The Daily Alaska empire Newspaper, March 31, 1940, Page 17

e THE DAILY ALASKA EMPIRE, SUNDAY, MARCH 31, 1940. PROGRESS AND DEVELOPMENT EDITION Anchorage Makes Strides BUSIEST 12 MONTHS IN CITY'S LIFE Railroad, Aviation, Gold, Matanuska Contribute Toward Prosperity By NORMAN BROWN Anchorage Chamber of Commerce When Anchorage struck off its we sheet for the year just| found it had passec | the busiest 12 months in Anchorage bankers re- por $25.000,000 had changed hands within the city during the period. There were no big gold| discoveries, no oil wells had come in. Looking back these bankers could see no reason for a boom. The new spending could be ex- plained only by the fact that An- chorage had become a city Ir which its people had faith, a placc where most of them intended tc make their homes, It had assumed | its majority as the leading city o | Western Alaska. The trend toward permanency had been foretold in both public and private building. evidences ol which were apparent during the past half dozen years. Many new homes had gone up as new families established themselves in Anchor- age. Two years ago it became in- creasingly obvious that the school system was far too small and as result a new concrete elemen- school building costing $250,-| was completed last summer. | | a tary 000 New Hospital Almost simultaneously the Sis- ters of Charity celebrated the ('Dru-‘ pletion of their streamlined $450,-| 000 Providence Hospital. Now more than 60 percent completed is af new Federal Building and Post Of- fice which will cost the Govern- ment close tc $800,000 when com- pleted The structure will bé among the| finest in Alaska and will house a score of Government agencies in-| cluding the administration office: of the Alaska Railroad, the U S Signal Corps, the Weather Bureaq, the United States District Court,| the Alaska Road Commission, the| Civil Aeronautics Authority, the| United States Commissioner, the United States Land Office, and| others. The building, which will include | such modern gadgets as pneumatic tubes and teletypes, is scheduled| for completion next September.| Gov. Ernest Gruening has been in-| vited to lay the cornerstone and dedicate the building next sum- mer. Railroad Is Backbone The backbone of Anchorage is the Alaska Railroad with its round- houses, repair shops, and general offices which bring a yearly pay-| roll to the city of a million and a half dollars. | Second in size and as important an industry from the standpoint of transportation is aviation, More than 40 planes are based at the airport and at least six other op- erators look upon Anchorage as their supply base although their homes are far off in the Interior. Aviation is important in An- chorage because it serves as., the commercial headquarters for af huge area to the west and north-| west of nearly 25000 square miles which .has hardly a trace of a road. Some 5,000 trappers, }mdcls and miners living in the area between | Anchorage and the Bering Sea and | the Aleutian chain and the Yu-| ken River all depend upon air-' planes to supply their needs. Every-|{ thing from knitting needles (o] cows goes to the Interior by mr-l plane. Once 12 live reindeer were\ delivered intact to a movie .com- pany which found it cheaper and casier to bring the deer to. An- chorage than to go where the deer were living. Ccmmon as Commuting | Travel by airplane is as common‘ as commuting in the States. Not| long ago a woman flew in from Dillingham to get a permanent wave. W. E. Dunkle, mine opera- tor north of Anchorage, has his own planes in which he hops be- tween city and mine much the same as a businessman Outside would drive his car. A young law- yer hops from town to town in his Fairchild plane instead of wait- ing for trains and boats. 'rms‘ second largest industry represents’ an investment of nearly a million! dollars in machines, hangars ‘and equipment. The Civil Aeronautics Authgrity| has found it convenient to make its Alaska headquarters at Anchor- age, a fact that speaks in itself for Anchorage as a flying center. The! CAA inspection service has been Lestablished in Anchorage for some time and more recently the division of -airways aids has come. From _here is directed the work of in-| stallation of flying aids along a Air View of Westward’s Crossroads THE WESTWARD - N \ N N N \ \ N l} N \ \ ) N \ \ ) N \ ) { et rres) 1by only a few settlers. The col- onists came from areas classed as drought-stricken and distressed. | Now: Uncle Sam has built 176 | homes of wood or logs, with slx} to eight rooms each, for the col- onists. More than 150 miles of roads have been constructed through vir- Matanuska onOwn Homes “Gro:v in Colony COOPERATIVE OF FARMERS TAKES OVER Settlers Look Forward fo Spring fo Prove Worth as Private Venture 'womi.s!ng regions . on Anchorage is the only FIRST, THIRD DIVISIONS ARE BIGPRODUCERS Over $23, 000 000 in Ex- ports from Each Divi- sion Last Year The First Judicial Division, with ts diversified economy, and the Third, with its heavy salmon pack, an almost a dead heat for Alaska export honors last year Exports from the First Division otaled $23,637,875 and from the Third Division $23,896766. The to- al for the First consisted of $5,- )97,714 in gold and $18,540,161 in sther products, while that of the Third was made up only $1,109817 | trom gold and $22,786,949 in other oroducts. Biggest