The ALASKA
SOV'R'DOVGH
Vol. L No. 11
Douglas, Alaska, Tuesday, November 14, 1911
10c a Copy
JUDGE LYONS DECIDES THE DALTON CASE
In the long fight which Jack Dalton
has waged against the Guggenheims at
Sordova, Jack Dalton sustained a re
verse last wreek when Judge Lyons de
cided the case on its merits in favor of
the Copper River and Northwestern it.
1.. The cas^ was tried last simmer at
Cordova by Judge Lyons.
The Daltons and A1 Lowe are the own
ms cf a piece of land in Orel Inlet. On
the wrater side, the land runs in a curve
to Three Tree po.nt. The Copper
IC\er and Noth Western rail.oad o m
|ifu)’s line follows ‘be curve of the
Da1 ton land, passes Three Tree point,
an i out to th> dock*., 'lhe trestle cuts
this piece of water front, owned by the
Daitons, off from the biy. Dalton and
L.-we operate a coij.r mine on this
piece of ground which consists of seven
c ; per claims and a saw mill and
they were operating the mine and the
saw m il in 1908, w.i .n the company
bijan building the trestle, and snut
off their wrater wiv our which the
\>gs were towed to th; mill.
At the time the trostL* was being
built, Lowe and Dau *n pi at os ted to
tfc railroad companv on the ground
iibl it shut them off from ingress and
eg'ess to their proper*.. The railroad
<: ?i pany contended that Lowe and
Dalton hal no right there. At that
time they d d not have u patent to ih<
ground, and the Katalla company, ano
ther Guggenheim institution, was con
testing the Lowe-Dalton claims in the
land office. In September, 1909, al
though Lowe and Dalton still had no
patent to the ground, as the Katalla
eompany contest was still pending,
they brought suit for a mandatory in
junction to compel the railroad com
pany to remove their trestle, the at
torneys for the Lowe and Dalton con
tending that notwithstanding the fact
that the Copper Kiver and Northwest
ern railroad company had a right of
way from the United States govern
ment, they had no right to build any
structure which would cut them off from
access to their land. The case was
continued in the district court until
the Katalla company contest was set
tled in the land office. The Katalla
company lost, and Lowe and Dalton
received a patent to the claims.
The defense was made by the rail
road company that while the railroad
company may not have had, in the first
place, a right to build the trestle
which cut Lowe and Dalton off from
access to their land, their remedy
aside from a suit for damages was loBt
by their failure to take any aetion
while the structure was being built.
When the case was tried last July,
the plaintiffs announced that they
would be satisfied with a subway for
logs under the trestle wide enough to
permit a boom ot logs to pass, and a
crossing over the trestle to tha public
road wThich paiulYls the trest'e to the
docks on the other side of TVea iice
point. Judg? Lyons ordered 1 he ia.il
roid company to provide bosh the
crossing and the subway. At the ti"*c,
the defense understood this to De n
final settlement of the case, but on his
dfcision, forwvded by the judge from
Letchikan, he states that this order
was merely temporary, and res uni? it.
J. H. Cobb, attorney for the plaintiffs
left on the Sampson last week for Cor
dova. He will file a motion for a new
trial, and if the motion is overruled,
will appeal to the court of appeals at
San Francisco.
To a representative of the Sourdough
just prior to his departure, he announc
ed the decision, if it stood, would rend
er the propertly valueless. The trestle
touches the land at Three Tree point,
and the land rises at the point in a
precipitous cliff, 300 feet high. The
piling of the trestle are so close to
gether that it is almost impossible for
a row boat to pass, and there is no way
whereby they may reach the public
road.
Judge Lyons holds in his decision,
that the right to sue the railroad com
pany for damages is still left to Lowe
and Dalton. He holds, however, that
where a railroad company, under a
right of way from the government,
erects tracks or trestles which inter
fere with the rights of others, suit for
injunction, if brought at all, must be
brought at the time. Whether Lowe
and Dalton, not yet having a oa*ent,
could have brought suit at rhe time the
trestle was built was not raised in the
case or at least was not passed uih n by
the court; evidently from the decision,
however, if the/ could nut legally main
till)1 a suit without a paten-; to the
g onnd, that legal disabdv would not
in the judgmerl of the eo>>-7. operate
In e>tend the t me for the bringing of
an it junction.
The long fight which Dalton has car
rier. on aga'rst the ralba.-il company
ho.y attracted % good de^l of attention
all over Alaska, and it 'S probable that
it is by no m^ans em 1. That the
,i «'ge who hear-, the moti in to set aside
ge Lyon’s last order ir.a ' sustain
the motion is among th: possibilities,
aim in the event the motion is o'errr.l
p\ the ease will undoubted.y go to the
emit of appe.il; at San Francseo aid
probably to the supreme court of the
United States. Mr. F. W. Bradley,
president of the Treadwell company,
has said that the Lowe and Dalton
property, which Attorney Cobb says is
rendered worthless by this decision if
it stands, was well worth $250,000.
John Dalton, who is interested with
Jennie Dalton in the property, and in
the outcome of the suit, is a brother of
the famous Dalton boys, the Kansas
train robbers. John Dalton, however,
was not associated with his brothers
in their nefarious enterprises, and has
been an Alaskan for many years. He
has on several occasions been in the
employ of the government.
FORTUNES IN ALASKA AGRICULTURE
Special Agent Georgeson, of the
United States Agricultural department,
says that the experiment station at
Fairbanks will realize $3,000 this year
from seven acres of potatoes.
The labor on this tract of potatoes
cost the government $7.50 a day,
but at that the entire cost of produc
ing this $3,000 worth of potatoes will
only be about $300. That’s a margin
of profit with which even a gold min
er ought to be reasonably well satis
fied.
