valley Frontiersman
VOL. III.
PALMER, ALASKA SEPTEMBER 15, 1949
No. 1
Physcian Buys Mat. Valley Practice
Thuma Agrees
To Sell More
Airport Land
An agreement with Harold
Thuma for the acquisition of
more land and the awarding of
the contract for engineering sur
vey work to Victor Rivers has
geared the Palmer airport build
ing program into full speed
ahead again. Although consider
able Federal money is available
for the local port, work has been
delayed pending the securing of
the needed additional land.
Requirements for a DC-3 field
have changed recently, making
it necessary to lengthen both the
north-south and east-west run
ways to a minimum of 3,750 feet,
according to Tony Schwamm.
territorial director of aviation.
The lengthening of the north
south runway made it necessary
to secure 11 acres more from Mr.
Thuma, who at first was reluc
tant to sell. However when it
was pointed out to him that the
airport could not be lengthened
to the north without the serious
inconveniencing of eight fami
lies now living across the north
south runway and without fac
ing almost insurmountable nat
ural barriers in the landing ap
proaches. he agreed to sell the
needed land.
Engineering work is being has
tened by Mr. Rivers. It is in prog
ress now, and should be complet
ed by the first week in October,
at the latest. As soon as this
work is finished, the board of the
Palmer Airport Association plans
to deed the port to the territory
(Continued on Page 8i
QUEEN LA VON ROETMAN
W. i::':'' '
QUEEN LAVON ROETMAN. crowned Miss Alaskan State
hood at the recent Matanuska Valley Fair, smiles as she
examines winning specimens in other fair contests. Lavon
neglected to take the lapful of turnips and cabbage with her,
but Hollywood, not satisfied with a queen alone, promptly
wired that they be air-expressed after her. A hurried request
for some bear, caribou and moose meat also was wired from
Hollywood, where photographers evidently hope to show that
it’s really rough and tough in Queen Lavon’s home town.
—Anchorage News cut—photo by Ilobinson Studios.)
DR. BAILEY WILL
REPLACE GARRETT
ON OCTOBER 1
Dr. Clarence Bailey, recently
returned from advanced study in
eye, ear. nose and throat, sur
gery, obstetrics and internal
medicine at Virginia Mason clin
ic in Seattle, is the most recent
physician to add his name to the
Valley’s growing list of medics.
Dr. Bailey will assume the prac
tice of Dr. R. E. Garrett on Oc
tober 1.
Dr. Garrett plans to leave the
Valley in the near future, to
make his home in California.
Meanwhile Dr. Bailey has
planned extensive renovations
and improvements to the suite of
offices he will occupy in the
Neal Wright Building. Carpen
ters are at work there now, and
it is expected that the remodel
ling will be completed and new
medical equipment installed
withing the next week.
Laboratory facilities planned
by Dr. Bailey will permit him to
make electro cardiograms, basal
metabolism tests, audiograms
and special diagnostic tests at
his offices.
The remodelling in progress
will provide for an eye examina
tion room, a treatment room for
eye, ear, nose and throat disor
ders, rooms for diathermy and
physiotherapy treatment, exam
ination rooms and facilities for
minor surgical treatment.
Of particular interest in the
office will be the pathology lab
iContinued on Page 6)
HAPPY BIRTHDAY, VALLEY FRONTIERSMAN
We know, we’re not the ones
that ought to be saying it, but we
are just so glad to still be here
after two years of newspapering
in the Valley, that it slipped out.
Conditions on the Valley Fron
tiersman can best be described
as a friend of ours once summed
up six or seven years of particu
larly rugged war experience. “I
don’t think much about the past,
and I haven’t any plans for the
future,” he said. “I’m just awful
ly glad to be here, and I guess I
never get very far beyond that
in my thinking.”
We re a whole lot like that.
We’re glad to be here today, but
we re not looking very far be
hind us and we can’t see a great
distance ahead. We still are glad
to be right here in Palmer, and
today we can’t think of a single
thing we'd rather be doing than
working on the Valley Frontiers
man.
It’s customary, when a news
paper has a birthday, to an
nounce a whole new set of aims
and objectives for the coming
year. We’d rather not. We still
feel that the ones we gave you
two years ago cover pretty well.
So again, we repeat — we'll do
our best, as long as we’re doing a
newspaper, to tell a news story
impartially and in its entirety.
We dont intend to withhold news
if it reflects unfavorably on a
friend of ours, or if the event
with which it deals is something
we don’t favor. We still don’t
deal in gossip, and we never will.
A straightforward account of
what happened is what we ex
pect to give you in our news col
umns.
We’ll continue to quarrel with
ideas we think are wrong from
our editorial Den. We’ll continue
to print your letters and opinions
when you take issue with us in
the Den. We’ll often be wrong, as
we have been in the past, but we
will be writing the things and
backing the projects that we
think are going to be best for
Palmer and the Valley.
We'd like to tell you of plans
for an improved or even an en
larged Frontiersman. There are
many things we’d like to do as
a birthday gift from us to you on
this important day, when we
switch to Volume Three, Number
One. But we honestly can’t make
promises today, with any assur
ance of their fulfillment, so wc
are not going to talk plans.
There may be changes in store
for the paper in the immediate
future. If and when they come,
we hope you’ll approve. Until
that time, we’re going ahead as
we have in the months past, just
doing our best to do the best
Frontiersman wc can.
We’ve liked the past two years,
and so even though we shouldn’t
say it. we repeat—Happy birth
day to us.