gold produger is the Fourth Division, whose rich placer fields n 1939 poured $10,969,302 in golden wealth into the States. Total exports for the Fourth Di- vision were $11,730,189 and for the Second Division $3,115,832. system of airways being build in Alaska. | Army Airbase I Now Anchorage has been select- ed as the primary station of the Alaska Army Airbase. It will be constructed on a huge reserved area about a mile north of the city. During construction about 2,000 men will be employed and it will be the headquarters for about 1,000 officers and men of the U. S. fly- ing services after it is completed. Beyond the Matanuska Valley and only a drive of three or four hours by auto lies the second larg- est lode gold producing district in Alaska. The Willow Creek mineral distriet wherein are . located such | famous producers as the Lucky Shot. Independence, Fern, High-| | grade, Gold Cord and others, ac- counted for 18 percent of the lode | gold produced in Alaska last year.| Ten million dollars worth has come | out sirfce it was first worked early in the century and the ground is sald to be only scratched. Nearly all . of this wealth, has passed | through Anchorage and all of ‘the supplies to! run the, mines have been hauled in via the city. Lode Gold The Indepéndence has had one of the most spectacular. advances in the history of Alaska mining | Starting in- 1936 from little more than a good sized “diggings,” the mine now has 100 empioyees, the most modern :of coriveniences and | equipment and operates on four levels. Regular weekly tleanups said to be in the neuhborhood of 330- 000 ave.brought to shipment to the mlnt Walstem G Smith, " well-kpown " Alaskan. min- | ing man, said’ about the Willow | Creek country: . ) I regard it as one of the most the « North American continent and. within 10 years it should be producing $10.-| 000,000 yearly and employing 1,000 men. Here is the only. place in Alaska where the Cambrian and | pre-Cambrian show - up. In my‘ opiniop it is very similar to the| Grass Valley district of Califor- | nia.” The Future > Even setting aside for the mo- | ment any possibilities of far-flung governmental - expansion such as| the proposed air base, it is nor,‘ hard to visuglize Anchotage as a| city of permanency. Its status as a transportation . center; a supplyw point or:a mining district, singly | or in amalgamation, indicates that it is to be the crossroads of West- ern Alaska. Advance census figures giving the population - within the city limits! of 3488 represents more than 50 percent gain within the past ten years. The trading area directly contingent to Anchorage will boost the figure to 6,000 while a secon- dary trading area reached by Lh(- Alaska community laid cut according to a preconceived plan. Comparatively young, the city lies at the he ad of Cock Inlet at the “hub of Alaska.” Five Years Has Wrought Many Changes af Cofony gin territory at a cost of nearly | $1,000,000 and there’s a commun- Despite the outpouring of thou- ity center with school, hospital, sands and thousands of words of ‘\\-arehouse, staff houses, hatchery, { adverse criticism directed at the cannery, creamery, trading posts| Matanuska colony since its incep- and heating plant (all included in tion in 1935, it plugged steadily the total cost figure) | | along and 1939 saw it pass its The colonists are raising hay,| | most significant milestone. potatoes, cabbage, carrots, turnips, | On December 16 formal transfer rutabagas, beets, radishes, onions, of the property of the Alaska Ru- parsley, broccoli, lettuce, cauliflower, | ral. Rehabilitation Corporation was spinach, kale, celery, swiss chard, | made to the Matanuska Valley parsnips, peas, berries, rhubarb. | | Farmers’' = Cooperating ASSDcianor;_ Anchorage Times cut Produce is marketed through the| | This meant that the goal set for the market Matanuska Valley Farm Cooperat- ing Association, primarily to mer-| chants supplying n it by planners back in Washington five years ago had been achieved. The colony was on its own. Nor was it only the Government and around Anchorage. Loans and advances to colonists steering committee which was anxi- are repayable over a 30-year pg[_ ous to see the colony free from iod. After readjustment to take| Uncle Sam’'s tethers. The farmers care of colonists that got in too | themselves had asked that the | dee; D, the first payments are now | vransfer be hastened in order that they might their due in November, 1940. try out newly The colony has gone, in the| acquired independence. hort space of four years, a long 155 Families The 155 families who now com- Tk : way toward converting a wilder- | Uncle Sam’s colonial experiment nent population. (That figure, the ness into a modern community, | orise the colony are patiently wait- in the North, now in its fifth best available, was supposed (0 , feat accomplished in most parts| B the ‘eatly. Epring ythey expect year, is still & question mark in|cover the cost of a farm and o the United States in not less| E AR g At many minds, equipment but did not include ypan one quarter century,” says| they may pursue their wurk'rr.