ALL ITEMS: 'McPherson--J-L-


 Thumbnail CreatorDateTitle / Author / Date / LocationPrice  Description
8173Circa 1909 Alaska Coal Fields Railway Map. McPhersonDetailsMcPherson, J.L.1909
Circa 1909 Alaska Coal Fields Railway Map - Proposed Kush-Ta-Ka Southern Railway
McPherson, J.L.
1909
LOC:
$1,200.00McPherson--J-L-Circa-1909-Alaska-Coal-Fields-Railway-Map---Proposed-Kush-Ta-Ka-Southern-RailwayLarge-format manuscript, pen and ink engineering map of the proposed Kush-Ta-Ka Southern Railway, documenting plans to connect Alaska's Bering River coal district with tidewater at Controller Bay. In 1909 Alaska was the District of Alaska, a U.S. possession purchased from Russia in 1867. Inset small-scale context map at upper right. <br><br>Prepared by engineer J. L. McPherson circa 1909, the map records an unrealized transportation scheme from a period when access to Alaska's mineral resources was becoming a national political issue.<br><br> The proposed alignment crosses a complex drainage system around Bering River and Bering Lake, with numbered points along the route and additional lines identifying alternate and preliminary locations. Campbell River, branching waterways, islands, and a headquarters site provide geographical and operational context. At a scale of one inch to 2,000 feet, the sheet illustrates the river crossings and difficult terrain confronting railway planners.<br><br> In 1909, as William Howard Taft succeeded Theodore Roosevelt as president, competing railway promoters sought routes linking Alaska's coal deposits to coastal shipping. The Kush-Ta-Ka Southern filed its preliminary right-of-way application on August 21 of that year. Meanwhile, disputed coal claims in the Bering River district helped fuel the Ballinger-Pinchot controversy, bringing questions of conservation, private development, and control of public resources into national debate.<br><br> The railway produced no major construction, leaving this map as a record of the industrial future envisioned for the district. Its significance lies in documenting the practical transportation ambitions behind Alaska's coal-development controversy, rather than an established operating railway.