'Annual Moose As
sociation Convention
opens here on Thurs
day, Sept. 21.
VOL. 4. NO. 1
Malley IHrontieersm
PUBLISHED IN THE INTERESTS OF THE MATANUSKA VALLEY
PALMER. ALASKA. FRIDAY. SEPTEMBER 15. 1550
U PAGES
TODAY
PRICE 10c
Legion Votes To Build Offices For Eklutna Job
-1
Moose Convention
Brings Lodge Official
To Palmer Hext Week
Carl A. Weis, grand herder of
the Legion of the Moose and chief
auditor of the Loyal Order of
Moose, will be in Palmer to at
tend the Alaska Moose Associa
tion convention opening here
Sept. 21, Don Ingalls of the local
lodge announced this week. Mr.
Weis comes from Mooseheart, 111.,
national headquarters of the
Moose lodge.
It will be the lodge dignitary’s
second visit to the Valley. He was
in Palmer in 1947 to attend con
ferences with the Palmer and An
chorage lodges. Mr. Weis will
audit the books of both organiza
tions during his stay this time.
Mr. Ingalls reports that plans
for next week’s convention, at
which 75 delegates from all parts
of the Territory are expected, are
well in hand. On the fun side of
the convention activities, there
will be two dances and a banquet.
There will be a welcoming
dance, open to all visiting dele
gates and all local lodge members
on the evening of Sept. 21, first
day of the convention. This will
be an informal ice-breaker affair,
with music running to square
dances and other “old-time” tunes,
Ingalls said. The dance will be
held in the Gym.
A banquet and grand ball is
planned for Saturday, Sept. 23.
Dress will be semi-formal for this
occasion. Time of the banquet,
which will be held in the Gymna
sium, was indefinite at press
time. Members of the Lutheran
Ladies’ Aid will serve. Schaefer’s
Orchestra will play for the danc
ing.
Mr. Ingalls invited all members
of‘the local lodge to attend both
of these functions. There is no
charge for either affair. However
he requests that all who plan to
attend the banquet make a reser
vation with a member of the com
mittee before Thursday, Sept. 21.
Members serving on the banquet
committee are Mr. and Mrs. Ralph
Moore, Merle Anderson and Mr.
and Mrs. Don Ingalls.
Members of the local Moose
lodge, who are official convention
delegates, are:
Jack Maze, Merle Anderson,
D.{sT. McMahon, William Lentz
and Harry Campbell, Sr. Alter
nates are John Reed, Eino Wir
tanen and Leo Lucas.
Breezes Wreak Havoc
In Family Wallet
Weekend winds cost Johnny
Gore and Jack Tost of Palmer
$500. They and Otto Peterson
were the only Valley residents
who were money out of pocket
ps a direct result of the 50-mile
b?eezes that troubled the Valley
on Friday, Saturday and Sunday,
although other local residents re
ported felled trees and other
minor damage.
The Tost - Gore wallet was
slimmed when a gust tipped the
Peterson plane at the airport,
wrenched it loose from its moor
ings and then dumped it over on
the Tost plane tied in the next
parking area. The Peterson plane
was badly damaged, possibly be
yond repair. Mr. Gore estimated
the damages on the family plane
at $500.
LILLIAN LOBERG. queen of
Ihe Matanuska Valley Fair,
dons her royal robes and crown
to greet her subjects at the
Fair's Coronation Ball.—(Photo
by Robinson Studios.)
VISIT SISTER HERE
Mr. and Mrs. Leonard Thies and
John Altergott of Fairbanks were
Valley visitors during Fair week.
They were the guests of Mrs. Her
tha Byers, sister of Mr. Thies.
RALPH MOORE OF PALMER HEADS
TERRITORIAL MOOSE ASSOCIATION
Ralph Moore of Palmer heads
the Alaska Moose Association,
which meets here in territorial
convention next week. Mr. Moore j
was named to his office at the
; Juneau conference last year,
! where he earned the honor by
his tireless devotion to the in
terests of the Moose lodge.
