Valdez News
VOL. 1. NO. 13
VALDEZ. ALASKA. JUNE 9. 1950
PRICE 10c
Valdez Folk Visit Hospital They Helped to Build
Cuts, Broken Bones
Keep Medical Staff
On Overtime Here
An epidemic of ax gashes and
broken bones has hospitalized
five Valdez folk in the last week,
Dr. Kenneth Ham of Valdez Com
munity Hospital reports.
Fred Allen, employed by the
Ellamar Packing Company at El
lamar, is hospitalized with a seri
ously cut foot. Mr. Allen said he
at first thought the accident was
nothing serious. He had just cut
down a tree, and was peeling it,
when his ax slipped and struck
his foot.
“It felt like it just touched my
shoe was all,” he recounted, “so
I kept right on working. Then a
little later I noticed my foot felt
numb and I looked down at my
boot and saw a four-inch slash in
it. My foot was bleeding badly.”
The cut was dressed and
cleaned by Mr. Brown of the El
lamar Packing Company. The
next morning Mr. Allen was un
able to walk and pilot Starbuck
flew to Ellamar and transported
the injured man to Valdez for
hosnitalization.
Allen had been employed in
constructing a dam at Ellamar
when the accident occurred.
A second ax accident resulted
in another severe foot injury for
Delmar Mikelsen of the Alaska
Road Commission. Mr. Mikelsen
arrived in Alaska from Long
branch, Wash., only a month ago.
He was engaged in slashing
brush on the right-of-way, 19
miles beyond Glen Alen on the
Tok-Slana Cut - off. His foot
slipped and his ax fell on his
rfght foot, inflicting a deep cut.
Mikelsen was brought to Glen
Allen, where the Rev. Vincent
Joy administered first aid.
A territorial highway patrol
car later transported him to Val
dez for further treatment and
hospitalization.
A third ax 'victim is Roger
Schmidt of Valdez. He was cut
ting wood in his yard at home on
the afternoon of June 2, when
his ax slipped and gashed his
right knee. Roger was treated at
Valdez Community Hospital,
w^here it required nine stitches
to close the wound. He is now
hobbling about Valdez on
crutches.
Dean Thatcher suffered a brok
en bone in his wrist, in a home
accident on May 31. He was
wrestling with his brother,
Frank, when Frank slipped and
fell, bending Dean’s hand back,
breaking a bone in his left wrist.
Valdez friends have been con
gratulating Dean because it was
his left wrist he injured—however
Dean can’t feel too happy about
it, because he happens to be left
handed.
To complete the series of acci
dents, little Jean Peterson of the
El Nathan Home Nursery, stum
(Conlinued on Back Page)
Cordova Fishermen Ask Better Protection
From Coast Guard for Fishing Fleet
Fishermen and civic organiza
tions of Cordova joined last week
in a request to the Coast Guard
for better protection for fishing
boats in distress. A four-point
proposal was placed before Coast
Guard officials. It asked:
1. Better weather reports.
2. Stationing of a Coast
Guard cutter at Cordova.
3. Erection of a radio direc
tion beam station at Cape St.
Elias.
4. Stationing of an Army or
Navy sea rescue plane at Cor
dova.
The plea was occasioned by the
disastrous wreck of the fishing
boat Double Knot in a recent
storm. Two men died when a
squall overturned the small craft.
Two other crew members man
aged to cling to the wreckage
and to drift to shore near Cape
Suckling after two and a half
hours in the water.
The accident occurred Wednes
day and the men remained on the
beach, unsighted, until Friday.
On Friday, a Navy plane spotted
the pair, but was unable to land,
so dropped a package of food
and cigarettes and left. Saturday
morning a small private plane
again located the men and land
ed on the beach. One of the pair,
suffering with a frozen foot, was
brought to Cordova Hospital im
mediately. A second plane was
dispatched at once to pick up
the second survivor.
Later information developed
that the official rescue party
would not have reached the ma
rooned men until late Sunday or
early Monday.
Cordova fishermen particular
ly protest the Navy’s failure to
notify flyers in that city, since
there are at least half a dozen
small planes based there which
could have effected almost im
mediate rescue. It is the fisher
men’s request that Cordova au
thorities be notified, in similar
situations, so that the small air
planes may assist in future
rescues.
Need for better weather infor
mation was also emphasized, j
when the skipper of the wrecked
vessel said that he had received
only fair weather reports prior
to the wreck. However, four
fishing vessels signalled that they
were in distress at about the
same time the Lowe craft was
wrecked.
FIRE DESTROYS
JUNEAU BUILDING
A two-alarm fire in mid-May
destroyed a Juneau building and
the two businesses it housed and
damaged a grocery warehouse,
before it was stopped. Consumed
was the Harri Machine Shop and
the Peter Wood Sales Agency,
while the adjacent Twentieth
Century Super Market’s grocery
warehouse was charred.
Work of firefighters was made
doubly difficult by the threat of
exploding acetylene tanks in the
machine shop. Volunteers from
the throngs of spectators dragged
away gasoline and oil tanks and
moved automobiles from garages
located to the rear of the burn
ing building.
CORDOVA FOLKS VISIT
Wes Kennedy, owner of the
Windsor Hotel, Pat Flynn of
Flynn’s Clothing Store, and Bill
O’Brian, owner of the Service
Center, all Cordova residents,
were Valdez visitors last Satur
day. They motored to Copper
Center on Sunday.
Mental Health Institute
Planned for Alaska
Plans for inclusion of a mental
health program under the Alaska
Department of Public Health
were discussed at the mental
health institute conducted in Ju
neau late last month. Dr. Kent
Zimmerman, psychiatric consul
tant with the California State De
partment of Health, conducted
the institute.