Special Agent Georgeson arrived in
Juneau on the Dolphin Friday, com
ing here from Seattle on his way
home to Sitka, after having spent the
summer in the interior.
“This has been a wonderfully suc
cessful year in the interior, notwith
standing the fact that there was snow
on the ground until June,” said Mr.
Georgeson to a Sourdough representa
tive. “I found grain fully matured at
Rampart in the middle of August.
There was some wheat raised in the
interior this summer, but Alaska will
never be a wheat country. Barley and
oats do well however, and barley and
oats are more valuable for stock feed.
In the northern countries of Europe
rye is the staff of life, and rye does
very well in the interior of Alaska.
There is no grain of any consequence
being raised in. Alaska at present. The
fanners of the interior raise veget
ables, with just enough stock feed for
their own animals, and in a few cases
a little to sell, but not much.
“I received some potatoes from our
Rampart station each of which was
as big as my two fists. We can raise
250 bushels of potatoes to the acre
there. ”
Mr. Georgeson says that at Sitka
they raise, under favorable conditions,
two hundred bushels of potatoes to the
aere, and that a southeastern Alaska
farmer can safely rely on raising 150
bushels of potatoes to the acre.
HERRING PLENTIFUL
“Apparently the more herring taken
out of southeastern Alaska waters the
more there is left,” said Capt. Aronson,
who operates one of the fishing boats
for the fertilizer eompanv at Killis
noo. “This year we made the largest
catch in the history of the company’s
operations. We found them more plen
tiful than ever before.”
HOISTING PLANT DELAYED
The erection of the central hoisting
plant at Treadwell will not be com
pe;ed until next spring' There has
b'tpn a delay in the receipt of some of
tliM machinery, and work will not be
resumed on it until spring breaks.
MAY REQUIRE OPERATION
Agent Guptil, annulled in his office
at Skagway sernal weeks ago is now
able to be up ai-d aiound but he his
wade no statement ns to who attacked
him. His mind wanders and it is be
lieved that an operation may yet he
necessary. No attempt has been mad*
to question him a Lout the crime.
GOLD STRIKE AT CHICAGO?
The gold strike which recently agi
tated Sitka, and which was believed to
be on Peril Straits, turned out to be in
the vicinity of the DeGroff property
at Ghicagof. The excitement quickly
subsided at Sitka and only one claim
was staked.
James McKenna is row in the insul
ar ce business, liand' ng both life anJ
fre. He repremts the New York Wfc.
and the Lotiioi Phoenix Fidelity Five,
and some other companies.
A TALE OF A NIGHT SHIRT HERO
i no teiepnone office at Douglas had
a burglar seare one night last week,
and Deputy Marshal McMillan would
have been the hero of this story, if it
had not been a false a’arm.
The Taku was blowiing a howling
gale about midnight. It coughed, it
moaned, it raged, it swore. It seized
the window casings and shook them
until they shrieked. It grasped a
loose board, every now and then, and
banged it against the side of the house.
It tore at the signs, and noisly en
deavored to wrest them from their fast
enings. It roared and bellowed in its
mighty carrousal, and the building reel
ed with every blast.
In the telephone offiee behind the
Alaska drug store, two timid women
listened to the noise without, and
trembled how and then as their nerve3
responded to the noisee of the wild
night
Just a little after the grave yard
hoar, an awfnl thing happened—aw
ful, perhaps, because the women in the
back of the drug store could not tell
at first just what it was that had hap
pened. They were sure, however, that
the locked front door had burst open
and they raised a fearful shriek.
Above the noise of the wind,, abov?
the din of shaking window shash, i).*p
uty Marshal McMillan heard the shriek
as he lay in his warm bed, and his
blood eurdled up and down his spinal
column.
But he did not hesitate. Instantly
he jumped to his feet, and without
waiting to even pull his trousers on—
for women have been murdered while
brave officials waited to pull on trou
sers—with the icy wind whistling
about his nether limbs, he crossed sec
ond street in almost a single bound.
When he arrived on the scene neither
of the telephone operators were there.
One had run a block one way, and the
other a block the other. After ascer
taining the cause of the difficulty he
returned home and wanned his shins.
CASES AT KETCHIKAN
Up to the latter part of last week,
out of fourteen liquor eases at Ket
chikan, seven had plead guilty, four
had been acquitted, two had been con
victed before a jury, and one, against
Dandy, was being tried a second time
after a jury had disagreed.
DB. SIMPSON EE TURNS
At the conclusion of Dr. DeVighne'a
hunting trip, Dr. Simpson will return
to Prince Rupert and Victoria, closing
some business there, and will return to
Juneau about the middle of January
and. resume the practice of medicine.
MIN1NV NOTES
Hie li mowing el’im* have luen filed
ii 4 hr i_, mmission . :r> *jfTie«* this week
o** c .<• Tories male i« the npi or SI... j.
creek basin; By R, P. Nelson, Lucky
Chance Placer, Mountain Lode, Moun
tain Sheep Lode, Mountain Top Lode,
and Phonograph Lode. By Harry Lott,
Corsair Placer, Jumbo Placer, and the
following lode claims—Telephone,
Rainbow, Mountain Goat, Mountain
Maid, Mountain Chief, Blue Belle. By
George H. Whitney, Mountain Bear
lode and Mountain Quail lode.
Owen Kirk has located the Eugene
Extension lode on Granite creek, Silver
Bow basin.
About twenty proofs of labor have
been filed in Commissioner Winn’s of
fice this week. The practice of filing
proofs of labor is eoming to be general
in this district.