V
A large port of the Alaska P^ess 3 s willing to go to unlimited;
silly 1‘onguhs (just pjr.ir tyinc/'y to induce ”pioneers'1 to rush up to
the State of Alaska and w.wJev furlpl.essly .into tn*? brush to commute
with the rabbits in living on. gtos". and bark© Those w:* • tor's Would
probably think that Mrs# Laura Ducker oi Ai.isxani.er Creek wh.ls'u Is just
across the Inlet irom Anchorage should be shot i or making such .real
;T istitf^ straightforward statements# ;&bei +vieY$8r;itEhe 05,9^;,s Lho mo-steading
expixiitien into Alaska with "a kind ^of horrified pity*” C'Th^-mo^t f^apt l}
expression r/e have heard in many moons) ,
F "I know the >area they are hoaded for just as well as I know the
streets of Laepeer, Mich# It is simply not farming country.”
She describes the trip south from Anchorage cn the Kenai Highway
and says: None of the homesteaders along the highway are able to earn
*an appreciable living* by farming their land# The products of gardening
are n6t staple foods but such things as radishedj lettuce, carrotts;
t)eets, turnips and peas.
3--; ‘No one can raise tcmatoes,nor ripen grain, nor grow fruit other
than berries#” The land grows good potatoes though; she adds.
”Our son-in-law who was raised on a farmf has tried six years to
false a garden# Not Once has he raised morej than a few radishes,or a
little, lettuce or a-6arrott or two.”
« 1 Mrs Ducker says that other means of earning a living are^ scarce
now in the New- State. Part time jobs are at a premium now because most
work is seasonal In Alaska# Food can no linger be obtained by open
hunting# The moose seas-n. for Instance, lasts only one month©
”I'm not going to say there are no opportunities in Alaska.
Alaska is the .1 and of ..eppertuni ty # It cost us several thousand dollars
to to find which opperturii ty we wanted#"
V/e suggest that these 5vers ge and talk with Mrs© Ducker
instead cf those newspaper 3taff vvri te r*j .who do not know Alaska and
have no jdoa waecher wuiemelons grow on trees or bushes©
Nancy News.1 who is postmaster here says that Laura Ducker has had a
4 # lot of garden soil under her finger nails and probably know what she is
:t talking about ©
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*'**• 1 The 59ers may serve one good purpose. The*' story or what • ■
became of them will soon be known and it may cause this asinine
migration to the Lund of Opportunity tc grind to a halt#
an
m nr n f «-* . . **
- Somehow the condition of Alaska’s finances reminds one of the
old lady who was very ill# qhe sent for her niece and said; ’’Sara, I
am going to die, and I don’t want anyone to be fooling about it* V/hen
you‘*come to lay me out, I 7/ant to be laid out in my black silk dross J
but take out the back panel and make yourself a dress from ite"
Sara said: "Oh;«>unt Mary, I don’t want t; do thaWWhen you and Uncle
John walk up the golden stair I don’t want people to see you without
‘any back in your dress®” ’’They won’t look at mej" the old lady replied
"I buried your Uncle John without his pants
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»t
Jack Wilson is putting matev\i a,. at the 5 Mile airfield for the
erection of a small hangaro It is needed lor the storage and repairing
of small aircraft * It will be as deep as it is wide and one fourth as
high as it is deep* It will be 40 feet ’.vide® We have a notion that"
, everything about the building will more or less square#
The boys have been hauling some wood and timbers frcm the de
lapidaded old Ry trestle on the other side of the Copper River.. Some «f
the timber is fairly good, some rotten® But one thing sure the ice
on the Copper ’River is good® The ice resting on tho water In v/ne
chaunell is 42 inches thick. This %3 the thickest ;ioe on the Copper
r for a century according to the memory of the Old Cynicu Eut according
to Indian lore in the ’winter of 1607-1CC8 the Copper River froze solid
down to the bottom, the salmon did not get up to spawn at all the
following summer and since then there has been an irregularity and a
t shortage of salmon which vn are now discovering is being caused by
the Japaneese#
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The olaska Legislature spent most of the first three weeks
of the session wranglin* over and passinf the notorious pay bill#
*»nd it they are worth itall, as v;e hope, then Alaska is made#