, • .... ■
J-'XKiiWELL CHAT—Santa Claus at North Pole. Alaska takes time out from his busy schedule of
preparations to have a chat with these two little Eskimo girls bundled up in rabbit skin parkas.
Later this month, December 24, in fact. Santa Claus is scheduled to leave for his annual around the
world trip. —Staff Photo
SORTING THE MAIL—As Christmas draws near, Santa Claus Miller, postmaster at North Pole, Alaska,
begins his day sorting out the large amount of letter s that he has going to the lower states. —Staff Photo
II.«
NORTH POLE ALASKA
0>-‘N TO 6 30 TH l2N00k SAT
— CL05ED HOLIDAYS
RECEIVING MAIL—Santa Claus at North Pole gets about 200,000 letters each year from children all
over the world. Here Mrs. Fred Pete, formerly o Selawlk now of North Pole, and her two little
daughters, Shirley, 5, and Alvina, 3, help Santa open his Christmas mall. At left is Howard Rock,
editor of Tundra Times, whose finding it fun to assist in the operation. —Staff Photo
Santa Claus' Headquarters
At North Pole, Alaska
By Thomas Snapp
Times Staff Writer
Just 15 miles down the Richard
son Highway south of Fairbanks is
a very unusual little town—North
Pole, Alaska,
North Pole is the home of Santa
Claus House, 511 Santa Claus Lane.
Tlie brightly decorated building
is a general store, Santyland. and
U S. Post Office. And the proprie
tor of Santa Claus House is Con
miller, also the mayor of North
Pole.
In the summer time thousands of
tourists from the lower states visit
“Santa" Miller and as Christmas
time approaches each year, he re
ceives and sends thousands of let
ters cards and stockings to boys and
girls all over the world.
Many Calls
With the advent of direct-dial
long distance telephoning, he has
also gotten quite a number of calls
from as far away as New York, Flor
ida, and California.
Sometimes, children’s parents in
the lower states are suprised to learn
they have bills as high as $70 made
to Santa Claus, at North Pole.
The population has grown from
100 to 400 people in the past ten
years.
North Pole has a $75,000 school
building for grades one through
eight, two service stations, a laun
drymat. two restaurants, a drive-in,
telephone exchange, a trading post,
a doctor, dentist, a tavern, and three
churches.
Rudolph Lane
Many of the streets of North Pole
are named for things associated with
Christmas. Donner and Dancer
streets, for instance, were named
after Santa's reindeer. And Rudolph
Lane, of course, was named after
Rudolph, the red-nosed reindeer.
Yuletide Road
Yuletide Road runs along the
banks of a creek running through
North Pole. Tourists can have their
cars serviced at Reindeer Service
Station, then may take sight-seeing
drives down Holiday Lane.
In 1949. Miller owned the Miller
Trading Co. of Fairbanks. He trav
eled into the North country trading
for furs and other items.
First Santa
For one trip during the Christmas
season, he donned a red suit and via
dog sled, visited a number of vil
lages. It was the first time hundreds
of children had seen a Santa Claus.
Later Miller became broke and
in 1953 moved to North Pole, where
only a few people lived in a scatter
ing of buildings. He cleared a place,
cut logs, and erected a building
which he painted red candy stripe.
A number of native children
passed by and shouted out, “Hello,
Santa Claus" and the building was
named “Santa Claus House.”
While constructing the building,
Miller and his family lived in a
tent, beside which he built a small
cache. The cache is still standing
at 511 Santa Claus Lane.
Much Mail
The post office located there has
grown by leaps and bounds in re
cent years and probably does more
business for its size than any other
in the U.S. Each year "Santa” Mil
ler processes about 200.000 letters.
At first he handstamped all his
mail but recently his correspondence
has increased so much that he has
installed postage meters. He has also
had to employ helpers particularly
during the rush Christmas season.
Santyland
Next year Miller plans to enlarge
Santa Claus House and build a
Santyland where he can have a dec
orated tree year around, elves and
reindeers, where tourists can visit
and take photographs.
To finance the project, Miller has
had minted special Santa Claus
coins, on sale at Santa Claus House.
: The Santyland will be built from
the proceeds.
About a year and a half ago, to
“Santa” Miller and Mrs. Miller
there was born a little girl. And
what did they name her? You
guessed it, “Merry Christmas.”
Stmt(i Stopped Cold
'Please Bring Me
A Million Dollars'
“Now I've seen everything.”
That was the comment of “Santa”
Con Miller, proprietor of Santa
Claus House at North Pole, Alaska.
He had just received a request
for a million dollars.
It came on a post card from Ana
heim. California, and read: “I want
$1,000,000 in cash for Christmas,"
and it was signed simply, “Joe.”
“Santa” Miller said he had re
ceived requests for everything from
an elephant to an Aladdin “wishing”
lamp.
Here are a few samples of the
thousands of letters he receives each
year:
“I am a bad boy. Don’t stop at my
house this Christmas. O K. O.! Ma
be next year I might grow up and
deserve something. Thanks for
nothing. Jimmy Swann. Chicago,
Illinois.”
From Turkey, Kentucky:
“Dear Santa Claus: Will you bring
me just one present? I know you
know the new 10c or 5c store, well,
would you get me that 45 gun?
Santa, if you can, would you try to
make me a hclster, please. But, if
you can’t, it's alright. I’ll be good.
I promise.
“I hope sometime, somewhere,
someplace, I can see you because
I have seen many Santa Claus help
ers but I have never seen the real
! Santa Claus. If I can, before I die,
I hope to see you. Your friend. Arch
Johnson. Jr.”
The letters, come in all sizes and
all flavors. Many are enclosed with
Christmas cards. Others don't have
any envelopes at all. are just folded
pieces of paper on which there are
stamps and the address.
Many times the letters don’t have
postage at all or have labels taken
from medicine bottles. Somehow,
they travel thousands of miles
through the postal system to North
Pole.
Wrote Sunny and Stephan Wilster
of Sanford. Florida, “I hope you
have a good old time at our house,
leaving lots of good old presents.
We leave a marteenee and crack
ers for you."
And Addis Junior Taylor of Nice
ville. Florida wrote this to “Santa”:
“I left you a cup on the table. The
coffee is on the stove. The stove
is on low. Please turn it off.”
CHRISTMAS IN ALASKA . . .
(Continued from Page 7)
“The custom has always been to
feed anyone who comes to visit, but
the most important thing for the
Napakiak Eskimos on Christmas
Day, is to go to church and pray to
God, thanking Him for everything
they had that year.”