KLAMATH REPUBLICAN ALASKA’S BABY
E. J. MURRAY, Editor.
LEADING NEWSPAPER OF INTERIOR OREGON.
TWO DOLLARS PER YEAR IN ADVANCE
All communications submitted for publication in the columns of this
paper will be Inserted only over the name of the writer. No non de plume
articles will be published.
METROPOLIS.
Cordova to Be Gateway For
New Rush This Year.
ROAD TO COPPER FIELDS.
FOUGHT FARMING
BATTLE ALONE.
went Into Wilderness and
Made a Ten Strike.
»
OLE MARTIN'S HEROIC STORY
Milos From Any Human Being, Hs
Broke the Land With a Hand Culti-
vator and Won With His Nsrva and
Brains—Ole's Experience With Potato
Growing.
This is the story of a farmer who
won because he had uerve and under­
standing enough to sit down on bis
land and fight it out to a finish. a
farmer who had never beard of the
word discouragement aud whose only
definition of failure was that It meant
"try again a little harder;” also it is
tbe tale of a man who farmed as much
with his bead as he did with his hands,
and be did an enormous amount of
work with those latter.
His name—uot that it matters par­
ticularly—is Ole Martin, and six years
ago he drifted into these United States
from Sweden, where he bad beeu farm­
ing in rocky aud exhausted land for
fifteeu years. Six months after his
arrival at New York be was in Alaska,
and six mouths after that be bad a few
acre« of land ou tbe Kenai i>eniusula.
Then be began to farm. There were
no neighbors—not tbeD. nt least, for it
was not until later that a tacituru
Scot sat down a short distance away
and began to farm on bis owu sc­
count.
Had No Dogs or Horses.
The location was three and a half
miles north of the new town of Sew-
a rd. and there was no railroad; also
there were no horses and at first not
even a dog. so supplies had to be
"packed” In. A man who has never
carried sixty to a hundred pounds on
his back over rough, unbroken coun-
try can only imagine Shat. Ground
had to be broken and cleared. Then It
had to be prepared for sowing, and
the old methods of Sweden and the
United States even were useless. Mar­
tin began with potatoes aud failed.
His results were watery caricatures
of the potato of commerce, ile bad
got bis seeds from Seattle, and be
tried again aud failed again, Then he
began to farm with his head, He pro-
ceeded to educate his potatoes and
teach them to grow respectably. This
could only be done by growing and re­
seeding. Soon be bad real potatoes
and began to sell them.
Cultivation was a problem, for with­
out tools it was difficult Martin solv­
ed this problem, however, in bis own
patient way. He built himself a hand
machine and pushed it himself with
prodigous labor. Later, when be had
secured a dog team, be broke them to
haul the cultivator. It was a severe
task, for he was alone. There was no
hired man—just Ole himself and the
dog«.
Decided on Garden Truck.
Finding himself so close to a grow­
ing community. Martin saw that in
garden produce there would be a mar­
ket, aud he set to put some seven
acres under cultivation. In nearly all
his work be had trouble with bis seeds.
Those from the States would not grow
well in a soil where there were 140
inches of rainfall in a year, aud so he
bad to educate his turnips, bis cauli­
flower. carrots, cabbages and the rest
to grow in damp soil.
The government
ivert
maintain» ex peri-
incut stations, bat these were and are
too few; also they are only experiment
stations, and the real work must be
•I »ne by the real farmer. Martin went
through it all. and be built bls log
bouse, barn and outbuildings. He cuts
his hay—tons of it—by hand and ricks
it alone. He finds time for flowers,
and these are liis amusements. He
built an incubator and is raising chick­
ens and is housing them in a log'
house equipped with a stove, Every
bit of work ou the place—every last
tap—has been done by this farmer * sin
gle handed. He has combined tne
work of the experiment stations and
the farm, mid to hltn is due the sue-
cess of farming on the Kenai. Now
1
the railroad has come to him. and he
can ship his products in to Seward,
even across the sound to Cordova and
Valdez, anil he Is well to do.
