LIFE ON RIM OF THE ARCTIC
CapitaT Journal. Salem, Ore., Thursday, Oatoner 27, 194919
Gold Found! Here's what an Alaskan fishwheel (above) looks like. Gold was reportedly
discovered in the axle of wheel similar to this on Discovery Island, near Fairbanks, Alaska,
Net revolves with the current and scoops up fish which fall in boxes at side. The prospec
tors' tent village which sprung up on the Yukon river is aptly named Fishwheel. (AP Wire
fell t, mi
Alaskan Prospectors' Camp Natives help prospectors set up camp on Discovery Island,
near Fairbanks, Alaska, where gold was recently reported discovered in a fishwheel. (Left
to right) Solomon Flitt, Joe Peters, Earl Hirst and Sam Gambling, all of Fairbanks. Hirst and
Gambling, with gold pan, are veteran Alaskan prospectors. At right is a Yukon stove, stand
ard camp equipment. (AP Wirephoto)
TENDERFOOT FINDS 'COLOR'
Four Prospectors, Back From
Diggin's, Cold to Gold Rush
By JOHN J. RYAN
: Anchorage, Alaska, Oct. 27 u.ra Four Cheechako prospectors
returned from their diggin's at Fishwheel last night and vowed
the Yukon Gold rush of 1949 was for somebody else not them.
The four men, all employes of local aircraft concerns, were Bill
Lund, R. C. Stevenson, Dave Crawford and Ted Rasmussen.
While they found two nuggets'
during their stampede to Fish-
wheel, they hadn't managed to
take a single claim.
Lund and Stevenson left An
chorage in a chartered plane
when the first reports of the
gold strike hit town. They paid
a "fancy sum" to reach Fair
banks. (Present prices quoted
by bush pilots here are $300
round trip to Fishwheel, $150
one way).
"We wasted an afternoon be
fore we could find a pilot who
would take us on to Fishwheel
at any price," said Lund. "Right
after we landed on the banks of
the Yukon, we broke a hole in
the ice and quickly found two
nuggets slightly larger than a
pin head."
"That drove us wild," Steven
son said. "We chopped up about
an acre of ice in a few hours.
But we never managed to find
another sign of gold."
The two Cheechako (tender
foot) gold seekers tramped down
the river to find some unclaim
ed land. "Every foot of land for
seven miles upstream and six
miles downstream from Fish
wheel was staked," Stevenson
said. "Furthermore the claims
were eight deep from the south
bank of the river."
"There's no claim jumping or
wrangling at the scene," said
Lund. "Everyone is friendly. In
fact, most of the men there's
about a hundred who have
staked claims are just sitting
around gabbing about how they
are going to spend their money."
"People are constantly com
ing and going." said Stevenson.
"Some people fly in and out on
the same plane. Monday the
first two women arrived but
just looked the place over and
left."
Both men agreed that there Is
tome gold at Fishwheel.
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"During our hike along the
river, we saw eight nuggets in
the possession of prospectors,"
Lund said. "The nuggets are
very coarse indicating that they
are of local origin and haven't
been rolled down a river bed.
Crawford and Rasmussen flew
to Fishwheel in their own plane
"All we got out of the trip
was wet feet and cold hands,
Crawford said.
"Rumors were flying through
the camp that women and
gamblers would soon be doing
business there," said Rasmussen.
"The camp followers were re
ported standing by at Fort Yu
kon, Circle and many more at
Fairbanks awaiting more opti
mistic reports before moving out
onto the flats."
The four men were the first
Anchorage stampeders to return
here from the gold strike scene.
An Anchorage Daily News sur
vey revealed that when the first
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Orders Filled.
wild reports of the strike hit
here, 17 planes and seven taxi-
cabs loaded with prospectors,
gamblers and prostitutes who
were too eager to wait for the
weekly train, headed for Fair
banks.
Of the four men who returned
last night, only Bill Lund, an
Alaska airline pilot, expressed
a desire to return.
"When the ice on the river
freezes solid," he said, "I'm
going to return by plane and
land down the river from Fish
wheel to stake my claim."
With tractors so big a factor
in agriculture these days, the
raising of horse feed has been
sharply reduced.
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MONTH
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One Group Values
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All wool Fleeces and Needle Point Fabric. Broken
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WOMEN'S SHORTIES, Wool
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WOMEN'S RAINCOATS, in
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Two Women, Coffee Shop
Come to Gold-Happy Camp
By JACK DAUM
Filrbinkj Ntwa-Mtner Staff Wrltrr
iwmten for th AaJocUted Preul
Fishwheel, Alaska, Oct. 27 M Two women and a coffee shop
have come to Alaska's latest gold-happy community.
This booming tent town, extending for nine miles along both
sides of the cold and sluggish Yukon river, blinked today at the
arrival of the women.