Mr. Moore is the only lodge
member in Alaska who is a mem
ber of the Moose Century Club.
Requisite for that honor is se
curing 100 new members for the
organisation. He has been a
worke, in Palmer Lodge No. 793
since its organiaztion in 1944, and
during that time has been respon
sible for more than one-third of
the 300 members who have been
added to Palmer membership
lists.
Although holding no job but
that of sergeant-at-arms in the
Palmer lodge at present, the ter
ritorial Moose governor has servec
in several offices of that organi
zation. He was secretary of Lodge
No. 793 at the time of its incep- i
tion, serving for three years, from
1944 through 1946. He holds the
degree of fellow in the Loyal
Order of Moose, one of three in
the local organization to attain
that degree.
Mr. Moore also holds the office
of herder (secretary) in the Le
gion of the Moose, the fun orga
nization of the lodge.
Next week’s gathering in Pal
mer is the first time a large ter
ritorial convention has chosen the
city as a meeting place. Mr.
Moore was instrumental in hav- ]
ing Palmer selected as the 1950
site at last year’s Juneau con- j
. vention.
Fellow members in the local
| lodge say that he is “the hardest- j
| working member in our lodge. He
I is constantly trying for more new
! members and is always active in
lodge affairs.”
Fern Mine Owner's Body Is Found
On Mountointop Near Lucky Shot Mine
G. I.'s Drive Car
Into Granite Wall
Four Fort Richardson soldiers
were injured in a spectacular au
tomobile crash at the end of the
Matanuska River Bridge at 4:30
this morning. The GIs, riding to
ward Anchorage in an Air Com
mand staff car, lost control of
their vehicle as it left the bridge, j
The automobile skidded for 140
feet along the ditch line, was de
flected from its course by bould- j
ers and smashed into a wall of
granite. The front of the car
pushed through a small aperture
in the wall, and the vehicle rico
cheted back onto the highway.
The car was completely demol- j
ished.
Riding in the staff car wei;e
Cpl. George Foote of the 57th Air
Police Squadron, Pfc. Donald M.
Hawkinson and Cpl. Russel R.
Ratztaff of the 57th Motor Vehicle
Squadron, and Pvt. Joe Vervey of
Service Company, Fourth Infan- ;
try. Corporal Foote, . suffering
head and back injuries, was most I
seriously hurt.
All four men were hospitalized
at Elmendorf’s Air Force Hospital.
Attendants said this morning that
all were in serious condition.
The accident was reported to
Territorial Highway Patrolman
Stanley Laird at about 4:30 this
morning. One of the injured men
walked to a nearby service sta
tion to summon help.
Evidence at the scene of the
accident points to excessive speed,!
patrolman Laird said. There also
was evidence of drinking among
the men. A military investigation
of the accident is being conducted, j
The demolished staff car bore
the insignia of a two-star general,
Patrolman Laird reported.
“A1 Dodson is lost. We have |
looked for him and cannot find
dim. He had nothing to eat with
him and had no coat. He was
last seen at five o’clock in the
morning (last Sunday), after
walking all night in the sleet and
rain. We fear for his life.”
That was the grim message that
first warned Valley folk that all
was not well on a moose hunt in {
the Willow Creek area. It
launched one of the largest aerial
searches by private civilian planes
ever to get under way in this
area, and it ended only when the
dead man’s body was found, lying
atop a mountain peak above
Lucky Shot Mine, only half a
mile away from where he was
last seen.
The all-out search was brought
to an end. when Capt. T. H. Kemp \
of the Tenth Rescue Squadron, j
who was accompanied by T. M.
Connally of Lucky Shot Mine, and
H. F. Curran of Willow, sighted
the body yesterday. The pilot j
landed his helicopter on the lone- I
ly mountain and brought the dead j
man back to Lucky Shot, base
camp for searchers in the area.
An inquest held at the scene
yesterday, under assistant com- ,
missioner Pat Carter of Wasilla, j
found the cause of death to be ex
haustion, and probably heart
failure.
