DEVELOPMENT POSSBILITIES OF NOME DISTRICT
REASOHS WHY HOME MD SEWARD PEHIHSULA
HEEDS GOOD WAGOH ROADS
Road Almost Imuassablp Near Nome
tides issued by the North we*
of Nome denting: with the develo
ment and industrial exploitation
Peninsula.
(Space for this purpose is donut
| by the Nome Nugget.)
♦
The situation of the Seward
Peninsula section, closer to foreign
shores than any section of the Ameri
can coast vendors the life and property
erf the residents strung for many miles
along the shores of Boring Sea and
the Arctic Ocean, liable to attack at
any time. The absence of free and
open means of communication renders
this liability to attack all the more
precaitious owing to the practical im
possibility of dispatching assistance
over an unbrq^cn country without loss
of much valuable time enrollte.
In the event of an attack the attack
ed settlement or district would have
practically no defensive resources save
such as it might itself afford. Dur
ing the few months of tin* open period
of navigation, assistance might be dis
patched by water, 1mt in view of the
great length of the Siberian and Alas
AN ARGUMENT FOR INCREASED ROAD APPROPRIATIONS
kan coasts and the numerous bays, In
dentations and rivers thereon, in which
an enemy might (hide, the presence pf
hostile submarines would render ft he
fask of guarding one or two boats,
ope that would require the services of
hqlf the United Styles Navy. The
estybllghment of road communication
>vould serve the purposes of protec
l tton far more adequately than a large
paval force through enabling the j
movement of troops from one section
t<> another with promptitude and prac
tM freedom frosn attack by sea. In
vfow of Die fact that during the larg
est part of the* year wie are completely
Isot&tM and at the mercy of an enemy
or the ekknsnte Is an added reason for
the establishment of trunk line roads
connecting with the Alaska Railroad
on the Yukon and a road entirely
through the interior sections of the
Peninsula. The latter is an indis
penalble necessity if the upward of
twenty thousand square milea of terri
tory cctnprislng tlwSeward Peninsula I
Another Example of Why Road-4 Are Needed—Miners Hauling Outfits Op Rivers.
district is to reactive adequate protec
tion from attack.
2nd: A trunk line road from Nona
to Candle via Che Kougurok and from
Nome to Kaltag via Council City an 1
Dime creek would pay for itself in ten
years by the saving: accruing from tli
113 asportation <>r the government
mails by a direct -interior route rath .
tban over the present dangerous an I
uncertain route down the Yukon riv- :
and along the Bering Sea and Arct.i •
coasts. With a trunk lino road con
necting with the government railroad
at Kaltag, mails could ly brought to
Nome via automobile in far less time
and at immensely lower cost than b\
the present slow and precarious Wat. .
3rd: The economic value of such
trunk lines as suggested are readilv
apparent. Their installation am!
maintenance would he an invaluable
factor in aiding the development of
t'he peninsula and also result in an im
mense saving in costs of transporta
tion and production. Close study o'
the question is speedil;
thpt the result of such
would be an immense and immediate
development of the district and partic
ularly of nuupy sections heretofore un
productive for the one sind only reason
of inaccessibility due to the absence of
roads and trails.
Of the proposed Nomp-Kougnmk -
Candle post and military trunk line
road, the first 8V4 miles have been con
structed from Nome to Dexter Creek,(
and has served the section through
whileh it runs with results that are lit
tle short of mxirvelous. The produc
tion of the district it serves has been
practically without a parallel in fhs
history of placer development and pro
duction. The continuance of this
road along: the divide betwon Nom?
nhd Snake rivers for a distance of
about fifty miles would insure practic
ally the same results in the adjacent
arena as have occurred along the initial/
8% miles of road with its laterals and
feeders. In addition to covering an
immense
terrain, in tli*■ Iron creek section tlio j
proposed ro.nl would enable wide de
velopment of numerous known depos- !
its of gold quartz, copper, silver, tung-)
ston. antimony, graphite, cobalt, niokeJ, j
platinum, mica and other mineral for
mations of oommeivial value, in ad
dition to literally hundreds of placer
gold hearing creeks and benches al
ready located but restrained in devel
opment because of the general inac
cessibility of the. country, due largely
to the absence of roads.
following the pi'oposed road from
Iron creek wvi will find ourselves dose
to the only Hot Springs found in this
section. The medicinal value of the
waters of these springs is attested by
numerous sufTcrers who have been re
lieved op various tyjtes of ailments.