One of them is Evelyn Grin
nell, the wife of a Fort Yukon
trapper and the second of her
sex to arrive. She immediately
set up a coffee shop in her tent
equipped with only a Yukon
stove, a coffeepot, a box of cups,
doughnuts and some sandwiches.
Evelyn is doing a thriving
business.
Coffee 25 cents a cup. Cof
fee with doughnuts or sand
wiches 50 cents.
First woman to arrive was
the wife of a Fort Yukon native
who brought her along with him
to share the frigid life of this
gold mining camp on the rim of
the arctic.
They walked over the tun
dra for two days to get here.
The woman, a rather attractive
Indian with jet black hair,
smiled shyly as she walked by
with a large pack on her back.
Her husband, thin and impas
sive, twisted his wrinkled fea
tures into a large grin when
somebody yelled "Hi, Joe."
He carried a rifle, an incon
gruous instrument where man's
most precious tool is a pick or
shovel.
The first showing of gold in
this area was made 12 days ago
by Clifton Carroll, who spotted
pea-sized nuggets in the muck
on his Fishwheel axle. Claims
since have spread up and down
from what is now as the "Dis
covery Claim."
Colors" have been found con
sistently along a two mile
stretch of river shore adjoining
Carroll s claim and there have
been a few nuggets found in the
frigid pans.
I have not been to the far
thest claims upstream, but re
ports keep coming down of
colors" and a few rice-sized
nuggets being panned.
Colors" are minute specks of
flake gold, commercially worth
less but often indicative of more
gold somewhere nearby.
borne gold seekers now are
living in the lap of arctic lux
ury.
Those whose claims are ad
jacent to a landing field have
fixed their tents in the best
Statler fashion, with stoves, sit
ting facilities and improvised
tables.
In the true traditin of the
Northland, anyone is welcome to
come in and share the warmth
and swap tales. Prospectors al
ready are eager for news from
home.
The tent where I am now sit
ting belongs to Charlie Bieder-
man, F. H. Alexander, Robert
Alexander, C. V. Johnson and
Robert Barenz. Biederman is
now here alone, his partners
having returned to Fairbanks
Sunday after staking claims.
Biederman, a trapper from
Eagle, Alaska, now is finishing
the job of blazing boundary
lines and sinking prospect holes.
The tent is about 8x10 feet
and very warm. In the middle
of the earth floor is a Yukon
stove, which resembles a gasc-
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I MIT UTAH UNVMCTlia
i uoiu ep4c?u
Television Pics
Of Gold Strike
Seattle, Oct. 26 (PI Televis
ion pictures have been taken of
the gold strike at Fishwheel,
Alaska, and are en route to San
Francisco for processing. William
J. Wagner, president of the Alas
ka Broadcasting Co., said today.
Wagner said he believed the
pictures were the first for tele
vision taken at the site of the
strike on the rim of the Arctic
and among the first pictures ever
taken for television in Alaska.
Jim Fletcher, manager of
KFRB, Fairbanks, flew in a
chartered plane to Fishwheel on
October 24 after an attempt to
get in the previous day had
failed because of bad weather
He took with him a 16 mm cam
era, a wire recorder and a port-
able power plant to operate the
recording machine.
Besides taking pictures.
Fletcher also made an on-the-
spot broadcast which will be re
leased through the Columbia
Broadcasting system. J
Chicago Man Draws
5 Years in Prison
Oregon City, Oct. 27 Wi Les
lie Allen Jacobson, 19, Chicago,
was sentenced yesterday to five
years in prison for burglary of
an ice cream parlor near here
Sept. 12.
He was caught in the act and
arrested with Dean A. Culver.
18, also of Chicago. Culver had
drawn a similar sentence but was
paroled to his father.
Judge E. C. Latourette sen
tenced Jacobson. Court aides
said the Chicago youth was
wanted in Florida but Gov. Mc
Kay had refused to grant extra
dition. line drum with a vent cut near
the bottom to supply air to the
burning wood. There's a plenti
ful supply of wood within 15 feet
of the tent.
A stovepipe extends through
tne tent roof. Cardboard car
tons are laid flat on the ground
to provide insulation for our
sleeping bags.
Our food locker contains eggs.
bacon bread, flour, powdered
miik and dehydrated vegetables
Biederman s partners keep him
supplied with food.
The temperature rose sharply
me last two aays and now
touches five degrees above zero
But we know it will drop to 15
or ii Deiow tonight.
'
'H -. . ...
The most useful dish of all
from
ALEXANDER'S JEWELRY
It can serve as:
ASHTRAY
COASTER
CANDY DISH
NUT DISH
(even handy near the sewing machine)
Crystal base . . . sterling band
Designed to be useful . priced WAY low
$25
1
feueon
r j
'fCOUR
Lighthouse Mailbox Mailbox
Elmer Warren, Greater Miami, has milk and package com
partment, phone to call house, and lighthouse illumination.
