Matanuska Valley Fair
at Palmer fairgrounds
on Sept. 1, 2, 3. 4.
VOL. 3. NO. 50
Malley Mrontiergman
PUBLISHED IN THE INTERESTS OF THE MATANUSKA VALLEY
PALMER. ALASKA. FRIDAY. AUGUST 25. 1950
Municipal incorpora
tion hearing in district
court at 2:00 p.m. on
Sept. 22.
PRICE 10c
Koslosky, Stock Crack Up On Klutina'Sheep Hunt
Flyers, Valley Folk
Join in Ceremony
Dedicating Airport
Culminating plans for the for
mal opening of Matanuska Valley
Airport at Palmer on Saturday,
Sept. 2, invitations went out this
week to all pilots and established
airlines in this section of Alaska,
and to all Chambers of Com
merce in nearby cities. Roland
Snodgrass, committee chairman,
said today that plans are almost
complete for the Fair-time cere
mony.
A host of planes, among them
DC-3s and possibly some larger
Dianes, are expected to swarm
'through the skies to the Valley
airport before the two o’clock
ceremonies begin. Mr. Snodgrass’
committee is expecting so many
visitors, either afoot, in autos or
in the air, that he has requested
official traffic control assistance
to help manage planes and
crowds.
Guests of honor at the opening
ceremonies will include members
of the territorial aeronautics com
mission, heads of the four original
sponsoring organizations (the
Loyal Order of Moose, Northland
Pioneer Grange, American Le
gion and the Matanuska Valley
Farmers’ Co-Operating Associa
tion) and possibly some military
visitors of distinction. Chief
speaker for the dedicatory cere
mony has not yet been selected.
Highlight of the afternoon’s
ceremonies will be when four
little girls, all daughters of a
member of one of the original
sponsoring organizations, “christ
en” the newly-completed field.
The four, dressed in costume and
armed with a sprinkling can, will
sprinkle a selected location on the
field with Matanuska river water
to open the Matanuska Valley
Airport to plane traffic.
Girls who will participate in
the ceremony include Terry,
(Continued on Back Page)
CUBS PLAN CLEAN-UP
OF SCHOOL GROUNDS
AT MONDAY PACK MEET
Palmer’s Cub Pack will make
a clean-up day of its regular
monthly meeting on Aug. 28,
Hugh Johnson announced today.
Cubs will meet on the play
grounds east of Palmer School at
4:30 p.m. that day, he said.
Every Cub who wants to earn
credit for helping with a commu
nity project should be present.
Den mothers will keep an attend
ance record on Cubs present. All
boys who come should bring
boxes or sacks in which to store
broken glass and waste paper.
After Cubs have polished up
the school grounds in prepara
tion for the Sept. 5 opening of
school, they’ll hold Olympic games
to find the best athletes of the
Pack. Sack races, three-legged
races, standing broad jumps, re
lay races, broomstick pulls, ball
throws, and a tug of war will be
held.
There’ll be a bonfire handy, on
which to- roast hot dogs and
marshmallows. However each
family group which attends must
bring its own food. Mr. Johnson
urged that parents attend with
the Cubs. “Cub Scouting should
be a family affair,” he said. “At
least one parent of each Cub is
urged to attend and to be with
tne boys at work and play.”
Vivian "Babe" Meier, queen candidate of the Jonesville local of
the United Mine Workers, was second entrant in the contest to
qualify. Miss Meier deposited $400 with Fair manager Robert Crites
early this week, to make her lop ticket saleswoman of the contest.
However ticket sales are only one of the several points to be con
sidered by the judges in selecting the queen ox itu. • -»•
ley Fair.—(Photo by Palmer Studios.)
I COMMUNITY CHEST
I DRIVE BEGINSSEPT.il
The Valley’s Community Chest
campaign for 1950 will commence
on Sept. 11 this year, it was de
cided at a Chest board meeting
this week. Irwin Plitt has been
named this year’s campaign man- j
ager.
Plans for the drive still are in- j
complete, Mr. Plitt said. No goal
has been fixed yet, and the length
of the campaign has not yet been
set.
Chest board members will meet
again for further planning in the
U. S. Geological Survey office
on Sept. 2 and 9, at 3:30 p.m.
Meanwhile, board president
Miss Louise Kellogg urges all par
ticipating agencies to prepare and
submit budgets before those
meeting dates. Goal for the 1950
campaign cannot be fixed until
the budgets of participating
agencies have been received and
evaluated.
