VALLEY FRONTIERSMAN
Owned and Published by Anchorage Shopping Guide, Inc
PRINTED AT PALMER, ALASKA, EACH FRIDAY
Entered as second class matter on Oct. 21, 1947, at the post office at
Palmer, Alaska, under the Act of March 3, 1879.
Viola Daniels .Editor
Barbara Carter .Wasilla Correspondent
Mrs. Jack Thatcher .Valdez Correspondent (
Subscription Rates.50c a month. $5 a year
Mailed to all points in Alaska and the United States
No printed material in the Valley Frontiersman may
be reproduced except by permission of the publishers.
4ANIELS—In the Lion’s Den
On Sunday, Palmer's clean-up campaign, from
May 14 to May 20, inclusive, will be launched from
the pulpits of Valley churches. Valley ministers, as
well as Valley businessmen and Valley home owners,
have promised full-hearted co-operation in this year's
campaign, which is sponsored jointly by the Kiwanis
Club and the Matanuska Valley Health Council.
We'd like to somewhat hesitantly suggest that
everyone's wholehearted effort will be needed. It will
be no small task to polish up our town to a proper
sanitary gleam.
Each year, at this season when the snow has been
gone for several weeks and the mercifully concealing
grass hasn't yet appeared, we wonder anew where
Palmer merchants, Palmer residents and Palmer
housewives learned their housekeeping manners.
We've always been taught that it's easier to keep
things in a fair degree of cleanliness than it is to stage
an intensive all-out campaign against dirt once or
twice each year.
We do believe that one of the not-so-immediate
goals of this year's campaign should be to keep the
heaps of tin cans, garbage, refuse and broken bottles
from accumulating to such depths in our dooryards.
y/e'll have a much simpler job on our hands, come
spring of 1951.
However, we'll be satisfied with an intensive effort
to remove the more unsightly heaps of rubbish, rust
ing auto bodies, decaying tires and other miscellane
ous objects from our main streets, and from our alleys.
And we do think that we ought not to overlook the fact
that effort on the main-travelled highways alone is not
enough. Occasionally a visitor loses his way and strays
from our principal thoroughfare, and we oughtn't to
shock him by too great a variation in the appearance;
of our front yards from that of our back doorstep.
And while we're urging that you clean up during
this campaign week, we'd like to add a word of com
mendation to those businesses, merchants and homes
which started the work much earlier this month. We
know we can't mention them all, and we know we'll
probably miss the very one who needs the biggest
bouquet, but we do know, specifically, that the Mata
nuska Valley Farmers' Co-Operating Association, the
Matanuska Valley Fair Association, Bert's Drug Store
and Hartley Brothers Motor Company have been
bending their efforts toward a neater exterior. If
you've been cleaning, and you're not mentioned here,
then we say orchids to you, too. We're sorry we haven't
"noticed your efforts yet.
Again, we request your co-operation with this
drive. Remember, company's coming again on May
27 and 28, and we do want Palmer to don its best
pinafore for the occasion. Every year, that company
gets more important in character and greater in num
ber and that calls for just that much greater effort on
our part, we think.
It's our town—let's all of us do all we can to make
it a town we're proud to claim.
«
FIRE STARTS NEAR
WASILLA AIRSTRIP
WASILLA — Fire burned over
three acres of woodland just
north of the Wasilla airstrip this
week. The blaze apparently
started Monday about one o’clock
in the afternoon. It was not dis
covered until nearly five that day,
when a patrolling fire guard
plane sighted the flames.
Three division of forestry men,
John McCormick, pilot, and Dick
Shirer and Charles Kendall of the
Palmer Guard Station, quelled
the fire before it had assumed
dangerous propostions.
Mr. Kendall, in charge of the
Palmer station, said he thought
the Valley’s latest fire probably
was started when someone tossed
a match or a lighted cigarette into
dead grass beside the old trail
which leads to the airstrip.
The fire guard emphasized that
“everyone must be especially
careful now, when it is so very
dry and when the wind is blow
ing so hard.”
Seven Boy Scout Troops
Organized in Alaska
During Month of April
Seven new Boy Scout troops,
one of them a Cub pack with
only three charter members, were
organized in Alaska during the
month of April, it was announced
from Juneau Scout headquarters
this week. One of the new troops
is an Explorer troop.
Cities which organized Boy
Scout troops last month include
Klawock, Craig, Ketchikan, Fort
Richardson, Anchorage, Peters
burg and Seldovia.
The Seldovia Cub pack of three
is the first Boy Scout unit for that
town.
Let's keep our Valley green this
year. Make sure that cigarette is
out.
VALLEY
REAL ESTATE
(Theatre Bldg.)
5-rm. house in town;
$2,000 cash down;
terms on balance.
20 acres cleared land,
furnished house, mod
ern; $5,000 down,
terms on balance.
100-acre farm, 35 acres
cleared, $4,650 down,
balance on easy
terms.
140-acre farm, 40 acres
cleared, terms.
2 cabins, close in, 2 lots.
Furnished house, close
in; basement, stoker;
modern; large lot; im
mediate possession.
$2,000 down will han
dle.
LOTS OF LOTS
ACREAGE
Listings Wanted
Juneau Talks of Sales Tax
Juneau talked of a one per cent
sales tax recently, at a city coun
cil meeting but the city fathers
took no definite action on the
matter. As the plan is shaping up
now, the tax money would be
earmarked for the retirement of
bonds issued for city improve
ments, and could be used for no
other purpose. The Juneau coun
cil members saw the sales tax
measure as one method whereby
the city could erect the new
school that Juneau so desperately
needs.
Chief Washakie, Now Chena,
Returns to Alaska Service
The former Chief Washakie,
which has been a stranger to
Alaskan waters for the past six
months, will sail north under a
new name when she starts for ter
ritorial waters again on May 18,
an Alaska Steamship Company
official announced this week. The
Chief Washakie will hereafter be
known as the Chena. The steamer
was named for the river on which
Fairbanks is located.
f
Five 4-H Clubs Are
Formed Here This Week
Five 4-H Clubs were organized
at the Extension Office this week,
Miss Mary Lou Lashbrook an
nounced today. Club members
met with their leaders, elected of
ficers and fixed their regular
meeting dates. Other clubs were
still being formed, late in the
week, and the work is expected
to continue into next week.
Club reporters have submitted
news articles on these organiza
tion meetings. Space limitations
did not permit their publication
this week. They will be carried
in the Valley Frontiersman next
week, under a column of 4-H
Club news.
No more mistakes and two less
sheets of paper to worry about—
that’s the result promised by
Alaska Steamship Company
through use of its new photostatic
reproduction machines and mul
tiple-purpose bill of lading and
expense bill froms. The new form
will give all information avail
able on a shipment on the single
form.
VALLEY CLEANERS
For Free Delivery
CALL 6 Y 3
Pickup and Delivery in Wasilla Each
Wednesday at Wasilla Cafe
ARCTIC METAL WORKS
(Across from Grange Hall)
Open for Business
May 15
Sheet Metal Work Furnaces
Air Conditioning
Roof Jacks and Alaska Safties, Etc.
'I
For the Finest in
Home Furnishings
And the Best in
YARD GOODS AND DRAPERIES
In Short, for Every Household Need
It's
tiff A I rrrf HARDWARE AND
If U L r E J FURNITURE STORE
300 Fifth Avenue Phone 35141
Anchorage, Alaska