Dr. Zimmerman suggested, de
spite limited mental health funds,
the immediate employment of a
mental health specialist. He rec
ommended a health team of psy
chiatrist, clinical psychologist and
a psychiatric social worker as a
better unit, if funds would per
mit.
Hospital Election Postponed
The election of hospital board
members, originally scheduled for
this week, has been postponed. A
new date will be selected and an
nouncement will be made in these
columns and posted on down
town bulletin boards.
PAGE HEIR ARRIVES AFTER STORK
GETS ASSIST FROM MECHANICAL WINGS
The stork raced man - made
wings between Valdez and Cor
dova last week—and lost.
The occasion was the arrival
of Henry Eastman Page, Jr., who
was born to Mr. and Mrs. Harry
Page of Valdez at Cordova Com
munity Hospital on May 29.
The unexpected sky sprint be
tween stork and plane occurred
when unforeseen complications in
the birth of Harry, Jr., necessitat
ed an immediate medical consul
tation. Dr. Kenneth Ham of Val
dez, Mrs. Page and her husband,
were hurried into a plane pilot
ed by Ray Starbuck just at sunset
on the evening of May 28. Dr.
Ray Coffin of Cordova met them
at Cordova airport, where he had
been awaiting the arrival of the
stork-escorted airship. He hurried
the prospective parents to Cor
dova Community Hospital, where
both he and Dr. Ham attended the
birth of Harry, Jr.
Mother and son are now doing
well, Dr. Ham reports. The boy
weighed 8V1 pounds and meas
ured 22% inches at birth. He is
the first child for Mr. and Mrs.
Page.
NURSE SHOWS VALDEZ
TO SEATTLE VISITORS
Public Health Nurse Rita
Dingman was the charming
escort who displayed Valdez to
touring Seattle Chamber of
Commerce members, when they
visited here briefly recently.
The party, headed by Thomas
Pelley, president of the Seattle
organization, arrived on the
Aleutian at 9:30 a.m„ and re
mained until three that after
noon.
The Seattle visitors were met
by Robert Kelsey, Sr., president
of the Valdez Dock Company,
and Miss Dingman. The group
inspected the town and called
upon various Valdez merchants.
Members of the Seattle parly
included:
Mr. Pelley, Art Ganson, presi
dent of the Alaska branch of
the Seattle Chamber. H. R. Van
Ness and Chester Gibbon, fea
ture editor of the Seattle Times.
CITY OF JUNEAU
PLANS A SALES TAX
A sales tax is the only answer I
Juneau’s city council has been
able to get to the municipal prob-|
lem of paying off bonded indebt
edness. The council last week
took the first step toward a one j
per cent sales tax, when the city j
attorney was instructed to draw
up an ordinance for one.
The tax, as planned by the
council, would be for bonded in
debtedness only. The ordinance
will include, in its provisions, a
clause for the termination of the
tax, when all bonds have been
paid off. This would mean, a
councilman explained, that the
people of Juneau would decide
when the sales tax should end,
for all future bond issues voted
would mean the extension of the
sales tax.
‘JUNE 4 OPEN HOUSE
AT VALDEZ HOSPITAL
DRAWS MANY PEOPLE
Even the weather contributed
a perfect summer day to last Sun
day’s open house at Valdez Com
munity Hospital, when all of Val
dez gathered to inspect the end
result of community labor and
planning at the hospital.
Dr. Kenneth Ham was unable
to estimate the exact number of
Valdez’ 560 residents who flocked
to the hospital to inspect its rooms
and equipment, and to enjoy a
cup of tea with the hospital staff,
but he knows a “great many” of
the local folk were there.
Hospital guests were greeted by
Dr. and Mrs. Ham and by Mrs.
A. D. Thompson, hospital day
chairman of the Women’s Civic
Club. They were escorted on a
tour of the rooms, recently re
decorated in pleasing and un-hos
pital-like colors. Since there has
been a regular rash of emergen
cies in the Valdez area' of late.
Dr. Ham and his co-hostesses'
were unable to show all of the
hospital rooms.
The hospital, in addition to its
12 beds, includes a steam bath,
with massage tables and showers.
It is Dr. Ham’s plan to make this
unit the basis for future physio
therapy work at the Valdez Hos
pital.
The plant also includes a lim
ited store of drugs, since Valdez
has no pharmacist, and an office
equipped for the use of a dentist.
It is there Dr. F. R. Sims of Pal
mer treats his patients on his reg
ular trips to Valdez.
Dr. Ham gives all credit lor
the present professional appear
ance of the hospital to the Valdez
folk who gave so much time and
effort to transform the old Amer;
can Legion Building into a mod
ern plant. Some gave time, some
gave money, some gave equip
ment, and some gave labor—the
complete list of hospital workers
is lengthy, when all of the help
that led up to last Sunday’s open
house is recognized, Dr. Ham said.
However the physician wishes
! to give special acknowledgement
t to Mr. and Mrs. Ralph Matthews,
! Mrs. Lydia Searles, Mrs. Ray Bol
linger, Mrs. Schmidt and Mrs.
! Ham, for their recent help in
I painting walls and woodwork. He
j also wishes to express his appre
! c-iation to the Rev. Richard Teeter
i for the hospital’s nursery incu
; bator, constructed by the min
ister.
Well Child Conference
Planned for Tuesday
There will be a Well Child
Conference at the Valdez Health
Center on Tuesday, June 13, pub
lic health nurse Rita Dingman
announced today. The conference
opens at 2 p.m. All infants and
pre-school children are invited to
attend. Dr. Kenneth Ham will be
medical consultant.