagain Arm, at the
head of the inlet, in a huge bore, which expert canoemen are said to be
able to ride successfully, and to thus be carried with great speed and
delightful danger on their way.
Cook thought that the inlet was a river, of which the arm was an eastern
branch. Therefore, at the entrance of the latter, he exclaimed in
disappointment and chagrin, "Turn again!"--and afterward bestowed this
name upon the slender water-way.
He modestly left only a blank for the name of the great inlet itself;
and after his cruel death at the hands of natives in the Sandwich
Islands, Lord Sandwich directed that it be named Cook's River.
The voyage of two hundred miles to the head of the arm by steamer is
slow and sufficiently romantic to satisfy the most sentimental. The
steamer is compelled to tie up frequently to await the favorable stage
of the tide, affording ample opportunity and time for the full enjoyment
of the varied attractions of the trip. The numerous waterfalls are among
the finest of Alaska.
Even to-day the trip is attended by the gravest dangers and is only
attempted by experienced navigators who are familiar with its unique
perils. The very entrance is the dread of mariners. The tide-rips that
boil and roar around the naked Barren Islands subject ships to graver
danger than the fiercest storms on this wild and stormy coast.
The tides of Turnagain Arm rival those of the Bay of Fundy, entering in
tremendous bores that advance faster than a horse can run and bearing
everything with resistless force before them. After the first roar of
the entering tide is heard, there is but a moment in which to make for
safety. There is a tide fall in the arm of from twenty to twenty-seven
feet.
The first Russian settlement of the inlet was by the establishment of a
fort by Shelikoff, near the entrance, named Alexandrovsk. It was
followed in 1786 by the establishment of the Lebedef-Lastuchkin Company
on the Kussilof River in a settlement and fort named St. George.
Fort Alexandrovsk formed a square with two bastions, and the imperial
arms shone over the entrance, which was protected by two guns. The
situation, however, was not so advantageous for trading as that of the
other company.
In 1791 the Lebedef Company established another fort, the Redoubt St.
Nicholas, still farther up the inlet, just below that narrowing known as
the "Forelands," at the Kaknu, or Kenai, River. At this place the shores
jut out into three steep, cliffy points which were named by Vancouver
West, North, and East Forelands.
Here Vancouver found the flood-tide running with such a violent velocity
that the best bower cable proved unable to resist it, and broke. The
buoy sank by the strength of the current, and both the anchor and the
cable were irrecoverably lost.
Cook did not enter Turnagain Arm, but Vancouver learned from the
Russians that neither the arm nor the inlet was a river; that the arm
terminated some thirty miles from its mouth; and that from its head the
Russians walked about fifteen versts over a mountain and entered an
inlet of Prince William Sound,--thereby keeping themselves in
communication with their fellow-countrymen at Port Etches and Kaye
Island.
Vancouver sent Lieutenant Whidbey and some men to explore the arm; but
having entered with the bore and finding no place where he might escape
its ebb, he was compelled to return with it, without making as complete
an examination as was desired.
The country bordering upon the bays along Turnagain Arm is low, richly
wooded, and pleasant, rising with a gradual slope, until the inner point
of entrance is reached. Here the shores suddenly rise to bold and
towering eminences, perpendicular cliffs, and mountains which to poor
Whidbey, as usual, appeared "stupendous"--cleft by "awfully grand"
chasms and gullies, down which rushed immense torrents of water.
The tide rises thirty feet with a roaring rush that is really terrifying
to hear and see.
At a Russian settlement Whidbey found one large house, fifty by
twenty-four feet, occupied by nineteen Russians. One door afforded the
only ventilation, and it was usually closed.
Whidbey and his men were hospitably received and were offered a repast
of dried fish and native cranberries; but because of the offensive odor
of the house, owing to the lack of ventilation and other unmentionable
horrors, they were unable to eat. Perceiving this, their host ordered
the cranberries taken away and beaten up with train-oil, when they were
again placed before the visitors. This last effort of hospitality proved
too much for the politeness of the Englishmen, and they rushed out into
the cool air for relief.
