Alaska Freight Lines Brings New Industry
To Gateway City of Alaska
SEATTLE — Seagoing barges
and fast towboats will soon pro
vide a new link between the
Pacific Coast, Alaska and the
industrial Middle West, accord
ing to plans of Alaska Freight
Lines, Inc.
This company, with several
years of successful towboat-and
barge trucking operations be
tween Puget Sound and interior
Alaska as a foundation, has ap
plied to the Interstate Commerce
Commission for permission to
open the new intercoastal serv
ice on a monthly basis.
“We have spent the last year
and a half in research on trans
portation on the Mississippi
River and the inland waterways
of the Middle West," said E. W.
Hundley, executive vice presi
dent of Alaska Freight Lines.
“We feel there is a great poten
tial for movement of freight
from the industrial heart of the
United States to the Pacific
Coast and Alaska," he said.
In its projected new service
the company's tugs and barges
will sail every month from Al
aska, Seattle, Tacoma, Portland,
San Francisco and Los Angeles
to New Orleans, Chicago, Min
neapolis - St. Paul, Pittsburgh,
Cincinnati. Louisville, St. Louis
and Memphis, Hundley said.
In addition to this regularly
scheduled service, Alaska
Freight Lines has applied for
ICC permission to operate ir
regularly between all Pacific
Coast ports and all Gulf of Mex
ico ports in Florida, Alabama,
Mississippi. Louisiana and Texas.
"We have the equipment and
we are prepared to inaugurate
these services as soon as the
ICC grants us permission,” said
Hundley. “Our exploration of
the Mississippi River and all the
navigable waters of the Middle
West shows that our barges can
be taken upriver to the indus
trial centers of St. Louis, Min
neapolis-St. Paul, Chicago, Cin
cinnati and Pittsburgh. " he said.
At the same time, Hundley an
nounced his company is enlarg
ing its Alaska operations by
building a new dock at Seward,
historic "gateway to the inter
ior" of Alaska.
Completed November 1 at a
cost of $150,000, the new dock
will provide year-around rapid
access to the fast-growing Alas
ka defense belt. It will do this
via the recently completed 128
mile Anchorage to Seward high
way.
Delivery of ammunition and
explosives to northland defense
centers will be greatly expedited
by the Seward dock, which is
situated across Resurrection Bay
two and a half miles from the
city center. For some time Al
aska Freight Lines has been the
exclusive hauler of “ammo” to
Alaska's m i 1 i t a r y "bidl of
strength.”
With its headquarters now in
Seattle, Alaska Freight Lines
was formed in Alaska during
the war by A1 Ghezzi, Jr., of
Nenana, who heads the company
today. He pioneered trucking up
and down the then newly-com
pleted Alaska Highway between
Fairbanks and Seattle, via in
terior Canada. While this route
provided a much-needed service
to Alaska’s “golden heartland,”
it was found to be costly. Ghezzi
and his associates then turned
to another combination—the car
rying of loaded truck trailers
on barges, with packaged cargo
in the barge holds.
Alaska Freight Lines pioneer
ed the use of Haines, at the
upper end of Alaska's famed
inside passage, as a means of
access to northland highways.
Later, in order to offer more
economical rates, the company
changed to Valdez. The latter
will be retained as one of the
company's two highway termini.
Phenomenal growth character
ized Alaska Freight Lines' de
velopment during p o s t-w a r
years, when it was recognized
by military authorities as one
of the most valuable assets for
defense of the northland.
"This wedding of the ocean
with the highways is one of the
most practical, tactical, and flex
ible airangements we have yet
found," said a top-ranking gen
eral, when the company began
its combined ocean-and-highway
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•operations.
“The valuable part of it is,”
lie said, “that in case of necessity
the trucks and trailers can shift
to all-highway operation, while
the towboats and barges can be
diverted to other water serv
ices.”
It has been estimated that
within 30 days the company
could transform its operations
to the highways and haul the
entire tonnage overland that is
now going to interior Alaska by
water.
