/
VGL. I
Palmer, Alaska....*«.April 9, 1956
No • 34
SOUR AND SPLEEN-LATEF ECHOES
FILTER BACK EBON. TT'S STATES
Ray Wilkes is Lack Lome in Y’ah
ken, Minnesota, and very probably
everyone in Nille Lacs County is
aware of it by this time. Accord
ing to a letter from Mrs. L.JA
Durfee, mother of Mrs. Allen Fred
ericks of Tract y87, Rilkes is do
ing a let of explaining about- why
he left the colony.
Mrs. Durfee says that she hasn’t
talked with Ray personally, but
that he has been making'speeches
to public gatherings which have
been widely quoted...even to the
hiccoughs in the one he gave before
the Commercial Club.
To the surprise of many, Ray is
credited with saying that he left
his tract up here because he was
told to rack up and get cut...the
reason being that h° had failed tc
fulfill his contract.
To those who might wonder at
su oh an unt rue st at erne nt, let it
be explained that by such an ex
planation he retains his status of
being eligible for relief. No
doubt this was irnnert nt to Kay for
he went back onto the rolls the day
after arriving back'there. T'ith his
whole family he is living at the ■
home of his mother, making twelve
now under the same roof.
likes also says teat trie wnc-Le
valley has been taken ever by a
big corporation and that no colo
nist has any title to the land he
is working. Another thing is that
one is charged double for everyth
ing. A .fellow buys thirty dollars
worth of stuff, says Vrilkes, and
the charge is made for sixty dol
lars .
In another letter from YRhkon
Ray is punted as saying he had
earned over a hundred dollars a
month as overseer of a sawmill,
but that when he left he owed 600
dollars. The truth of the matter
seems to be that I'ilkes ran one of
the sawmills about ten days, and,
according to some of the colonists
still here, did little else the
balance of the time lie snent in
the valley. They say that every
time a car writ east Ray’s bald
head rose from the couch where he
lay reading, and this would hannen
any hour of the day.
* :'oje iV sic sf: iMc*
FALTER TATrFS ON CT>RT1TG GR0VTF
Simcscn’s restaurant building
nears come letion...Rainh Fortoh is
having ar: addition built to his
hotel which will house an uu-to
the-rdnute barber shoo..Uslo skys
have doubled the s.ize of their
store... snail homes are scringing
un here and there....all an indig
nation that 1,Imer will be a busy,
bustling town this summer.
>>,< >(:>!< y -^ >!: >fc
.mother sigr: of Soring: yeeo
an eye on Jiff Farley and Petty
Hier...especially along about the
fifteenth of the month, pells and
bequotsg 7.1.11, your guess is as
good as curs.
sfc sfc
■>’' >l< ^
Frank Gottor, quite justly fam
ous as the author of ’’Rhymes cf
a Roughneck,” that book of Versi
fled sidelights on.life in Alaska,
has left for his .mining nronerty
on Valdez Creek after snenling a
few days study of the colony set
na with the view cf writing it un
for the Alaska Weekly.
Frank, who cammed un here on
Moose Creek ?5 years ago, made the
rounds in the coma any cf Colonel
Ohlscn and Don Irwin, and says thal
the only thing missing in the whole
set-un is a really high grade, late
model psychiatrist; says they need
one here to examine the heads ~>f
any man who would want to leave
the colony unless driven out hy
sickness in his family. Fe says
it isn’t .fair to shin crazy neonle
back to the States, even if it is
to use un the other half of a re
turn excursion ticket.
Harry denser: cf Tract fI75 has
received word that his sister-in
law and two trothers-in-law are
on their way un here to make their
homes. . * * '
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