THE NOME NUGGET
Published Monday, Wednesday and Friday by the
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NOME PUBLISHING CO.
NOME, ALASKA
Telephone: Main 125 P. O. Brx 618
$1.50 PER MONTH ♦ $16.00 A YEAR
E. P. BOUCHER .. Managing Editor
Entered as second class matter October 14, 1943, at the postoffice
at Nome, Alaska, under the Act of March 3, 1879.
Nome, Alaska, Wednesday, April 23, 1952
HIGHWAY TO NOME
(Anchorage Daily Times)
Construction of a highway from Anchorage to Nome has long
been talked about but little has been done about it.
The project has been noted among Alaskan as entirely feasible
from a construction standpoint. It would open up inaccessible areas
of the interior to settlement and economic development. It would be
an invaluable artery for military use in the defense program.
The Anchorage Chamber of Commerce at one time prepared a
preliminary brief on the subject. It showed large areas of great
agricultural potentiality that would be opened for settlement under
the land laws. It discovered that ancient federal surveys for a rail
road to the Nome area had proven the route free of engineering
difficulties that could be called more than normal.
More recently the Chamber of Commerce has indicated that new
life will be breathed into -the road project by means of renewed
studies and more complete briefs. The compilations are expected
to give a clear picture of the benefits that will accrue to the nation
and to Alaska should the road be built.
• III - - -
A most encouraging incident took place during recent commit
tee hearings in Congress when Rep. Ben Jensen of Iowa cited the
highway to Nome as a project rating immediate attention.
Representative Jensen visited Alaska some years ago and has
been a key figure in many of the projects that have taken place since.
After hearing General Kepner testify as to the need for
rehabilitating the Alaska Railroad from Seward to Portage, the Iowan
took a stand in favor of the appropriation and also in favor of the
road to Nome.
Concurring with General Kepner’s statement on the need of the
Seward railroad project, Representative Jensen added:
“I would even go so far, and I have said so before, to build a
highway to Nome from Anchorage.
“I am not a military strategist or anything of that nature. But
I think I can see where it would be very much to the advantage
of our defenses to have an outlet from Fairbanks or Anchorage
to Nome.
“That highway near which we may have some landing fields,
would bring us so much closer to our enemy with a strong force.
I am sorry the road has not been built a long time ago.
“That is quite an area there without any radar facilities to
speak of or anything else in this time of stress with an enemy just
across the bay.
“Mr. Chairman, last year and possibly the year before, I talked
about that road and some air installations between our main
r ELEPHANTS NEVER FORGET?
I highway and railroad over to the (Bering Sea and nothing has been
done.”
This statement came from the congressman who initiated the
move for the use of federal funds for expanding and developing the
Eklutna hydro-electric project.
He is the man who spearheaded the move 'to build the highway
connecting Homer and other cirties on the Kenai Peninsula with
the rest of Alaska.
Representative Jensen has shown a keen interest and close ac
quaintance with the problems of Alaska. It is the result of his visit
here during which the Chamber of Commerce chartered an airplane
and took him and his committee to the Homer area, and other parts
of the Anchorage hinterland.
#
The road to Nome has already reached the halls of Congress
and won recognition in the form of support from the Iowan.
It deserves the full attention of the Chamber of. Commerce as
one of the main projects on its agenda.
Locally the project has been hailed as the next big development
opening up the section of Alaska that already has more than 25
per cent of the population of Alaska.
No small part of the project should be that of inviting the House
Interior appropriations committee, on which Representative Jensen
is the ranking Republican member to come here and see the An
chorage developments.
Another charter flight is indicated. This time it should include
a hop over the route of the proposed road 'to Nome so that the
congressmen will have first-hand knowledge of the area which is
now hardly more than a “sea of wilderness” dotted with “islands”
of small communities.
All Three Alaska Delegates
To GOP Convention Will
Be Supporters of Taft
SEWARD, {JP)~All three dele
gates from Alaska to the Repub
lican National Convention at Chi
cago in July will be supporters
of Sen. Taft.
The third delegate was named
Monday by the Third Division Re
publican convention. The delegate
Gerritt Snider of Anchorage, was
uninstructed but he is a known
Taft partisan.
Two delegates aligned with Taft
had been named earlier.
National Guard Rifle Team
Wins Match with Polar Squad
The Alaska National Guard
won the first rifle team match to 5
be held in the new range last
Monday night, leading the Polar!
Rifle team by 11 points.
High men on the ANG team
were Sgt. McAfee, Lt. Gordon Os
borne and Major John Cooley.
High scores for the Polar team
were made by Owen Davis, Keith
Hedreen and Howard Jonish.
Another match is scheduled for
the near future it has been an
nounced.
Eugene Pugh, who was sched
uled to arrive yesterday and open
the Welfare Office here, will ar
rive today instead and remain un
til Monday, April 28.
C-47 Crashes With Five
Aboard, All Believed Dead'
ANCHORAGE, (IP) — A C-47
transport with five Elmendorf Air
Force Base fliers aboard crashed
Monday in the Merrill Pass area
northwest of here, the Air Force
reported early Tuesday.
A spokesman said it was be
lieved all aboard were killed.