Fought Twenty Hours a Day.
But the trials and the fight of those
early days, when he was wrestling
twenty hours of a summer day and
eight hours of a winter twilight with
a rough, semiarctic country, pushing a
clumsy, hone made cultivator by band
and smiling cheerfully, will not soon
fade, nor will the days when eighteen
hours of yellow sunlight brought the
seeds rushing to the surface and ma­
tured them in five weeks. Those were
the moments when lie saw the things
the future held. Ami lie's not going
to sell out and go back to Swedau Rails of ths Copper River and North­
He's going to stick on the job. It's
western Will Be Laid to the Mouth
bis home now. and he see« the time
of the Chitina by July, When Im­
iu ten years—no. five—when he will
mensely Rich Mineral Area Will Bs
have farmer neighbors all alsiut him
Acceesiblo—A Dramatic Chapter In
aud the rich soil will be working for
Railroad Construction.
the men who can conquer It.
Vp in the Tanana valley and In the
By CARLYLE ELLIS.
Copper river and the Susitna, too,
On Its second birthday tbo Copper
farmers are following the track of tile River aud North western railroad, of
Martin, the man who fatmedaud made which Cordova. Alaska. Is the tcrnii-
It go through- alone.
uus. finds Itself stretched 100 miles In
laud up the Copper river. By next
On Lifting Cats and Rabbits.
July, it is now practically assured, the
It is a tnistakeu idea that Hie proper road will have reached the mouth of
way to lift a full grown cut is by the the Chitina river, where It branches,
nape of its neck without supporting heading for the Keunleott copper
the lower part of Its body with the mines, fifty-eight miles to the east
other baud It Is true that ¡lie mother wart!.
eat carries youug kittens by grasping
The road's arrival at the Chitina
iu her mouth the loose skiu nt the menus that the great Kotaina-Chltlna
back of her offsprings ueek. but a copper region la dually made easily
tiny kitten is a very different mailer available for mlniug and prospecting
from a large cat. and. indeed, lhe only This will lie an event of considerable
way to lift a kitteu without squeezing Importance tu Alaskau history. Ex­
or hurting its soft little I» «ty is io nti cepting Its two great coal fields, this
it by Its ueek But after it li o grown Is the richest known miueral field In
larger Its owu weight is loo :t< it lo the territory. Its area is very large,
be supported by such a bit ot skin ui<l aud the opportunities for prospectors
fur as is so grasped by the baud, and and small operators there are almost
many a cat nutters perfect tortures by unlimited, it Is absolutely safe to ex-
being held in this manner and ts quite pect spectacular developments at once.
helpless to run or struggle, as in -u. b
Iu all of this Cordova Is destined
a position certain of Its mus. I. s can to play a conspicuous part, and the
not be controlled, and It tot absolutely sixteen-montb-old baby metropolis In
at the mercy of Its unconscious tor­ pre|Htring for It with quite amazing
energy. With the Copper River rail­
mentor.
The same rule should be observed In road being driven inland by the power­
lifting rabbits by tlirir ears. 1 hey ful Morgan-Guggenheim syndicate to
should always be partially supported tap the coal and copjier fields aud the
by the free hand and not allowed to vast golden Interior. Cordova becomes
dangle with their whole weight strain- inevitably the Alaskan gateway par
lug from their large but necessarily excellence, aud for sueb n future she
was chosen.
delicate ears.—Watch word.
The essentials for an Alaskau gate­
way are a harbor, a town site, a rail­
More Than Ono Way.
The caller, a mao whom he bad road route and proved resources to
known in the old town back in I’eun- run tbe road to.
Cordova has all four, each of more or
sylvania. bad dropped in to talk old
times with the busy lawyer, and the less excellence, and her railroad has
lawyer bad endured It patiently for now passed tbe hundredth mile. The
an hour and a half. Then, unseen by combination Is a richly prumlslug one.
the caller, be pushed .a small knob at
Road to Copper, Coal and Gold.
