Evening Republican, Volume 19, Number 216, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 11 September 1915 — With a Railroad Survey in Alaska [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

With a Railroad Survey in Alaska

A SEASON’S experiences with a locating crew on the first government railroad in the interior of Alaska would fill a book. How we ran down a monster black bear in mid-stream with a river steamer; the everyday trials in our work; the wading and actual swimming of swamps, and the constant attendance of the “little singer,” the Alaska mosquito; methods of bathing; floods on the Tanana river—these are only a few of the occurrences that befell one of eleven engineering parties on this herculean government project. writes George Mayo, assistant United States engineer. The first 400 miles of railroad, the part only of the great system that now is to be a reality, has its initial point at Seward, a thriving town on the southern coast of Kenai peninsula; follows the now inoperative Alaska Northern railroad around Turnlgan and Knik arms, and then follows the Susitna and Chultina rivers to Broad pass, from where the projected railroad runs down the Nenana river to its junction with the Tanana, and up this river to Fairbanks. In order to reach the Fairbanks end of the line, where our work lay, we took a coast steamer from Seattle to Skagway on June 3; over the White pass and Yukon railroad to White Horse, and from there by river steamer down the Yukon river and up the Tynana river to Fairbanks. As the days went by the more wonderful grew the scenery. At times we would pass through a channel so narrow that it seemed as if we were trav-

ersing * great deep and green river, and the echoes from the screw were thrown back from both shores. The shores were precipitous walls, spruce clad and tilting down from snowcapped summits Little waterfalls trickled down every slope. We touched at Ketchikan and "Wrangel, and at Juneau spent a part of a very pleasant afternoon. Skagway, the breathing place for,many ’97 and ’9B pioneers who crossed the Chilcoot and White passes, and which lies at the extreme end of Lynn canal, a narrow channel with many small glaciers on its shores, is almost deserted. Leaving Skagway on the world-fa-mous White Pass and Yukon railroad, the train started the heavy climb almost immediately. There were places on the climb, where looking down an enormous depth,'We could see the tumbling Skagway river, like an uneasy streak of molten silver, and then, looking up, met only the overhang of a granite cliff, with the glare of snowcovered peaks across the canyon. We shortly tipped the summit and rushed through White pass, Bennett, Caribou, down into White Horse ip the ghostly midnight of an Arctic day. f Down the Yukon. I It was 4a. m. when we tumbled into our bunks aboard the river steamer Yukon, and we were well across Lake La Barge before I awoke. Several littH incidents occurred to break the tedium. We heard one morning an outcry on the forward deck. Leaving our bridge game, we rushed out to dis- . cover a huge black bear swimming not Ur ahead. With the helm shifted a little the steamer bore down directly upon the swimmer and in a moment

had passed over it Running aft, we saw the bear bob up unharmed, and, after shaking himself like a dog, swim serenely on his way. We arrived at Fairbanks on the afternoon of June 15. Fairbanks, a thriving town, is the market place and distributing point for a placer distri t that turns out from $3,000,000 to |4,000,000 annually. Then, too, it is the agricultural center of the Tanana valley region, where, despite the general idea to the contrary, large crops are grown of potatoes and other root products, besides a great deal of barley and oats. The country along the Tanana rivei has a weird sort of monotony. On the south side the country is one vast flat, mostly tundra, swamp. In this latitude the ground seldom thaws beyond a few feet in depth; consequently there is little or riosubdrainage. This is the swamp country through which our portion of the preliminary line ran. A great deal has been written of the Alaska mosquito, but nowhere have I seen accounts of the little insects exaggerated. During the period from May to August it was necessary that one wear constantly a head net that drooped from a stiff-brimmed hat to a bottom taken in and securely tied around the chest. To protect one’s hands one had to wear heavy canvas gauntlets, which were tied tightly about the wrists. The little pests would sting right through an ordinary cotton shirt, so I found it necessary to wear an additional flannel shirt. At lunch “on line’’ we would build a

smudge, and, somewhat relieved at least from the attack of the “bugs,” would eat our sandwiches in a bath of smoke. Bathing Under Difficulty. The matter of baths was difficult. Often in the evening we would paddle out to a bar in the middle of the stream, build a smudge of drift, and take a hurried plunge in the icy Tanana waters. We would be nearly eaten alive by the persistent little “bugs” before we could get back into our clothes and to camp. One man’s method of taking a bath was ingenious. He would drag the camp washtub, filled with hot water, into .the office tent, carefully kill off all the insects inside, and take his bath with the utmost luxury. We were fortunate in not having to depend upon pack trains for our transportation. All our work being near the river, we were able to do our moving with boats. In the actual field work we made great progress, unless in heavy spruce timber, where our speed depended upon the axmen. In the swamps—and there was swamp wherever there was no spruce—we were forced to wade for miles in water to our waists or higher. There were occasions, too, when a series of streams and lakes had to be crossed by swimming and by rafts. In this swamp work we wer» able to practice that beautiful athletic and modern dance, the “tiggerhead tango.” Niggerheads •' are tufts of coarse grass that grow in several feet of muck. V.Tien traversing a niggerhead swamp one must step quickly from niggerhead to niggerhead or else drop between, and as they are very unstable a peculiar step is evolved.