| Summary: | The "Last Frontier" -- Alaska. The "Last Frontier"— Alaska By Claude Wm. Groth Rivers: It may surprise many to learn that the Yukon River, with the Lewes River and Lake Le Barge, is navigable by large river streamers a distance of 2,200 miles from its mouth. This takes one to Whitehorse in the Yukon territory. It was a busy highway in the gold rush of 1897-1898, for at the peak of navigation there were more than one hundred river steamers that piled it and its tributaries. The Tanana river is the largest of these tributaries. Some distance from the mouth of the Tanana is located Nenana which is the terminals of the Alaska railroad. This makes a commercial highway from Seward to St. Michael at the vicinity of the delta of the Yukon. The Koyukuk is the second tributary in size, and it is navigable for river boats as far as Bettles. It joins the Yukon near Nulato, which is one of the oldest settlements on the Yukon. Kuskokwim Next In Size. The Kuskokwim river is next to the Yukon in size and at one point its channel is only twenty-five distant from that of the Yukon. The Kobuk and the Noatak rivers flow through Arctic Alaska and empty into Kotzebue Sound. Both are navigable. Seven small streams of the Bristol Bay Country are notable as red salmon streams. The Susitna river flows into Cook Inlet, and the Copper river empties into the Gulf of Alaska. The Stikine river flows through southeastern Alaska for a few miles. It has its source in British Columbia. Five-Finger Rapids in Yukon. The description of a wonderland might be written by one who traveled Alaskan rivers. Five-Finger Rapids is in the upper Yukon river where immense boulders, four in number rise in the river making five channels. The waters rush through with tremendous force. Another notable sight is the spring break-up of the river ice. It piled high in the river and dams the stream until floods are prevalent. Finally the jam breaks and the ice goes out with a roar.
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