Indeed, the Russians appeared to live quite as filthily and disgustingly
as the natives, and to have fallen into all their cooking, living, and
other customs, save those of painting their faces and wearing ornaments
in lips, noses, and ears.
The name "inlet," instead of "river," was first applied to this
torrential water-way in 1794 by Vancouver, who also bestowed upon
Turnagain the designation of "arm."
Vancouver, upon the invitation of the commanding officer who came out to
his ships for that purpose, paid the Redoubt St. Nicholas, near the
Forelands, a visit. He was saluted by two guns from a kind of balcony,
above which the Russian flag floated on top of a house situated upon a
cliff.
Captain Dixon, the most pious navigator I have found, with the exception
of the Russians, extolled the Supreme Being for having so bountifully
provided in Cook Inlet for the needs of the wretched natives who
inhabited the region. The fresh fish and game of all kinds, so easily
procured, the rich skins with which to clothe their bodies,--inspired
him to praise and thanksgiving.
For the magnificent water-way pushing northward, glaciered, cascaded,
blue-bayed, and emerald-valed, with unbroken chains of snow peaks and
volcanoes on both sides,--up which the voyager sails charmed and
fascinated to-day,--he spoke no enthusiastic word of praise. On the
contrary, he found the aspect dreary and uncomfortable. Even Whidbey,
the Chilly, could not have given way to deeper shudders than did Dixon
in Cook Inlet.
The low land and green valleys close to the shore, grown with trees,
shrubbery, and tall grasses, he found "not altogether disagreeable," but
it was with shock upon shock to his delicate and outraged feelings that
he sailed between the mountains covered with eternal snow. Their
"prodigious extent and stupendous precipices ... chilled the blood of
the beholder." They were "awfully dreadful."
Dixon, as well as Cook, mentions the wearing of the labret by men, but I
still cling to the opinion that they could not distinguish a man from a
woman, owing to the attire.
Dixon also reported that the natives have a keen sense of smell, which
they quicken by the use of snakeroot. One would naturally have supposed
that they would have hunted the forests through and through for some
herb, or some dark charm of witchcraft, that would have deprived them
utterly and forever of this sense, which is so undesirable a possession
to the person living or travelling in Alaska.
The climate of Cook Inlet is more agreeable than that of any other part
of Alaska. In the low valleys near the shore the soil is well adapted to
the growing of fruits, vegetables, and grain, and to the raising of
stock and chickens. Good butter and cheese are made, which, with eggs,
bring excellent prices. Roses and all but the tenderest flowers thrive,
and berries grow large and of delicious flavor, bearing abundantly.
"Awfully dreadful" scenes are not to be found. It is a pleasure to
confess, however, that many features, by their beauty, splendor, and
sublimity, fill the appreciative beholder with awe and reverence.
* * * * *
The coal deposits of the region surrounding the inlet are now known to
be numerous and important. Coal is found in Kachemak Bay, and Port
Graham, at Tyonook, and on Matanuska River, about fifty miles inland
from the head of the inlet. It is lignitic and bituminous, but
semi-anthracite has been found in the Matanuska Valley.
Lignitic coals have a very wide distribution, but have been, as yet,
mined only on Admiralty Island, at Homer and Coal Bay in Cook Inlet, at
Chignik and Unga, at several points on the Yukon, and on Seward
Peninsula.
The new railroad now building from Cordova will open up not only vast
copper districts, but the richest and most extensive oil and coal fields
in Alaska, as well.
Semi-anthracite coal exists in commercial quantities, so far as yet
discovered, only at Comptroller Bay. A fine quality of bituminous coal
also exists there, extending inland for twenty-five miles on the
northern tributaries of Behring River and about thirty-five miles east
of Copper River, covering an area of about one hundred and twenty square
miles.
Southwestern Alaska includes the Cook Inlet region, Kodiak and adjacent
islands, Aliaska Peninsula, and the Aleutian Islands. Coal, mostly of a
lignitic character, is widely distributed in all these districts. It has
also been discovered in different localities in the Sushitna Basin.
