THE NOME NUGGET
Published Monday. Wednesday and Friday by The
NOME PUBLISHING CO.
Nome. Alaska
Telephone: Main 125 P. O. Box 618
$1.50 PER MONTH $16.00 A YEAR
W. A. and EMILY BOUCHER.Editors
Entered as second class matter October 14. 1043. at the postoffice at
Nome, Alaska, under the Act of March 3, 187P.
Friday, February 15, 1946
OPPORTUNITIES IN ALASKA
(Oakland Post-Enquirer)
Sometimes you store things away in the attic and for
get about them. Then, suddenly, when you’re searching
for that extra blanket you know you put somewhere,
you find other treasures, mementoes of times long past,
gadgets that won’t work, stray dishes, games and toys.
You spend a lot of extra time in day dreaming as you
come upon items that recall pleasant memories, old
friends, happy experiences that flash into your mind as
you pick through the boxes and bundles under the roof.
That’s the way it has been with Alaska. When Secre
tary of State William H. Seward, purchased it from
Russia in 1857 for $7,200,000, people laughed. They
called it “Seward’s folly.” And Britain glowered and
made faces at us because they were outsmarted in the
negotiations and disappointed in the expectation that
they might add it to Canada.
“Seward’s folly,” has proved one of the best invest
ments that Uncle Sam ever made. The salmon pack
alone has brought more than a hundred times the pur
chase price and the value of the total exports since it
became a possession of the United States have been
nearly $2,000,000,000.
Alaska, comparatively unknown country until the
gold strike of the nineties, is still strange to most people ,
in the States. They may know from their schoolbooks {
that it has 586,400 square miles and is nearly as big as <
four Calitornias, but they shiver when they think about
it and have visions of dog-trains and fur coats and mit
tens.
The war—the Alcan highway—the age of swift trans
portation—have brought Alaska out of the attic and
back into the daily picture again. To many it offers op-1
portunities for adventure and lucrative enterprise. And|
when we get down to examine Alaska a little more
closely, we find that it isn’t as fearful as it was painted.'
Ketchikan, second largest city in Alaska, situated 600
miles northwest of Seattle, and the first port of call for
steamers on the inside passage, has seen to temperature
go down to zero only twice in the last 20 years. The;
mercury climbs as high as 100 on the Yukon river at'
the Arctic circle in midsummer, but 27^ miles down the j
stream, in a so-called “southerly” clime, it falls as low
as 76 degrees below in midwinter.
About three-quarters of Alaska lies in the north tem
perate zone. The climate on the southern seaboard is
less severe, Winter and summer, than that of Boston,
New York, Washington or St. Louis. Even where the
thermometer drops the lowest the cold is less terrible
than the blizzards of Wyoming and Montana.
There are many opportunities in Alaska. It contains
one of the great untouched forest regions of North
America. Agriculture has possibilities. Livestock rais
ing is already an important industry. There are fields
for livelihood in the fisheries, in mining, and in trans
portation. And Alaska is a veritable paradise for the
vacationist.
9 j
- " 1 —
Could Jonah Get Through Whale’s Throat?
Whales are the largest animals known, either living
or extinct. Stories have persisted of whales upsetting
ships.
The blue whale, largest of all, reaches a length of 108
feet and a weight of 115 tons. Ten men could stand up
right in its mouth, but that is as far as they could go, for
the throat is only nine inches in diameter.
Because of this small opening, blue whales are lim
ited to a diet of small crustaceans, like shrimp.
—National Geographic News Bulletin.
SAFC *T FIRST-'*
lubciAU 1
MUfM
i
BEDROOM IS MOST UNSAFE PLACE
The bedroom is the scene of more fatal accidents
among adults than any other room or area in the home,
according to the statisticians of the Metropolitan Life
Insurance Company. They find that “contrary to a
widespread impression, a relatively small proportion of
the fatal injuries in the home are suffered in the bath
room—2 per cent among men and 4 percent among wo
men.”
Approximately one-half of the bedroom fatalities re
sulted from asphyxiation by gas or by conflagration,
and not infrequently these causes had their origin in
other parts of the house. Also contributing to the toll of
fatalities in the bedroom are falls on floors, out of win
dows, or simply out of bed.
Of the men and women fatally injured in bedrooms
as the result of burns other than from general confla
gration, one-half in each sex had been smoking in bed.
A number died from overdoses of sleeping drugs.