“It just looked like Al’s ticker I
said, ‘Well, this is it, A1—the end j
of the road,’ and he lay down and
went to sleep,” Mr. Carter re
counted. The dead man was lying
comfortably, eyes closed and head
pillov/ed on a small sack of moose
liver. His rifle lay at his side.
Mr. Dodson had gone into the
Willow Creek district, accompa
nied by his nephew, Lee Coleman, j
and by Bill Cook, Ralph Goodrich i
and Leo Lucas of Palmer. He had !
oeen hunting with Mr. Coleman, j
when the two parted company
aarly Sunday morning, after ar
ranging a rendezvous for lateri
that day. Mr. Dodson was last
seen walking along the Little j
Susitna side of the ridge.
Friends of the missing man had i
steadfastly refused to believe that ,
he was lost. He had prospected !
(Continued on Back Page)
Waitress Cut
In Auto Accident
Aline Wedmore, Palmer wait- i
ress, was painfully but not crit
ically injured in an automobile ;
accident on the Glenn Highway j
last Monday morning. Mrs. Wed- |
more was returning to Palmer J
from Alpine Inn when her auto- j
mobile went out of control in the
soft shoulder at the roadside and
hurtled down an embankment.
The woman suffered multiple
cuts and bruises of the face and
head, as well as cuts -and contu
sions on her body, attending phy
sician Dr. C. C. Bailey ^aid. Sev
eral of her front teeth were de
stroyed, and she will be under a
dentist’s care for some time.
Mrs. Wedmore was admitted to
Valley Hospital on Monday, and
was sufficiently recovered to be
dismissed by Thursday.
OFFER WILL BE
CONSIDERED HERE
THIS WEEKEND
Matanuska Valley Post No. 15
of the American Legion wiP
build the Bureau of Reclamation
a brand-new set of offices for
use as headquarters for the Eklut
na project. That was the decision
reached in last Friday’s special
membership meeting here.
The offer had been made ear
lier, through the Legion’s execu
tive committee, when Joseph M.
Morgan, chief of the Alaska In
vestigations Office of the Bureau,
announced last July 14 that the
Eklutna headquarters would be in
Palmer. Friday’s action confirms
the offer of the executive com
mittee.
The proposal has not yet been
accepted. Mr. Morgan and other
Reclamation officials are expect
ed to be in Palmer Sunday to
make a final decision. It is un
derstood that two Palmer busi
nessmen, Harry Ryan and A1
Hagen, also have made similar of
fers to the Bureau of Reclama
tion.
If the American Legion offer is
accepted, the quarters will be con
structed as a second story on the
present Legion Hall. If Reclama
tion officials favor the plan, a
lease is expected to be negotiated
this weekend, and construction
will begin at once.
Tentative plans for the con
struction place the cost of the ad
dition to Legion Hall at $35,000, a
building committee spokesman
said. Local builders and contract
ing firms have been at work all
week, drafting tentative estimates
of costs for the planned addition.
Members of the Legion’s build
ing committee, who are conduct
ing negotiations for the organi
zation, include:
Dr. F. R. Sims, Jagk Maze, Bob
Johns, Bill Head, Art Marsh,
Seth Cook and Carl Rasmussen
Eureka—There's Water
In Palmer Spigots
Palmer’s long drought is at
an end. Saturday night baths
can be rescheduled with regu
larity, and housev/ives no long
er have excuse for stacking the
breakfast dishes until evening,
in order to save water. Palmer
has water, now.
With the help of a borrowed
leak detector, the Frank Clark
foremanned crew of the Mata
nuska Valley Farmers’ Co-Op
erating Association has traced
at least a part of the water dif
ficulty. The biggest leak un
covered was in a faulty main
located on the doorstep of
buildings in the Co-Op area.
Two other minor leaks were
discovered and repaired.
However, there’s still an ele
ment of mystery in the matter.
Co-Op manager James Wilson,
in announcing that the water
level is holding at normal, ad
mits that he doesn’t quite know
why. The biggest leak discov
ered in the system still is to be
repaired.