The harbor, though not large. Is ex­
the end of his desk, and a bell rang
cellent and susceptible of unlimited de­
in the adjoining room.
"Excuse me a moment Mr. Hocken- velopment, while Immediately avail­
splutter.” be said, stepping iuto the able for ordinary tonnage without
other room and proceeding to bold this dredging. The town site Is a tundra
one sided conversation over au irnag covered, rocky and irregular hillside,
offering most unpromising material,
inary telephone:
but whl< b has yielded astonishingly
“Hello!"
well to vigorous treatment The rail­
road route, while containing some of
0«
_____ _____ __ 5»»
tbe worst obstacles to construction
“No, Bertha. I'll not hare time to ever encountered. Is rapidly pushing
come home for dinner. It's already forward despite these difficulties and
4:30, aud I have several hours' work reaching out to tbe copper region aud
yet to do. 1 am very busy and have the coal fields of Bering river as well
as those vast Interior regions, the
been detained '*
riches of which apart from placer gold
are still but guessed at
"Yes. Goodby!”
Almost every foot of Cordova's
Then he went back to his desk. But
Mr. Hockensplutter bad already risen streets had either to be blasted out of
solid rock, cut out of four feet or more
to go.—Chicago Tribune.
of mushy tundra or built over the
tundra. Tbe main streets, In places
That Genius Whietler.
cut through thirty feet of bill, in oth­
Of Whistler Lady St. Helier in ers had to be built up as much. Tbe
“Memories of Fifty Years” writes thus: cross streets climb a steep Irregular
"He was a genius and bad all tbe de­ rock hili. Over all there was heavy
fects and qualities of one. To him timber.
everything was a joke, the subject of
It is typical of Alaska aud tbe Alas­
a boumoL Tbe lightest and daintiest kans who have built and are making
of persiflage was what be excelled in. Cordova that these dlthculties should
and one never bad a dull momeut in have been so lightly regarded and so
his company. He was always late for valiantly met In her first year of life
dinner, arranging tbe immortal lock tbe baby town has beeu making such
of gray hair iu its proper place as he improvements as usually begin to be
came into the room, with apologies planned when a city has reached tbe
and excuses, none of them true—of 50,000 mark and feels the welght of
which be was perfectly conscious and wealth. She Is still in swaddling
also of tbe fact that bls host nn. clothes, ragged, unkempt, unUnished,
hostess knew that they were not but lusty with youth. Tbe rapidity of
Wherever he was there would be a cir­ her growth is amazing, In the year
cle listening to him, aud bis ringing she has housed a thousand souls, built
laugh would be heard all over tbe churches, schools, clubs, warehouses
room as be seut bis shafts right and and shops that would be creditable In
left into tbe joints <>f tbe armor of a large city. She has fitted herself
those who were attacking him. It was with electric light, water supply,
a great surprise and almost a shock sewers and a telephone system and
when he appeared as a benedicL”
developed a complete municipal organ­
ization. She has also attracted to her­
How Eskimos Measure Time.
self two newspapers, each of which
of
Writing of the Eskimo methods
receives a daily cable service from the
measuring time In a region of six outside, giving the cream of tbe
months day or night, Harry Whitney world's news, and special service from
in Outing says:
each of the Alaskan cities connected
“The Eskimo divides his periods into by wire or wireless—Reward, Valdes,
■sleeps.’ but a sleep does not designate Fairbanks, Junenu, Skagway, Ketchi­
by any means the civilized measure of kan, St. Michael's and Nome.
day and night It is. in fact, a very
Region of Opportunities.
uncertain term, Often we traveled
These are some of Cordova’s external
from twenty to thirty hours without indications of vitality.
Even more
rest. Now there was no night. and I significant is the spirit of her people,
so far lost count of time that I was tbe dauntless adventure loving, chance
not at all certain of dates. Our single taking spirit of the foreloper. They
marches with the succeeding •sleep’ are opportunists all and wide eyed to
not infrequently covered a full forty- the opiiortunlty at their door.
eight hours, or two ordinary daya.