Today Alaska Freight Lines
lias eight powerful Miki Miki
type towboats, fourteen 2,000
ton barges, and 150 40-foot re
frigerated vans or trailers. Its
o() trucks are heavy-duty 300
horsepower K i> n w o r’t h s. The
company has 400 employes in
Seattle, Tacoma and Alaska.
Seven day door-to-door one
charge service for frozen, per
ishable and general cargo is thus
provided between Puget Sound
and the important defense belt
which runs from Fairbanks
through Anchorage to Seward.
In Alaska the company is
credited with providing a brand
new private enterprise that was
urgently needed. Before it be
gan its service up and down Al
aska's highway network, the Al
aska Railroad was the only over
land access to the norli.land in
terim-.
For some time Alaska Freight
Lines has had two sailings week
ly to Alaska- -Tuesday from Se
attle to Valdez, and Saturday
Irom Tacoma to Anchorage. This
schedule will be maintained, (ex
cept that Seward will take* the
place of Anchorage.
Br-ih Seward and Valdez are
free i' harbor ice the year
around; the latter, .situated at
approximately 92 degrees north
latitude, is the northernmost
year-around ice-free port in the
world.
Before the truek-and-barge
line made that town its highway
terminus. Valdez, was a sleepy
and moribund town of 350; to
day it has a bustling population
of more than 100!).
Skeptics at first said Valdez
would be useless in the winter
because Thompson Pass. 30 miles
up the Richardson Highway, al
ways filled up with snow. Com
pany officials answered this by
buying their own snow-removal
equipment and keeping tHe high
way open in the winter of 1949
50 at their own expense. The
Alaska Road Commission, which
purchased the company's snow
plows. now keeps the pass open
as a routine function.
The freight line is also credit
ed with proving the utility of Al
aska highways, and this in turn
has impelled Congress to allo
cate larger funds for highway
improvement up north.
Today about half the strategic
highway mileage linking the
key centers of Fairbanks, Val
dez, Anchorage and Seward is
paved with “blacktoD." Within
a year nearly all of it will have
been similarly improved.
"In several ways the new Al
aska highways are better than
Stateside highways, and they
hold up better." officials of the
Alaska Road Commission state.
“This is because of two impor
tant factors. First, Alaska has
an abundance of excellent road
building materials readily at
hand: second, we have better
knowledge of highway construc
tion today: we engineer them
from the base up so that chuck
holes and frost heaves are get
ting to be things of the past,"
the ARC men say.
The new freight line dock at
Seward is unusual in that it is
one of the few docks—if not the
only one—in Alaska to be built
by a transportation company at
its own expense.
“We had to blast and bull
doze a mile of new roadway
along a rocky cliff, but it was
well worth it," said Hundley.
“Our dock is sheltered from
storms so that we can serve
Seward and interior Alaska the
year around regardless of wea
ther."
Norine's Becomes
The Fashion Cache
The Fashion Cache, a new
name in Seward will replace
the familiar name of Norine’s
on the dress shop on Fourth
Avenue.
Norine Reed, a popular young
matron and business woman,
has gone out of business, selling
to Eunice Cobb and Dorothy
Winn ingh off.
Transfer of the business was
made by Balmat Realty.
Mrs. Cobb is not a newcomer
to Seward. She lived here be
' ■ .-. — II MUM.—■
fore, operating The Diner with
her husband Larry. They went
Outside last year, only to re
turn recently convinced that
Alaska (Seward) is the only
place to live. Mrs .Winninghoff
is a newcomer.
The new sTiop will open with
a sale, beginning Friday, No
vember 7, and continuing thru
Wednesday, November 12. After
that all prices will revert to
regular schedule. Eunice and
Dorothy promise name-brand
clothes direct from New York,
and a line of larger sizes for the
plump girls who have a hard
time being fitted.
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P.O. Box 381
Seward, Alaska