valley Frontiersman
VOL. II.
PALMER, ALASKA JUNE 30, 1949
No. 30
ARR Employee Fatally Hurt In Fall
Larry Stock
Is First Entry
In Talent Contest
The first official entry in the
talent contest, amateur divi
sion. being staged as an attrac
tion of the coming Matanuska
Valley fair this fall, is Larry
Stock, fair manager Charles Dil
lon announced this week. Larry,
a teen-age pianist, is sponsored
by the Matanuska Valley Farm
ers Co-operating Association.
Lary is a 16-year-old senior at
Palmer High School. He has been
taking piano lessons since he
was eight, and also has studied
the Hammond organ. Mrs. Carl
Stoeckle and Mrs. Timothy Hen
nessey have been his recent in
structors.
Larry was born in Kelso,
Wash., but has lived in the Val
ley for the past 10 years. He is
the son of Mr. and Mrs. L. C.
Stock of the Co-op Fountain,
and is employed during the sum
mers by the MVFCA as a clerk
in the Trading Post.
The contestant’s principal in
terest is modern music. He cou
ples that interest with a com
panion flair for modern danc
ing, and is best known among
student friends for his accom
'plished jitterbugging and his
"boogie-woogie” improvisations.
Larry will be heard on the 12:30
p. m. fair broadcast this Satur
day afternoon, in company with
the latest entrants in the beauty
contest.
The two latest entries in that
beauty contest both jumped at
once to a five-point advantage
over their fellow queens by rea
(Continued on Page 8)
Diary Gives Hint
Of Violent Death
For Prospector
‘‘Taking a load of freight to
Whiskers Camp.” That note,
dated April 7 in the diary of
Paul Barnett, and the reappear
ance of two husky dogs, alone,
at Sheep Mountain Inn are the
two meagre clues which hint at
possible violent death for the
60-year-old prospector who lived
alone at the mouth of the Lit
tle Nelchina River, beneath the
frigid shadow of Little Nelchina
glacier.
Members of a rescue crew from
Fort Richardson’s Tenth Rescue
Squadron today were attempt
ing to follow the leads in the
hope that they will bring them
to Mr. Barnett. The crew knows
that Mr. Barnett never reached
his upper camp, for his cabin
was visited there and found
abandoned. They think that the
two and a half miles of trail be
tween the cabin at the lower
camp and that at Whiskers
Camp may reveal some trace of
the prospector.
Friends of Barnett, who lived
18 or 20 miles from Sheep
Mountain, through some of the
wildest and most treacherous
country in the north, feel sure
he is dead now. The dogs ap
peared at Sheep Mountain sev
eral weeks ago, but at first no
alarm was felt, for it was taken
as an indication that Barnett
was on his way out over the
trail.
When almost a month had
passed with no word from Bar
nett, Thomas Hinshaw of Sheep
Mountain notified Mrs. Dorothy
Saxton, U. S. Commissioner at
Palmer. Mrs. Saxton in turn
(Continued on Page 2>
Fair Sponsors
Saturday Dances
The first of a summer-long
series of weekly dances, to be
presented under the sponsorship
of the Matanuska Valley Fair
Association, is planned for Sat
urday. July 2, it was announced
this week by Charles Dillon, fair
manager. Saturday’s holiday
dance will be high-lighted by
the appearance of the Valley’s
queen and talent contestants,
who will be introduced at inter
mission.
Dancing will begin at 9 p. m.
in the Palmer Gym to the music
of the Schaefer orchestra. Ad
mission will be $1.25 a couple.
Tickets will be sold at the door
only.
These dances will be scheduled
each Saturday night until fair
time. Mr. Dillon said. It is also
planned to present talent con
testants and beauty queen en
tries at an impromptu intermis
sion show each week.
Board Talks Managership
With Oregon Nurse
Miss Janet Mills of Florence,
Ore., is being considered by the
board of the Valley Hospital As
sociation for the position of hos
pital manager, board president
James Wilson announced this
week.
The board met in special ses
sion Monday afternoon to re
view the several applications re
ceived. Miss Mills had made ap
plication for the position by
wire, and the board selected her
as their first choice. However
details have not been discussed
with the prospective manager,
and it is not known if she will
definitely accept the position.
THORLEY LOSES
FOUR-DAY FIGHT
FOR LIFE
Battling against almost im
possible odds to what doctors
first felt was at least an even
chance for life, Frank Thorley,
an Alaska Railroad employe,
died in Providence Hospital at
Anchorage last Sunday. The
man was the victim of an acci
dent attributable to last week’s
heavy rainstroms.
Working as a member of Steve
Ostrander’s crew of the ARR
commissary department, the
man was assisting in the dis
mantling of the mining camp at
Eska. He climbed a power pole
to take down a transformer.
Earth at the base of the pole
had been loosened by last week’s
downpours, and the pole toppled
over, carrying Thorley to the
ground and crushing him under
the heavy transformer.
Examining physicians said
the accident crushed the pelvis
of the injured man, broke his
back and inflicted internal in
juries. They expressed amaze
ment that rescuers had been
able to remove him to a stretch
er without causing death. He
was brought to the Valley Hos
pital by ambulance from Eska,
and a day or two later removed
to Providence Hospital in An
chorage by special rail ambu
lance.
Dr. James Brandon, ARR phy
sician, praised local physicians
and nurses for their care of the
injured man. He said it was only
their constant vigilance which
kept Thorley alive. Eleven trans
(Continued on Page 8)
Rusty Flies To Boston Art Lessons
After 15 years of dabbling with
oil paints for her own amuse
ment. Palmer’s Rusty Dow was
off for the states this week to
register for her first art lesson.
Those who have seen Rusty’s
panoramic murals, her colorful
oils of Alaska’s scenes, and more
recently her whimsical studies of
Alaskan child life, will doubt
the serious need for that art
lesson.
Rusty goes to Rockport, Mass
just north of Boston, where she
will study under Stanley Wood
ward. Mr. Woodward’s studio is
at Rockport, and each summer
he selects a few students to
study under him there.
s
The Massachusetts artist, who
is best known for his marine
oils of the Eastern seacoast. has
met his Alaskan student by let
ter only. The two became ac
quainted when Rusty wrote the
artist to question him concern
ing points of technique. Her let
ter recalled to him the picture
published in Holiday magazine
last year, which showed Rusty
at an„outdoor easel at work on
another of her Alaskan scenes.
The correspondence continued
last winter and led to the artist’s
invitation to Rusty to come out
side and study this summer.
She has looked forward eager
ly to the trip, although she was
already suffering pre-flight jit
ters last week-end. “I bought my
ticket this morning,” she told
friends on Saturday, ‘‘and I’m
already airsick.” The flight will
be the first in a large plane for
the artist, and the second of
her life-time. She once flew to
Fairbanks in a small plane “at
tree-top level all the way,” she
insists.
Mrs. Dow will be back in Sep
tember. In the meantime, her
homestead near knik bridge will
be occupied by her husband,
Russell Dow, and by Mr. and
Mrs. Walter Hansen of Ellens
burg. Wash.
En route to Boston, the Alas
kan expects to make her second
visit to New York. She drove
through the city on a visit Out
side in 1947, but complains that
wintery weather closed her in so
tightly she couldn’t see anything
of the city.
She expects this summer’s
sightseeing among the tall
buildings will be a much more
spine-tingling experience than
driving through New York traf
fic on wintery streets was. That
was just another day’s work to
Rusty, who has been pushing
her own truck over icy Alaskan
highways since her establish
ment of a hauling business in
Palmer back in 1935.