-PHS graduation exer
cises at Gymnasium at
8 o'clock on May 17.
Malley Mrontiergman "
PUBLISHED IN THE INTERESTS OF THE MATANUSKA VALLEY
P H S baccalaureate
services at Gymnasi
um at 8 o'clock on
May 14.
VOL. THREE—NO. 34
- PALMER, ALASKA, FRIDAY, MAY 5, 1950
PRICE 10c
Hit-Run Driver Slays Wasiila Native Woman
Painter Succumbs
To Heart Ailment
While at Work
Henry Anderson. Valley paint
er. died of a heart ailment last
Wednesday afternoon, as he
worked at the mixing of his
paints in the basement of the
Ward Building. Mr. Anderson
had been engaged in painting the
Frontier Bar, and had gone to
the basement to mix more paint.
He was discovered there by
Ray McCartney, huddled on the
floor, at about five o’clock in the
afternoon. A physician was sum
rrj*.ned, who pronounced Ander
son dead. He said death ha^ oc
curred about an hour earlier.
The deceased, who was about
50 years old, is survived by a
son, Henry, a student at Palmer
High School, and by a daughter
who is employed at Juneau.
WASILLA PLANS
STRONG MEASURES
AGAINST HOODLUMS
WASILLA—Pat Carter, presi
dent of the Wasilla Commu
nity Club, today issued a stern
warning to those individuals at
tending Wasilla's Saturday
"night dances, who litter the
town's highway and streets
with broken bottles and beer
cans.
Mr. Carter said if remedial
measures planned do not lake
immediate effect, he will rec
ommend to the Community
Club that public dances be dis
continued.
Effective tomorrow night.
Territorial Highway Patrolman
Stanley Laird will be on duly
in Wasilla on dance nights. The
parking area will be checked
and when discarded bottles and
cans are found near any auio
J mobile, the license will be
checked and a complaint issued.
Tossing bottles, cans, garbage
and refuse on Alaskan high
ways is a misdemeanor, and is
punishable by fine or imprison
ment, or both, Mr. Carter re
minded.
The Community Club head,
who is also deputy U. S. Com
missioner in Wasilla, intends to
see that violations of this law.
in the future are punished to
the full extent of the law.
^Mother’s Day Food, Gifts
Supplied by Lutheran Aid
Neither Mother’s Day dinner
menus nor Mother’s Day gifts
need be a problem to anyone at
tending the bake sale and bazaar
of the Lutheran Ladies’ Aid, Mrs.
Alava Roetman announced today.
The bake sale will provide the
answers to all food problems, and
the bazaar will supply many
hand-made articles from which
to select a Mother’s Day Gift.
The sale and bazaar will be
held in the Trading Post, on Sat
urday, May 13. Mother’s Day is
*on Sunday, May 14.
T^r PIPST OI CHE^K Palmer goe* into ihe wailing fingers
of Bob Peterson at the Palmer Post Office. Lucille France de
livered tne welcome sup or paper to Mr. Peterson a week ago last
Monday, although other Valley GIs waited until last Saturday
for theirs. Mr. Peterson wouldn't say what the brand of black
magic was that brought his check almost a week early. What's
it going to be used for? It's already gone to pay for improve
ments in the Peterson home.—{Photo by Palmer Studios.)
Dr. Holiist to Be Speaker
At PHS Graduation
Dr. Lynn O. Holiist, head of the j
agricultural department at the j
University of Alaska, has accept-.
ed the invitation to present the
commencement address for Pal
mer High School’s graduates of
i 1950. The graduation exercises
I will be held at eight o’clock on
I May 17 in the Palmer Gymnasi
j um.
Victor C. Rivers, Anchorage
! engineer, Will be the evening’s j
speaker when Palmer School’s i
eighth graders graduate on
; Thursday, May 18. Those exer-i
cises also will take place in the
Gymnasium at eight o’clock. i
Taxes Again, but Net
Delinquent Till Feb.
The i950 tax forms which
went out in the mail late last
week, must be returned to the
office of Assessor Alva Saxton
by June 1. he explained today.
After the statements of tax
able properly are returned, the
tax roll will be made up and
the 1950 tax notices are expect
ed to be in the mail by July 15.
Taxes may be paid at any time
following the receipt of these
notices, Mr. Saxton said. How
ever, payment should not be
made until the fax notice is re
ceived.
The 1950 taxes become de
'inquent on Feb. 1, 1951.
Arctic Metal Company
Resumes Construction
At Palmer Location
Construction began anew this
week on the long - postponed
building of the Arctic Metal Com
pany, located across from the |
Grange Hall and behind Ketc’ni- !
kan Spruce Mills. Company rep
resentatives did preliminary
work on the building’s founda
tions almost a year ago.
Today a 24x36 building, with
metal sides and roof, is rising on
that location with all possible
speed. The work is being done
under the supervision of Herbert
Schmidt.
Mr. Schmidt said Arctic Metal
would be open for business no
later than May 15. The new busi
ness will house a showroom, in
which the line of furnaces the j
company handles will be on di-s-!
play, and a workshop.
The company expects to handle j
'"anything in the line of sheet- j
metal,” according to Schmidt. “If !
we can’t buy what you need, then !
we’ll make it for you,” he ex
plained.
