Chance Remark Brings Wool
Industry to Aleutian Island Chain
Editors Note: Years ago an
Alaskan tried to interest an
Oregon stockman in a fishing
trip to the Aleutian Island Chain.
The stockman didn’t take the
bait until he was told there
wasn’t anything on those islands
but grass. That brought him up
—with a herd of sheep instead
of fishing rods.
By Ward Sims
Associated. Press Staff Writer
NIKOLSKI, Alaska UPf—A chance
remark made in 1918 has brought
a struggling but confident new
wool industry to a lonely, tree
less group of islands in Alaska’s
Aleutian Chain.
Except for nippy winds which
constantly bathe the islands, the
rolling, grass-covered hills are
much like the vast sheep ranges of
Nevada, Utah or Oregon.
Partly because of the cool cli
mate, partly because of a lack of
predators, but mostly because only
grass grows on these islands, there
are now some 15,000 sheep in the
Aleutians. They brought $69,500
from 119,000 pounds of wool to
Alaskan ranchers in 1960.
The industry evolved from a
chance remark of a Dutch Harbor
resident to a stockman and a sur
geon from Oregon in 1918.
The man, so the story goes, was
trying to interest William McIn
tosh, an Oregon stockman, and Dr.
Andrew C. Smith of Portland in
an Aleutian fishing venture.
They weren’t interested.
McIntosh did ask, however, if
there were any opportunities to
turn a dollar in the Aleutians. No,
the man answered, there isn’t a
thing on the chain but grass.
It was all stockman McIntosh
needed.
Flock of 500 Sheep
That same year, in 1918, McIn
tosh and Smith put a flock of 500
sheep on the chain, at Dutch Har
bor.
Later the animals were trans
ferred to Umnak and Unalaska Is
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| lands, and in 1923 the Western
Pacific Livestock Co. and the
Aleutian Livestock Co. brought
more sheep to the area.
It was the beginning of opera
tions which now include three large
sheep ranches on Bureau of Land
Management grazing leases cover
ing some 800,000 acres.
Operating one of the Umnak
spreads is Arthur J. Harris, a mem
ber of the Alaska State legislature.
He has 115,000 acres under lease.
While Harris sess a promising
future for sheep ranchers there, he
is even more enthusiastic about the
prospects of beef production.
“There’s not a tree, not a bush,
not a shrub within a thousand
miles of our operation,” said Har
ris, an island resident for 28 years.
“The islands are as good, if not
substantially better, for the pro
duction of beef than they are for
wool. I’m convinced there is no
place on the North American con
tinent where beef can be produced
as cheaply.”
Many Problems to Overcome
There are many problems to
overcome: There are no slaughter
or storage facilities, and transpor
tation is expensive, but Harris is
not dismayed.
“Once these problems are solved,
I am positive that the beef industry
will become the prominent indus
try in the Aleutians,” he said.
High transportation costa are
felt now by wool growers. It costs
as much to ship wool from here
to Seward, Alaska, as it does from
Australia to Boston. Added to this
is the cost of getting the product
on to Portland, Ore., the destina
tion of all Aleutian wool.
On the other hand, climate con
tributes to making Alaskan wool
unusually dean and free from
seeds or burrs, explained Harris.
It also makes the sheep sweat less,
reducing shrinkage.
And predators ^-present only
minor problems for Alaskan sheep
men compared with the heavy in
roads they make into some sheep
flocks in the western umted States,
where bears and coyotes are al
most constant hazards.
The pesky red fox gives the
Alaskans some trouble during the
two-month annual lambing season,
he said. But no other predators are
present.
There is no. commercial mutton
production on the Aleutian ranges.
There would be a serious problem
in getting it to market. And the
range land under lease hasn’t been
fully stocked. Young animals are
worth more as producers of wool
than meat.
“When our range has been
fully stocked, I feel absolutely that
the production of meat will become |
a very important phase of our
operation,” Harris said.