The public information office
said the C-47 apparently crashed
about 12:45 p.m. Monday, 40 min
utes after it had taken off from
Elmendorf on a flight to Sparr
vahn airstrip, 175 miles northwest
of Anchorage.
The plane carried two other
pilots in addition to the pilot, co
pilot and crew chief. The extra
pilots were to return another air
craft to Elmendorf from Sparr
vahn.
Roy Luke of Nome Graduates
From Army Leadership School
The office of public information
of the 4th Infantry Regiment has
announced that Pfc. Roy Thomas
Luke, who is in Co. 1 3d Bn. of
the 4th, has merited special at
tention. Roy, who is the son of
Tom Luke of Nome, was stationed
at Fort Richardson and was se
lected for the Leadership Prepara
tory- School from which he has
now graduated. This school pre
pares men for important noncom
missioned officer positions.
Civil War Veteran, Age
102, Passes On, Leaving
Five Survivors of GAR
WEST LOS ANGELES, Calif.,
(jP) — Douglas T. Story, who ran
away to enlist twice before his
father finally let him join the
Union Army and get into the Civil
War, is dead at the age of 102.
He was one of the six known
survivors of the Grand Army of
the Republic.
Story, who said he joined Com
pany I of the 136th Illinois In
fantry at the age of 16 “to de
fend St. Louis from ol’ Gen. Joe
| Shelby,” died Tuesday of pneu
I monia at the Sawtelle Veterans
! Administration hospital.
He fought through the war as
a private, later was an entertain
, er on Mississippi river boats, car
penter, stonemason, justice of the
peace and land agent in the Okla
i homa Territory.
He was alert up to the last,
reading papers and watching tele
vision daily.
_ ;
Mrs. Hazel Kell left by Pan
American yesterday to complete
business arrangements for the
starting of operations at the Sun
set Mines this summer.
She stated she will return as
soon as she has placed orders for
material and supplies which are
to be on the first boat.
Now They Have Done It!
Produced Dehydrated Beer
LONDON, *(^P)—Science came up
Tuesday with a new occupational
hazard for the man in military
uniform—dried beer.
All you add is water to tfye
packet of starch-gum, hop oil and
flavoring—there’ll be beer galore
when apd where wanted.
It can be transported easily to'
the fighting fronts when shipping
is at a premium.
But the men of science who per
fected such wartime products as
powdered eggs and dehydrated
milk concede there’s a difference
in the taste of this one too.
Th new product, they said, has
a “winy flavor like old ale but
it makes a reasonable drink.”
They neglected to announce the
alcoholic content of their new
discovery.
Richard M. Curtis was held to
answer in the U.S. Commission
er’s Court yesterday for the crime
of forgery.
"4-on" Duplicate Receipt Books
at the Nugget
i .
i __>
Nenanans Busy Sorting
130,000 Ice Guesses
NENANA — The streets are
practically deserted, but the vil
lage is not a ghost town. All the
people are here, but under cover
of the civic center, where the big
job of counting and checking
guesses orl the Nenana ice classic
is in full swing.
Observers say the task won’t
take so long this year as only an
estimated 130,000 guesses were
turned in. Some 80,000 came from
the Third Division.
A considerable drop from last
years 180,000 tickets, the low
count is attributed to the new
gambling tax law.
Manager Don Clark said that
•after expenses and the govern
ment’s share is paid out, the
classic would still be about 100,000
guesses to the good.
Clark said that about 120 peo
ple volunteered to do the segre
gating and making up of the mas
ter book listing all the names of
the guesses, but only 85 showed
up to work.
While the women are at work
in the civic center, the men do
the cooking. The wives exchange
views on their husbands’ cooking
over guess-counting duty.
Clark said the Nenana ice is
still solid and his personal guess
is that the river will go out on
or about May 4. Two large holes
have opened in the ice above and
below the tripod.
Water is gushing up from these
holes to a height of about two
feet, indicating a considerable
flow of water under the ice.
As one Nenanan says, “It may
be a dead town now, but after
the classic is over and the checks
are cashed, Wow! what a lively
village it becomes.”
Nome Directory
Nome Toastmasters Club
Thursdays—6:30 p.m.
B O T—Firelite Room
Dinner Meeting
(Reservations for other than members
must be made before Wednesday noon.)
ANVIL LODGE
No. 140
Meets First and
Third Thursday
each month
WILL M. GILLIS, W. M.
NORVIN W. LEWIS, Secy.
Northwestern Alaska
Chamber of Commerce
Meets
EVERY TUESDAY NOON
Larry Galvin, President
ALASKA CHAPTER NO. 1
Order of Eastern Star
Dorothy Young,
Worthy Matron
Rosa B. Hagen,
Secretary
Meetings 1st & 3rd Mondays
NOME
CIVIL AIR PATROL
Meetings — 1st and 3rd
Wednesdays — 7:30 p.m.
Phone Black 191 Federal Bldg.
—————
ROTARY CLUB
OF NOME
Thursday Luncheon
W. H. Cameron, Pres.
Dewey Goodrich, Secy.
HAGEN
JEWELER AND OPTICIAN
Court Houm Is Opposite Us
Phono Main 40