Ben White, at present an An- j
chorage resident, will be in \
charge of the new company, when
it opens its doors for business |
here. Mr. Schmidt already has
taken up residence in Palmer.
Earl McHenry
Interred Sunday
WASILLA — Funeral services
for Earl McHenry, Valley pioneer
and long-time resident of Alaska, j
were held at Community Hall last i
Sunday. Interment followed at j
the Wasilla cemetery.
Mr. McHenry died at his Wasil
la home late last Thursday eve
ning, after an extended illness.
Co-OP Produce Farmers Look For Increase
In 1950 Over 1949 Quarter-Million Business
The produce farmers of the
Matanuska Valley Farmers’ Co
Operating Association stand a
good chance to substantially in
ci'ease their, quarter of a million
dollar business of last year in the
season ahead, James Wilson, Co
Op manager, told the Chamber of
Commerce this week. Mr. Wilson
estimated that sales to the Army
alone would increase 10 per cent
on potatoes and 15 per cent on
other produce.
The MVFCA’s produce business
has been hiding its light under a
bushel, Mr. Wilson revealed. The
much publicized milk industry,
for long recognized as the fore
i most agricultural pursuit of the
i Valley, grossed only $300,000 last
i year, he said.
Co-Op potato sales to the Army
! will have reached 1900 tons by
I the end of June, it was estimated.
| This figure, reduced to dollars
and cents, grossed farmers about
$200,000.
The Co-Op’s Army sales repre
sent nearly 95 per cent of the
present produce market, the man
ager said. Mr. Wilson said the
MVFCA hoped, within the next
few years, to greatly expand its
civilian markets. Plans are now
being worked out for the devel
opment of markets heretofore not
reached by Valley produce.
Mr. Wilson said he felt that the
greatest possibility for the expan
sion of these new markets is
through proper grading proced
ures and emphasis on the sale of
only high-quality vegetables.
The Army’s Quartermaster rep
resentative, who met with some
30 Co-Op produce growers on
Tuesday of this week, commend
ed the Valley shippers on the
quality of produce they sold the I
Army this year.
The Army’s produce needs for
mtr cuiuiiig yecii uuuincu di
this meeting. Total daily con
sumption has not been greatly in
creased, but the Army will take
delivery of vegetables over a
longer period of time, thus allow
ing Valley farmers a greater op
portunity to fulfill the total need.
The Army’s chief requests for
vegetables this year, excluding
potatoes, are shown in pounds in
comparison with the 1949 needs,
in the table below:
1949 1950
Cabbage 85.386 162.470
Carrots . 52.858 124.400
Greens 31.714 37.980
Lettuce 198.219 137.131
Onions 9.128 18.990
Celery .116.286 128.184
Mr. Wilson emphasized that
these figures on the produce in
dustry represent only the Co-Op’s
sales. Several large independent
growers sell produce to both
Army and civilian markets.
Blind Companion
Escapes Injury
By Narrow Margin
"Struck by a vehicle unknown
to us.” a Wasilla coroner’s j
ruled the cause of the early morn
ing death of Ann Stephan last
Wednesday morning. The 64
year-old native woman, who was
walking down the Willow Creek
Highway about one o’clock that
morning, met instant death when
her body was hit and hurled
across the highway by a vehicle
which fled the scene of the acci
dent.
The woman, in company with
Nick McNeil, admittedly had been
drinking. She had spent the early
hours of the evening with Mc
Neil at his cabin, and the two
were walking down the highway
toward her home when the acci
dent occurred. She was only 100
yards from her cabin when she
met her death.
McNeil could give no adequate
who is known as “blind Nick,”
told investigating officials that he
heard a vehicle approaching and
turned to the side of the road.
Mrs. Stephan was struck with
such violence that her body was
flung to the roadside against Mc
Neil, whose mouth and face were
cut by the impact.
The dead woman suffered a
fractured skull and a broken
neck. Dr. C. C. Bailey stated that
she died almost immediately.
McNeil couldg ive no adequate
description of the death car. He
said it was “either a truck or an
automobile without a muffler.”
Authorities did not receive of
ficial notice of the accident until
several hours after it occurred.
Mrs. Stephan’s children, asleep
in the nearby cabin, were called
to the scene of the accident by
McNeil, and carried the lifeless
woman to her home.
Territorial highway patrolman
Stanley Laird and deputy mar
shall Bill Bouwens, in company
with Pat Carter, assistant U. S.
Commissioner at Wasilla, spent
all day Wednesday and Thursday
checking vehicles in the Wasilla
area. They know that the death
car drove from Wasilla down the
Willow Creek road about one
o’clock Wednesday morning, but
they have no additional clues.
Members of the coroner’s jury
at the Wednesday inquest includ
ed:
Walter Teeland, Ernest Line,
John Hamilton, Mrs. Ilah Senske,
Eugene Coghlan and Clyde
Thorpe.
The dead woman was buried in
the native cemetery at Knik on
Thursday.
St. John's Plans Special
Mother's Day Church Services
Special Mother’s Day services
are planned for the three o’clock
service at St. John’s Lutheran
Church on May 14, it was an
nounced this week.