WALL HEATERS FOR PLANES
Heat, radiated from the walls, is to warm passenger
airliners. Gasoline fuel is injected into a whirl ng col
umn of air enclosed in a cylindrical housing. T wo such
heaters are used in each plane: one is sufficient in or
dinary temperatures. The heated air circulates between
outer and inner walls of the plane. Impure air leaves
the cabin under the seats—Science Digest.
WASHINGTON i
NEWS-LETTER
By MARY LEE COUNCIL
Secretary to E. L. (Bob) Bartlett,
Delegate to Congress from Alaska
ROADS
Fair maintenance of existing
roads, Congress has been asked
for an appropriation of $44,000.
The total expenditure estimated
several years ago for rehabilita
tion of the Richardson Highwav
was $6,200,000. Since the fiscal
year 1945, $5,200,000 of tM*
amount has been appropriated by
Congress. The current request
calls for an appropriation of
$1,000,000 which will prov'de the
balance of the original estimate.
It cannot now be predicted what
final action Congress will take in
appropriating the funds requested
for roads in Alaska for th« fisp->l
year 1947. Hearings are now being
held by the Interior subcommittee
of the House Committee on Ap
propriations of the bill embracing
funds for the Interior Department,
and it will be a matter of several
weeks before final outcome is
known.
FISH TRAPS
Proposed amendments to the
Alaska commercial fishing regula
tions for 1946 affecting fish traos
will be discussed at a public hear
ing commencing February 21 at
the Interior Department in Wash
ington, D. C., according to a no
tice published recently by Secre
tary Ickes.
The amendments propose to
limit the number of traps owned
or controlled within fishing areas
of AlasVa by any individual, firm,
association or corporaation to 20
traps. “It is contemplated that in
future regulations permit holders
will be required to reduce the
number of trap sites which they
may operate progressively within
a five-year period until they have
a maximum of ten traps in 1950,”
the Secretary stated in the notice.
The proposed amendments also
embrace provision that no individ-'j
ual, firm, corporation or associa
tion who exercised ownershio or
control of ten or more traps with
in the preceding year shall estab
lish or maintain or exercise any
ownership or control of or inter
est in any additional trap within
the said areas, and that ownership
or control of or interest in traps
in addition to ten shall not be es
tablished or maintained by any in
dividual, firm, association or cor
poration that has within the pre
ceding year maintained any own
ership or control of or interest in
less than ten traps. ^
A third proposed amendment
states, “Every holder of a permit
from the War Department shall
notify in writing the Regional Di
rector of the Fish and Wildlife
Service at Juneau, Alaska, of its
issuance at least 30 days prior to
the first date when salmon traps
may be operated in the coming
season. Permit holders who oper
ated traps in the preceding year
shall have a preference for a max
imum of 20 sites so operated. In
case there should be two or more
permit holders for a trap site not
included in the above group, the
Secretary of the Interior, or his
duly authorized representative,
may at the request of any permit
holder or on his own initiative, de?
termine relative priority rights.
Four rules have been formulated
to determine priority rights. Those
excluded for consideration would
be permit holders who have vio
lated regulations of the Interior
Department with respect to com
mercial fishing in Alaska, permit
holders with permits for ten or
more trap sites, and permit hold
ers who are not residents of Alas
ka. The fourth rule would give
prior right, in case there are two
or more permit holders in a par- ^
ticular category to the one with ?
the smallest number of permits,
the one who has first submitted his
permit to the Regional Director of
the Fish and Wildlife Service shall
have preference.
MAIL FROM WRECKED PLANE
Delegate Bartlett has received a
number of letters from Alaska
partially damaged in the recent
airplane tragedy at Elk Mountain,
Wyoming, where 21 passengers
and crew members lost their lives
aboard a United Airlines plane.
VTCJTTORS ^
Commander Seton H. Thomp
son, well-^nown in Alaska where
he was stationed for many years
with the Fish and Wildlife Serv
ice called on Delegate Bartlett re
cently. Commander Thompson ex
pects to be released from the navy
at the end of February and plans
to take a vacation trip to Mexico
City before reentering service
with the Fish and Wildlife Serv
ice.
Major and Mrs. Aaron E. Ruck
er, now of Kentfield, California,
visited the Delegate’s office re- J
cently. The Ruckers lived many
years in Alaska, in Seward and
Valdez. Major Rucker practiced
law and Mrs. Rucker at one time
9
was director of the Jesse Lee
home at Seward.
Colonel O. F. Ohlson of Anchor
age stayed several days in Wash
ington on a trip Outside. Colonel
Ohlson plans to go to Sweden at
an early date to visit his birth
place.
Mr. and Mrs. Carl J. Lomen of
Seattle and Nome have been in
Washington recently.