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 SI6 00 A YEAR
W. A. Boucher ...... Owner-Publisher
Emily Boucher Local Editor
Entered as second class matter October 14. 1943. at he postoffice
at Nome, Alaska, under the Act of March 3. 1879.
Nome, Alaska, Monday, December 27, 1948
OPERATION NOEL
(By Brack Curry—(/P) Newsfeatures
Old Santa had some special Christmas treats in store
for thousands of Europe’s needy children.
War orphans and DP children froliced at scores of
Yuletide parties given by Americans in Germany.
There were warm meals and goodies for all. Many re
ceived toys and clothing.
Throughout the U. S. zone in Germany, generals and
GI’s pitched in with American civilians to collect food,
toys and clothing for luckless kids.
And not even the Russian blockade of Berlin stalled
their plans. The U. S. Army’s European Command set
up a plan to handle and transport Christmas gifts for
Berlin from Army personnel.
It was called “Operation Noel.”
Boxed collections from military posts were shipped
by rail to Giessen and stored until the air lift was ready
to deliver them to Berlin.
Gen. Lucius D. Clay, the American Military Com
mander, allotted air lift space to handle the Christmas
donations.
Clothing came in from the United States and other
parts of Germany. From individuals in England and the'
Scandinavian countries pledges of more than $1,000
were received unsolicited. They heard over the Ameri
can Forces Network the story of the Berlin Christmas
party fund drive.
In Berlin itself, every American contributed for the,
Christmas parties. The $17,350 raised insured a Christ
man dinner party for some 76,000 German children.'
Thirty tons of food were required for the Berlin dinners
plus four tons of candy. Capt. Philip J. O’Neill, German
Youth Activities officer there, said:
“The hope—which at first seemed fantastic—that our,
community would be able to provide 76.000 children
with a Christmas party, including a dinner, candies and
entertainment became a reality.
We were assured that not a single needy child in the
American sector of Berlin or those within its orphan
ages and hospitals would be without a Christmas dinner
and we were able to give some institutional children in
other sectors a share.”
In addition to the drive for funds, various GYA units
in Berlin collected clothing and made toys. So some 22,
00Q toys were ready for Christmas distribution.
In the Frankfort area, Yule parties were planned for
150,000 German and DP children. Brig Gen. Robinson
Duff, commanding the Frankfurt Military Post, said the i
goal was to enable every German and DP child in the
post area to participate in some way in the Christmas
celebrations.”
Even Clarence the Camel went to bat for the kids. The
noted mascot of the U. S. Air Force’s 86th Fighter Wing
toured Army installation in Germany to collect funds.
He snared more than $800 to finance Christmas parties
in Munich and Berlin.
At Heidelberg, the American Women s club gathered
4,Cl 3 pounds of gifts—food, toys and clothes. They were
flown to Berlin.
In Stuttgart, U. S. military government officials
conducted a campaign to make Christmas a little mer
rier for more than 60,000 needy children in the state of
Wuertetember-Baden.
• \ ---r ' n
WILL A. JOHNSON PUBLISHES NEW BOOK
Will A. Johnson, of Anchorage, “as familiar to Alaska
poetry readers as Paul Bunyan is to lumberjacks,” is the
author of a book of verse published by the Exposition
Press of New York. Called “Untrodden Trails,” it de
scribes the scenic splendors of Alaska and the adven
tures of a prospector.
Mr. Johnson, now 75 years old, is president of Anchor
FROZEN
rue
Cold
I
age Igloo No. 15 of the Pioneers of Alaska. He came here (
at the turn of the century, and wrote his book during
25 years of prospecting in the Gold Creek area. His last
trip “Outside” was made 25 years ago and he says he
has no desire to repeat the experience.
In addition to lyric poems about Mt. McKinley and
similar spots of scenic interest, the book contains long
narrative poems which reflect the author’s life as a rug
ged pioneer. One poem, “A Stranger on the Trail,”
shows the feeling of brotherhood between the isolated
cabin dweller and the strangers who come his way. An-,
other, “The Misfits, A Copper River Episode,” describes
the plight of cheechakoes who, but for the efforts of old
timers who understood the rules for survival in the
North, would have died of scurvy and starvation.
Mr. Johnson was in business in Seattle in 1898 when
17 boxes of raw gold from the Klondike were piled on
the local wharf. The gold fever set in, and by 1906 he
was in Valdez, prospecting through Prince William
Sound and east to the Copper River, continuing through
out the copper boom. In 1909, the year the boom burst,
he settled in Cook Inlet, with headquarters at Knik and
Susitna. He hunted ducks in 1911 where Anchorage
now stands.