Four Corners Church Work
Is Pushed by Volunteers
Four Corners, Oct. 27 Mr. and
at dinner complimenting their
her birthday anniversary. Guests
Mr. and Mrs. John Phillips, Linda and John, Jr., Hardie and
Janis Phillips, Miss Ruth Deckard and Miss Ginny Shewfelt of
Chieaeo.
Mr. and Mrs. Newell Sanders,
60 E. State st., had as their
house guest Mr. and Mrs. George
Borders of Bethesda, Md. The
women are sisters and hadn't
seen eacn otner ior several
years. The visitors flew from
Washington, D.C., where he is
with the U.S. Agricultural de
partment. Mrs. Borders is em
ployed by the Veterans Admin
istration. They returned by way
of San Francisco and Dallas,
Texas.
House guest of the Albert
Brant family, 4050 Beck ave.J
Mrs. Brants brother, Com
mander J. H. Norwood, U.S.N,
retired.
Work on the Four Corners
Bantist church by a volunteer
crew of members of the local
church and the First Baptist
church of Salem is progressing
nicely. They meet each Mon
day evening. Two Sunday
school rooms in the church
building have new ceiling. The
plumbing and an electric stove
have been installed in the
church annex. Recently the an
nex received two coats of paint
on the outside.
Members of the Four Corners
Baptist church will sponsor a
Halloween party at the church
annex on Saturday evening at
7:30 o'clock for all young peo
ple of the community. The chil
dren are reminded that Monday
evening is the "treat or trick"
time and not on the Sabbath.
deft
at home of Mr. and Mrs.
Mrs. P. T. Deckard were hosts
daughter Mrs. Hardie Phillips on
invited for the occasion were
Freddie Slack
Freddie Slack's Band
To Play Here Friday
Freddie "Cow Cow Boogie"
Slack and his musicians and en
tertainers will bow in at the
Glenwood Ballroom Friday for
a one-night dance engagement.
Slack, considered the greatest
boogie woogie pianist in Amcr-
H wTPW Like Burled
y Trtosurol
PI oEWELRY :
v ' fascinoting eld Coin
lTr-?" I (mintad a lw hun-
i ff oj jrVt drecf years tote, of
( 2 (i ' r'i -v3ri coursa) 8iv a cKorming touch
o J 10 Your t0,,um- You'll be d-
' VWwWffBfi I'flhted with lhs brocslelj,
I VS ' earrings, necklacts, pins, etc. that
I 'iS "w ' WiV i'n9' P'ce ol gold from a
WM1 pi0,', ,r,a,ur"
Q JEWELRY DEPT.
Japs Want U.S.
Troops to Stay j
Portland, Oct. 27 ) The Ja
panese people want United Stat
es troops to remain even after a
peace treaty is signed, the con
fidential secretary to Premlejf
Yoshida said here today. -The
secretary, Takafuml HU
shikari, said withdrawal of
troops would be a threat to Ja
panese security. Only "a few
foreign elements" want th
troops to leave, he said.
He minimized the influence of
red-indoctrinated war prisoners'
returned by the soviet union re
cently. About 90 per cent of
them, Hishikari said, lost their
enthusiasm for communism af
ter a couple of months in their
homeland observing "the work
being done by the occupation
forces."
The people of Japan have
been largely anti-Russian sine
the Russo-Japanese war and art
"irrevocably opposed" to comi
munism, he said, adding that
Japanese communists have suf
fered in popularity in the past
year "because of the unrest and
strikes they have caused."
Hishikari was here today vis
iting Willis E. Mahoney, a pros
ecutor in the Japanese war
crimes trials. He will leave for
Tokyo tomorrow via Seattle. He
said he had been in Washington
on a confidential mission.
Linn Rural School
Immunization Due
Albany With pupils of elev
en Linn county rural schools al
ready processed, the Linn coun
ty public health department is
well into its 1949-50 school im
munization program, according
to the report of Dr. John Guepe,
Linn county health officer. i
Clinics have been held thus
far at the Clover Ridge, Conner,
Dever, East Knox Butte, Lake
view, Knox Butte, Millersburg,
Scravelhill and Santiam Central
schools in the northwestern por
tion of the county and the Fox
Valley, Lourdes, and Lyons in
the northern area.
The clinic has scheduled 78
more schools of the county to
start in Albany on January 3,
Hopewell Mrs. Richmond
Horton, Mrs. Ross Rogers, Mrs.
Owen Pearse of the Hopewell
United Brethren church were
among those going from here to
attend the all day rally at thf
First Evangelical church In Sa
lem. ica today, can boast of more hit
records than any piano stylist lii
the music world. The band is
the first in a series of big names
that will play the Glenwood
Ballroom this fall and winter.'
ITOftli AliO IN PCTLANDAllANTIUOINI
H E GIVE GREEN STAMPS