All coal used by the United States government's naval vessels on the
Pacific is purchased and transported there from the East at enormous
expense. Alaska has vast coal deposits of an exceedingly fine quality
lying undeveloped in the Aliaskan Peninsula, two hundred miles farther
west than Honolulu, and directly on the route of steamers plying from
this country to the Orient. (It is not generally known that the smoke of
steamers on their way from Puget Sound to Japan may be plainly seen on
clear days at Unalaska.)
This coal is in the neighborhood of Portage Bay, where there is a good
harbor and a coaling station. It is reported by geological survey
experts to be as fine as Pocahontas coal, and even higher in carbon.
Possibly, in time, the United States government may awaken to a
realization of the vast fortunes lying hidden in the undeveloped,
neglected, and even scorned resources of Alaska,--not to mention the
tremendous advantages of being able to coal its war vessels with Pacific
Coast coal.
[Illustration: Copyright by J. Doody, Dawson
A YUKON SNOW SCENE NEAR WHITE HORSE]
During the spring of 1908 the Alaska-coal land situation was
discouraging. A great area of rich coal-bearing land had been withdrawn
from entry, because of the amazing presumption of the interior
department that the removal of prohibitive restrictions upon entrymen
would encourage the formation of monopolies in the mining and marketing
of coal.
Secretary Garfield at first inclined strongly to the opinion that the
Alaska coal lands should be held by the government for leasing purposes,
and that there should be a separate reservation for the navy; and he has
not entirely abandoned this opinion.
The withdrawal of the coal lands from entry caused the Copper River and
Northwestern Railway Company to discontinue all work on the Katalla
branch of the road; nor will it resume until the question of title to
the coal lands is settled and the lands themselves admitted to entry.
The fear of monopolies, which is making the interior department uneasy,
is said to have arisen from the fact that it has been absolutely
necessary for several entrymen in a coal region to associate themselves
together and combine their claims, on account of the enormous expense of
opening and operating mines in that country. The surveys alone, which,
in accordance with an act passed in 1904, must be borne by the entryman,
although this burden is not imposed upon entrymen in the states, are so
expensive, particularly in the Behring coal-fields near Katalla, that an
entryman cannot bear it alone; while the expense of getting provisions
and tools from salt-water into the interior is simply prohibitive to
most locators, unless they can combine and divide the expense.
These early discoverers and locators acted in good faith. The lands were
entered as coal lands; there was no fraud and no attempt at fraud; not
one person sought to take up coal land as homestead, nor with scrip,
nor in any fraudulent manner.
There was some carelessness in the observance of new rules and
regulations, but there was excuse for this in the fact that Alaska is
far from Congress and news travels slowly; also, it has been the belief
of Alaskans that when a man, after the infinite labor and deprivation
necessary to successful prospecting in Alaska, has found anything of
value on the public domain, he could appropriate it with the surety that
his right thereto would be recognized and respected; and that any slight
mistakes that might be made technically would be condoned, provided that
they were honest ones and not made with the intent to defraud the
government.
The oldest coal mine in Alaska is located just within the entrance to
Cook Inlet, on the western shore, at Coal Harbor. There, in the early
fifties, the Russians began extensive operations, importing experienced
German miners to direct a large force of Muscovite laborers sent from
Sitka, and running their machinery by steam.
Shafts were sunk, and a drift run into the vein for a distance of one
thousand seven hundred feet. During a period of three years two thousand
seven hundred tons of coal were mined, but the result was a loss to the
enterprising Russians.
Its extent was practically unlimited, but the quality was found to be
too poor for the use of steamers.
It is only within the past three years that the fine quality of much of
the coal found in Alaska has been made known by government experts.
It was inconceivable that Congress should hesitate to enact such laws as
would help to develop Alaska; yet it was not until late in the spring
that bills were passed which greatly relieved the situation and insured
the building of the road upon which the future of this district
depends.