As 1 have said, Cordova’s reason for
The object of these extended marches being Is the Copper River and North­
was to take advantage of good weath­ western railroad. Without the rail­
er and general conditions or because toad or tbe hope of it she would
no safe or convenient camping place quickly cease to exist. Her neighbor,
presented itself I d the Interim.”
Kntalla-on-tbe-Sea, which blossomed
when two railroads made a false start
His Birthday.
from there, still Ilves, though In great­
"When were you born?" asked an ly reduced circumstances, in the hope
inquisitive of Robert Louis one day. of their return.
"May 10, 1880,” was the Instant reply,
Meanwhile the millions from lielow
and Robert Louis aud Fanny Steven­ are pouring through Cordova in sup­
son exchanged glances. This was their plies and materials and cash for the
wedding day.
forcing through of the railroad to the
famous Bonanza mine and nolghl»or-
A Foot Rula.
ing properties In the region around the
Workman—Is there a foot rule In this head of the Chitina river. The bulld-
bouse? Housekeeper—Tea. liverybody Ing of this road Is one of the moat
wipes their feet on this mat before daring railroad enterprises since the
they dare come in!—Comic Cuts.
Rocky mountains were first penetrat-
od. The Copper river valley, up
which the road must ruu. la notorious
for Its violent whiter windstorms. It«
shifting. uncertain, «lit falls; racing,
vagabond streams; deep snow; rocky,
slide scoured canyons and advancing
glaciers. The river itself, the ouly
large stream emptying from the Aits-
kau Interior to the southward. 1« a
turbulent, silt l.ulcn. ice bearing tor­
rent In which no man can swim (wen- i
ty strokes. At one place II runs be- '
tween great living glaciers that dis­
charge millions of tons of les Into Its
current each day of the summer
nontlis, and hero the railroad must
run too.
Scsnsry Will Bscoms World Famous.
The scenery Is of unique grandeur,
but these scenic features, so soon to
become world famous, bars represent­
ed to the engineers problems of unex­
ampled complexity. Many of these
problems «ere repeatedly declared to
be lni|H>ss|ble of solution even under
the most favorable conditions of
weather and with unlimited time
Two years ago nest month tbe first
lot of material and supplies arrived in
Cordova. Since then conatructlon has
beeu pushed forward with almost un­
believable moment urn.
in these two years a permanent road
of a high standard has tieen completed
to the mouth of the Tlekel river, 103
miles from Cordova. Three great steel
bridges have been set over the swift
(lowing Copper river, and a fourth
across a great ice scoured channel lie-
low the lierg lake of Mill's glacier Is
far advanced and will t»o one of the
engineering wonders of the world
I«otig stretches of tunnel and rock cut
aud piling have been finished and a
fleet of river steamer« built and placed
in commission.
At Cordova end. where there were
no problems of importance, much mon­
ey has t»eeu sjteut In preparing for the
haudling of a heavy trulu service to
and from the mine«.
The Irou In the blood of the men who
are building this road shows apparent­
ly In the blood of Cordova, for also
there has lieeti fighting to do. "Made"
towns like this one <!<» not grow of
their own volition In a single year. It
takes organization, confidence and
much toil w hero one's home must, as
here, actunlly bo carved from the eter
nal hills.
PULP WOOD IN ALASKA.
Before You Buy Your Winter
Supplies
Don’t forget to get our prices on
Canned Goods, Sugar, Beans
Transportation Facilities Only Needed
to Open Up Enormous Forests.
Another valuable Item lias been ndd
cd to Alaskn a growing list of undevel­
oped resources Recent expert exami­
nation of the timber In the Kushltna
basin has confirmed the belief that It
Is pulp wood of a high quality. The
timber la poplar, cottouwood and
spruce, but little of which Is of com­
mercial value for lumber. Tbe laud on
which this growth stands Includes the
3.5OO.IKX) or more acres estimated as
grazing and farming land aud on
which homesteading recently began.