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Sen, McClellan Says
World Behind
Night Clubs Is a
National Disgrace
WASHINGTON GW — Sen. John
L. McClellan, (D-Ark.), says the
world behind the footlights of
honky tonk night clubs is a nation
al disgrace.
McClellan’s Senate investigating
subcommittee hears more about it
Tuesday on Baltimore night spots.
Counsel Jerome Adlerman said
the subcommittee will look into
charges that prostitution and
rackets are flourishing in the
Maryland port city’s night clubs.
He said the senators will also
hear testimony on suspected viola
tions of immigration laws in bring
ing girls from Canada, Greece and
possibly other nations to work as
entertainers.
The subcommittee is investigat
ing allegations that officials of the
American Guild of Variety Artists
AFL-CIO, have connived with un
derworld-operated night clubs
which force girl entertainers into
prostitution and drink-hustling.
One witness, comedienne Ann
O’Connor, told the senators Friday
show girls are exploited in some
night clubs.
“I have always felt there was
collusion between AGVA and the
operators,” she said.
Miss O’Connor said Jackie
Bright, the union’s $31,000 a year
executive administrator, is the real
boss of AGVA. She said the union’s
executive committee is a rubber
stamp for Bright.
In Baltimore, Dorothy Lamour
protested that some of the witness
es were attacking the entertainers’
union for publicity and to get back
at night club owners against whom
they bear grudges.
The former movie star, an AGVA
director, said if show girls were
abused at clubs with union con
tracts, it was their own fault.
FORMER ELVA GLASS
DIES IN AUTO ACCIDENT '
Clyde Glass received the sad and
shocking news that his sister, the
former Elva Glass who went to
school here, was killed with her
husband, Morris Waite, in a car
accident while traveling from
Odgen, Utah to Reno, Nev.
The details of the accident were
net received and it is not known
whether it was their son or grand
son with them.
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HAVE YOU tried to quit smok
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ALASKA AIRLINES WILL
HAUL NFLD. LOBSTERS
WASHINGTON UP) — Alaska
Airlines asked the Civil Aeronau
tics Board Friday for authority to
operate six cargo flights — each
carrying 40,000 pounds of live
lobsters — from Gander, Nfld., to
Boston this month.
The flights would be conducted
for Air-Trans Services, Inc., of
Gander, for about $2,500 a trip.
Alaska said the compensation
would represent a profitable “back
haul” in connection with its one
way eastbound cargo flights for
the Military Air Transport Service
between McGuire Air Force Base,
N.J., Keflavik, Iceland, and Frank
furt, Germany.
The airline asked for a waiver
of regulations which would pro
hibit off-route charter flight. It
said Pan American World Airways
and Trans World Airlines had
been offered the contract but turn
ed it down.
GOPs ENDORSE LODGE
WORCESTER, Mass. —George
Cabot Lodge was endorsed Satur
day by the Massachusetts State
Convention for the Republican
nomination for the U.S. Senate.
Lodge won the endorsement in
a neck and neck race right down
to the wire. The final official tally
was 936 votes for Lodge and 848
for U.S. Rep. Laurence Curtis.
Lodge came immedately to the
platform to make an acceptance
speech. Curtis, through a spokes
man, said he would have no im
mediate statement as to whether
he would challenge Lodge in the
primary.
“Jazz will endure as long as
people hear it through their feet
instead of their brains.”
—John Philip Sousa
$400,000 IN DAMAGES
AWARDED TO 6-YEAR-OLD
OAKLAND, Calif. UP) ■— A Su
perior Court jury has awarded
$400,000 damages to a 6-year-old
boy for brain damage he suffered
when his heart stopped beating
during a minor eye operation.
Hayward, is now a patient at Son
oma State Hospital.
The jury awarded $3,600 for
medical costs in its Friday night
verdict.
The suit was brought against
Laurel Grove Hospital, Castro
Valley,- anesthetist F. M. Thorn
berg and Dr. Karl J. Palmberg by
the boy’s mother, Helen Quintal.
She charged that permanent
brain damage resulted because of
a four-minute delay in opening
her son’s chest and massaging his
heart to restore breathing.
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