The area surrounding the springs con
tain immense agricultural possibilities,
owing largely to the remarkable
warmth of the earth. The area pro
duces an immense yield of vegetables
! per acre wfltli nominal cultivation and
the establishment of the proposed road
would enable their cheap disposal in
tho Nome markets. The area is cap
able of providing: practically all the
vegetables required by the district and
the transportation of the Hot Springs
products alone would provide a ton
nage of great value over the proposed
trunk road. The sale of the domestic
vegetable products in the Nome mar
ket would also result in a considerable
saving In living costs. Agriculturists
assert that the district can lie made
to yield not only tfhe vegetable require
ments of the Peninsula but also a sur
plus which coifld be shipped to Seattle,
thereby not only beneflttlng the dis
trict but also providing an increase In
the export tonnage of considerable
value to tho steamship transportation,
companies. In addition to facilitat
ing tho development of the Hot Springs
district, th/e road would also enable
the opening of valuable mineral de
posits known to rxist in the adjacent
Sawt oth Mountains but at present
practically 'Inaccessible to exploitation.
The Sawtooth range offers immense
':ulurr:r.rn*s to the prospector if open
on: im uni cation U established. Those
who have visited thr- locality are un
animous in stating that the range
sihSm V. in iinr/ral deposits of wide
i a.-e <; character aijd value. * The
Tmi .S iw:ooth range also contains itn
r ".:v power development posdlbllitifes.
r;- v- b-r power development poten
tiui tbs f:T kike Idndeberg and sev
eral l.-rge mountain streams are sjeh
h* to make the construction of an
electric power plant a feftslmle pros
If!
(•is arc cntvaKfri in the more primiti*
methods of sold extraction.
Despite tin- immense inherent riches
transportation conditions, are such tliaf
the full development of this section
cannot he accomplished without a re.
duclion in transportation costs, espcc
conditions have resulted in wid- in
creases in the value of supplies. in
dication ..f the difficulties encountered
in this direction by the miners of th ■
section arc amply indicated in the
Drill Prospecters Goins Over Tv
slatrmcnt tfnat a sack of Hour coding
at | recent war prices S-l.25.in Nome
Ih worth $ 13 50 - along; this section of
the proposed road after transportation
costs are added- Tranuporfation fci
cllithe- are so limited at present that
the transportation of Inrjro pieces of
notch in cry i* prohibitive. Fuel sup
plies transported to the district are s >
costly as to render machine operation
prohibitive stive in such cases that the
returns from mininp operations are of
uwcre than average value. A ton of
coal* costing at present Nome value*
$36, when transported to this .section
rttains a value ip excess $4}0,
Roads Three Miirs From Nome
of transportation have prevented pr.i
menseiy valuable copper deposits.
tahlishim-nt of transport.ition :• -
will a lorn* enable a complete rstirnai
< f pH' district's potentialities.
ill by the development ol
i known resources, wltlv
otliers which further s
d ubtedly develop. This
i brae os the greater jnirt '
isreds of the Kuzitri n,
d I'pper flood Hop' rixi
rot th<*rn slope of iho peninsula
terminating- section of the proposed
trunk road, the Candle, Peering, In
ina chuk district. Hordering along tie
Arctic Ocean and open to navigation
only a portion of the period common
to the Nine coast, the district is prac
tically ‘inaccessible to commerce dur
ing eight months of the year. It is
rich in placer resources and also con
tains numerous quartz lodes which un
der other and less anions conditions
would alone insure the general pros
perity of the district. Practically ah
I of the more important st: earns are
Bold bearing and have already produc
ed immense sums, despite the si-rious
handicap.-* afforded by high costs nrd
anil a-lih-.l iM-.isiK rity and popalation.
( Continued on P333 Five
Candlo is ths Nortlisrly End of ths Projected Road. Photo by Lumen Bros.