This area, distributed among the vari­
ous valleys of the basin, is for tbe
most part covered with a luxuriant
growth of wild redtop grass, with little
underbrush and ouly a moderate stnnd
of timber. It is obvious that with a
reasonably convenient market for pulp
wood nnd water transportation, of
which there is much, tbe cost of clear­
ing these lands might tie greatly re­
duced If not made a profit by tbe sale
of the timber an a byproduct
On Kenul (»eiilnsula. along the line of
tbe seventy mile Alaska Central rail­
road. alone there are many thousands
of acres of available pulp wood. and
this will lie increased with almost
every tulle of tbe road's extension to­
ward tbe Matniiuska coal fields. Tbe
value of this supply of puljr wood In
American territory and tbe practicabil­
ity of utilizing It was first pointed out
by Levi Chubbuck of tbe department
of agriculture, who visitisi tbe region
last summer. Still more recently Sena­
tor George J. Baird of Cnnada weit iu
to the Matanuska coal fields and was
greatly Impressed by the vast area of
pulp woods as well ns tho splendid
grazing lands they stood on. He pre­
dicts the rapid settlement of this re­
gion by farmers and cattlemen.
Dried Fruits and everything
in the Grocery Line.
25c. Monarch
Try our
Coffee.
You
can’t beat it in quality
MONARCH MERCANTILE COMPANY
Phone 1051
SATISFACTION
TONS OF ALASKA COPPER.
Report of Geologist Brooks Shows
Enormous Yield Thie Year.
“The season of mining in Alaska has
been a prosperous one," says Alfred
H. Brooks, geologist In charge of the
Alaskn work of the United States geo­
logical survey, who lias Just returned
to Washington from his annual "swing
around the circle” In tbe far north­
west “While dry weather and other
unfavorable conditions have curtailed
the pincer gold production at Nome,
most of the other camps have either
maintained or Increased their output.
'■Figures of gold output are not yet
available, but It seems probable that
the production for lt»ot» will be be-
tween nineteen nnd twenty million
dollars. The low price of copper has
not encouraged mining of that metal,
but about half a dozen properties ship­
ped ore during l!)09. It appears proba­
ble that the Alaska copper output for
the year will exceed 4.<X».<M»0 pounds."
Ons Light In Two Thousand Milas.
For the first time the great southern
coast of Alaskn, more than 2,000 miles
long, has this winter n lighthouse.
{Though one of the most dangerous nnd
stormy coasts in the world anil diffi­
cult of navigation, even in rammer,
this area has been wholly neglected
until now. The first light Is on Cape
Hlnclilnbrook. at one of the entrances
to Prince William sound. There are
many other places where lights and
fog signals are almost as urgently
needed, notably Cape St. Ellas, where
steamers are often held up for days
because of fog» nnd a long, hidden
reef. Other lights are, however, to be
added next year.
1 he feeling 1 want to exist between you and me.
I am trying to make my name and satisfaction
synonymous. You can help me.
Don’t holler and cuss if I have worked for you
and it’s not been satisfactory, but bring it back and
give me a chance to make my word of guarantee
good.
One receives a certain arnout of satisfaction in
buying goods and feeling they have their dollar’s
worth.
Those arc the very kinfl of goods I carry and are
all made by the most reliable firms, I would like to
have your business.
I have been told that I am on the WRONG side
of the street nevertheless you arc not treating your­
self RIGHT unless you see my stock before you buy.
T.
MCHATTAN
England prohibits the use of wire­
The Glasgow fire department uaoa
less telegraph apparatila except un­ four motor driven and operated cn-
der and In accordance with a license gltiea, one truck with 35-foot ladder
granted by tho Postmaster General. and n first aid hose wagon.
Vancouver’s new dry dock. which
The Brltlah Government la about
will be able to handle 10,000-ton ven- to lay telephone cables under tho
Ml«, will be built in England and , English Channel to facilitate bual-
ahlpped to British Columbia In part«.|npaa between London and Paria.