SEATTLE, Sept. 2. - Within a few weeks the Trans-Alaska Company will have its winter stage line between Iliamna Bay, St. Michael and Nome in operation. W. M. Rank, general manager of the company, is expected in Seattle from San Francisco, his home, about the middle of the week. The establishment of the stage line is only a preliminary step toward the construction of a Trans-Alaskan railroad, running along the same general route between Nome and Iiamna Bay.
That the Trans-Alaskan Company is amply able from a financial standpoint
to carry such ventures to a successful end seems apparent from the personnel of the officers and stockholders of the corporation, among whom are W. H. Crocker, president of the Crocker-Woolworth Bank of San Francisco; F. Tillmann, president of the Tillmann-Bendel
Company; Charles E. Green, manager of the Crocker estate; H. H. Lynch, general manager of the Market-street railway; J. J. Mahoney, capitalist; G. W. Kline, manager of the Crocker-Woolworth bank; W. B. Bourne, capitalist; Charles Nelson, president and manager of numerous steamship lines operating on the Pacific; James Tyson, manager for Charles Nelson & Co,; George H. Mastick, lawyer. All of those mentioned are residents of San Francisco.
The company has completed a survey between Iliamna Bay, on Cook Inlet, to
St. Michael and Nome, a distance of 500 miles. By December 1, it is announced, stations will have been established every thirty miles throughout the entire length of the line. Each station is to be kept constantly supplied with the best provisions purchasable. The stages are to be drawn by horses. The route follows favorable water courses, and, as nearly 400 miles lie through a timbered country, the climate is said to be milder than on
the upper Yukon.
It is the purpose of the company to transport passengers, express matter and mail. All told, the line will be equipped with 100 head of horses.