Wasillct School Opens
With Half-Day Session
On September 5
WASILLA—School will open
here on Tuesday, Sept. 5. Since
the first day is planned as a half
day session only, there will be no
hot lunch served. Buses will run
on the same schedule that was in
effect at the closing of school last
spring, except that no bus will
run on the Swamp Lake exten
sion.
High school students will regis
ter on Monday and Tuesday, Aug.
28 and 29 between the hours of
(Continued on Back Page)
Stethoscopes Today,
Surgery May Be Next
For Co-Op Water Line
Even a stethoscope failed to
give a complete diagnosis of
the ills of the Co-Op’s water
system yesterday. Frank Clark
of the maintenance depart
ment, and James Wilson, Co
Op manager, listened intently
with the instrument at various
joinings and branches but they
still are not sure of the cause
of the trouble.
However manager Wilson
has accurately spotted the ail
ment as “just not enough water
coming down the darned line.”
He’s working back from that
conclusion now to find out
why.
And while Co - Op men
search desperately for reasons,
Mr. Wilson soothes water
hungry consumers with the
thought that “at least, it’s not
gettting any worse.”
The Co-Op manager said ev
ery effort would be made to
confine cut-offs to the present
hours—that is, between mid
night and six a.m. He added
that it might become necessary
to shut off water without ad
vance notice, but every ef
fort will be made to avoid so
doing.
Meanwhile a reserve has
been built that is adequate for
fire protection and Palmer is
in no real danger because of
the water shortage.
Margaret "Punkie" Reed is the candidate sponsored by the Kiwanis
Club of Palmer. "Punkie" is carefully keeping mum about her
standing in the race by holding back her ticket returns until dea -
line time. Queen candidates have until noon on Saturday. Sept.
to sell the necessary 300 tickets to qualify for title honors. The
Fair queen will be announced at the coronation ball, to be held in
Palmer Gymnasium on Sept. 2.—(Photo by Palmer Studios.)
’neither man is
SERIOUSLY HURT
IN ACCIDENT
Clair Stock walked away from
his fourth plane accident last
Tuesday afternoon. The Valley
restaurant-owner was a passenger
in the ship piloted by Jan Kos
losky, which cracked up on a
take-off at Snowshoe Lake. The
plane was almost totally demol
ished, but except for multiple
scratches, bruises and abrasions
for Mr. Stock and wrenched mus
cles for Mr. Koslosky, neither is
the worse for the accident.
, The pair were returning from
a sheep hunt in the Klutina Lake
area, located about 40 miles back
from Tazlina. They had concluded
their hunt (which was unsuccess
ful) and were coming home. Mr.
Koslosky had stored extra gas at
Snowshoe Lake, and they landed
there to gas the plane before con
tinuing on to Palmer. A com
panion plane, piloted by Earl
Brown with Clarence Bell as pas
senger, also alighted at the lake
for gas. The smaller and slower
plane negotiated the take-off suc
cessfully and flew on toward Pal
mer, expecting the swifter Kos
losky floatship to overtake them.
The Koslosky ship took off eas
ily, but just as the plane became
airborne a quick breeze swirled
over the top of the hill which
rises at the end of the lake. The
plane rose to an altitude of al
most 150 feet, then faltered as it
was struck by a strong downdraft.
Sensing that he could not gain
altitude quickly enough to clear
the hill, the pilot levelled the
plane and turned back toward
the lake, hoping to reach it in
time for a safe landing.
However the ship lost altitude
too quickly and snagged a float
on tall trees growing beyond the
rim of the lake. The contact with
the trees hurled the plane to the
ground on one wing. The impact
smashed the fuselage like match
sticks. The plane struck with such
force that it snapped the stock of
: Mr. Koslosky’s rifle.
Both men, though dazed, wo. •
(Continued on Back Page)
Palmer First-Graders
Confound the Experts
By all the laws and regulations
of population statistics, Palmer
should have no more than 53 stu
dents in its first grade this year.
I But laws and regulations already
I were sadly askew on Wednesday
! of this week, when 57 beginners
! had been pre-registered in the of
! fice of Palmer School at 4:27 p.m.
Other registrants are expected
j to straggle in until school opens
' next Tuesday, and other new and
unregistered faces are expected to
i greet first grade instructors Betty
j Kreutz and Mrs. Thomas Moyer
! when the school bell rings at nine
I a.m. on opening day. Superin
tendent William T. Zahradnicek
ventured the guess that Palmer’s
first-grade class registration could
hit 65 this term.
A similar increase is expected
throughout the school. In one day
of record-keeping, 24 new pupils
were registered in the elementary
school, between grades two and
nine.
Mr. Zahradnicek wouldn’t guess
what the total school population
could be expected to be this year.