Roads were unknown in Alaska at that time. The
traveler used river boats in summer and dog teams in
winter. Mr. Johnson broke his own trails, and built the
first cabin in Talkeetna which has stood from 1910 to
the present. All of these experiences receive poetic
treatment in “Untrodden Trails.”
Mr. Johnson writes of his wife who had ventured half
way around the world before she came to Gold Creek to
share her husband’s life of prospecting and mgh'ng i4.
He says:
Like tender, nurtured plant I may be frail,
But when did woman falter at long trail?
Besides prospecting and mining, Will Johnson served
as guide for survey parties of the Alaska Railroad in
1915. Before that, he was called upon to take survey
parties through the proposed route to the Interior. He
acted as guide for the Bennett-Riee expedition, headed
by Hugh H. Bennett, for some years chief of the recla
mation service, department of agriculture. He spent
the summer of 1915 with these men, and “that meant
packing on our backs through the wilderness,” says Mr.
Johnson, “and going through the country with a com
pass in my hand.”. -■>- \ia <.v:
The prospector-poet has traveled over a thousand
miles by dog team in winter. He has been trapped on an
island in the Sustina by an overflow with the tempera
ture at 40 below. Remembering all this, Mr. Johnson
said, when he accepted the presidency of Anchorage Ig
loo of Pioneers, “I have great respect for those early pi
oneers, many of whom I have met in camp or on the
trail. I know something of their problems, the conditions
confronting them, their courage and determination in
surmounting all obstacles, and the hazards encountered.
By their untiring energy and indomitable will, they
have written a saga of Alaska unmatched by any lik^
group of men and women of our times.”
WASHINGTON
NEWS-LETTER
(By Mary Lee Council)
SacNtary io E. L. Bartlett. Dele
gate to Congress from Alaska
«
FISH TRAPS <
Ii a provision is inserted to es
tablish a licensing system lor mo
bile gear, the Fish and Wildlife
Service of the Interior Depart
men is ready to endorse a fish trap
ibolition bill.
Acknowledging the mandate to
Alaskans at the recent general
election who voted 8 to 1 to abol
ish fish traps in Alaska waters, the
fish and wildlife service officials
have stated willingness to endorse
abolition of traps over a five-year
period. Delegate Bartlett, who will
sponsor a bill to carry out this
mandate, has expressed the hope
hat this may be done even over ^
three or four-year period.
The f sh and wildlife service in
sists that conservation demands
that mobile gear be licensed con
currency with the abolition of
traps. The service has proposed a
system whereby residents who
have fi.-hed previously would be
given preferential rights in ob
taining licenses.
Delegate Bartlett has declined to
endorse this licensing proposal un
til Alaskans who would be affect
ed have had a chance to consider
“While'I believe that eventual^
!y <o.ne device must be effected
for control of mobile gear for con
servation reasons,” Delegate Bart
lett s ated, “the people of Alaska ,
voted on the one question of abol
i hment of traps and I do not
think the possibility of favorable
action by Congress faced with this
overwhelming vote should be en
dangered by complicated legisla
tion.”
STATEHOOD
President William Green of the
American Federation of Labor
informed Governor Gruening and
Delegate Bartlett that he person
ally was in favor of immediate ^
Alaska statehood.
This endorsement was given to
the Alaska officialy when they
called upon President Green to
urge a favorable resolution by the
i xecutive committee of the AFL*
which is scheduled to meet in
Miami in January.
ALASKA AGRICULTURE
Three officials of the Depart
ment of Agriculture are planning*
to go to Alaska in January to con
i'tr with a number of Alaskans in
e estcd in agricultural ma ters
a 1 feeling the Terrtiory.
The group will be headed by Dr.
Vince Cordon, director of agricul
ture research, who has returned to
the department after an absence
of several years. Among the Alas
kans who will meet with the thr^p
officials are Dr. Charles E. Bun
nell, president of the University
of Alaska; Andrew Nerland, Ter
ritorial Senator from Fairbanks,
and president, board of regents*
University of Alaska; and Don L.
Irwin, department of agriculture
representative in Alaska on agri
culture researchc q
TREASURY DEPARTMENT
IN ALASKA
Delegate Bartlett has been in
formed by commissioner of nar
cotic's Anslinger of the treasury
department that plans now before
1 the department look toward sta
tioning a full-time enfoi'cement of
ficer in Alaska.
This decision is based upon, rep
resentations made by Dele^g c
Bartlett and urged by the SevWrd
and Anchorage Woman's Clubs.
“The treasury law enforcement
agertcies In the past, asr you may
know,” Commissioner Anslinger
informed Delegate Bartlett, “had