('(: Ever since ground was broken|roads, the community center, etc.). the Division of Territories and Is-| . ’ 2 Aschabads TEER Oub from Government, encumbrances. for the first houses in Matanuska Uncle Sam paid expenses to Al- janq Possessions of the Department This series of three views shows the changes in a Matan- It will mean they must also 0.:(. Valley in June, 1935, the critics aska of the Interior. uska colenist’s home from year to year, as land was | Githout Government subsidies 2;“ have blazed away. They say for| Now: ‘1'ne rederal Government - L cleared and an Alaska community slowly grew. is when_the test wnllscome B example that the colony has been has ac) allotted $4,169,371 for l 1 .I. RY B e " ¥ -| Wil the Matanuska farmer be mismanaged from the very start; the colony. Replacements must pay (o mss o able to go s own with that some of the colonists had no their own way. Thirty acres of AY B F“.MED Ma'anu!ka Best (IOD i, D a;;nn% S h: E:.ZLJSZLT farming experience and were un- wed land on each of the 40- M Y E suardian? i : fitted for pioncer 1ife; that they acre farms, essential for a colonis \Was Promoted At Matanuska, e ke oLy were promised too much; that some family to be self-sustaining atanuska, Alaska’s f z 1_‘ will be R % o tHim were aliowed o iraw more| are” claared oy e it e fmine - Decade Ago Guess What! T — equipment and supplies than they Then: Two hundred families (830 jf the efforts of a Paramount SRR | - e That the colony is permanent is needed or could pay for. sersens) migrated to the colony at arig- writer bear fruit. Matanuska first came into the Best crop of the Matanuska col- | attested by the fact the 2,500 But friends of the ‘colony are Government expense, The families Wessel Smitter, scenarist, visited |national limelight a few years ago ony has proved to be, not beets, | applicants on file awaiting a chance staunch In defense, They believe selected by local social case Work- Alaska last summer to get first-|when the Federal Government turnips, hay or potatoes, but chil-| to settle on one of the tracts should the colonists are making good pro- ers by the Federal Emergency Re-' hand information on Matanuska. He | sponsored its colonization with dren any more be given up. gress. lief Administration were supposedly took voluminous notes in the re-|families from the drought-stricken More than 200 youngsters have| Officers of the new cooperative Maybe the final answer is years farm families. gion, then returned to Hollywood to | dust bowls of the Middle West, been born since the colony was es-|claim the colony saved $30,000 away. Now: One hundred and “ten of await decision of studio officials on | but it was many years before that tablished above” expenses last year and es- Here's a picture of the colony the original 200 families remain. whether a film will be produced. |it was viewed as an agricultural, Next fall the first of these Al-|timate a half million gross for —then and now—based on Fed- Replacements bring the total num- 5 > | area capable of providing for hun- aska-born children will be entering | 1940, ; : eral records. ber of families to 155 with an av- The White Pass and Yukon Rail- | dreds of families, the valley's public school. selila o oo = Then: Uncle Sam planned to erage of five persons per family. road between Skagway and White-| Back in May, 1929, Colonel Otto s i 5 Malaspina Glacier in Alaska has spend $3.000 apiece to re-establish Pcpulation now is about 775 com- horse, Y. T. was opened in August, | F. Ohlson, General Manager of Tuna fish, like the salmon, re-|an area of 1500 square miles, larger form families from relief rolls in pared with the original 890, Thou- 1900, The road is 110 miles long|the Alaska Railtoad, said that turn to their original spawning |than the State of Rhode Island. 1 Minnesota, Wisconsin, Michigan, sands of applications are on file. and supplanted the old Chilkat and | Matanuska Valley was in need of ground lis the.largest glacier in the world and to show by example that Al- The Much of Matanuska Val- Chilkoot Passes into the Yukon gold | farming families. L = = : aska could be settled by a perma- ley was virgin territory inhabited country. | At that time, he proposed the Providence Hospital at Anchorage = T This $450,000 structure was completed and put in nperallon during the past year by the Cathelic Sisters of Chnrlty, lt compares favorably with new hospitnls 0||ts1de. - SHEEP RAISING SUCCESSFUL NEW. AUASKA VENTURE Herds on Far Umnak Island | Produced $50,258 in Wool Last Year One of the newest Alaskan in- | dustries, and probably the farthest west of amy..eensequence, is sheep raising. Herds on Umnak Island, far out in the Aleutians, have been | built up until they now number | 13,000. From this remote region which | has been found admirably - suited | for the grazing of sheep, 147, 203‘ | pounds of unmanufactured wool waw | shipped to the States last year, a rop worth $50,258. number airplane makes the total An-| of people dependent upon chorage close to 10,000. It is no wonder that Anchorage bankers were a bit pucker-browed but not unduly surprised when they found the ecity's 1939 business add- ed up to the best year in history. | of the large fleet of Star Airways, | whose planes were busy on fhgh'.s" MOVIE SHORTS ON ALASKA RELEASED BY WARNER BROS. Three short :aotion picture” fea- | tures in coler, filmed in the Terri- tory last summer by Ira Genet, have just been released by Warner | Bros., according to word received here. MARINE and INDUSTRIAL:- The Alaska films are entitled “New Horizons,” “Men Wanted,” AUTOMOTIVE:—60 to 200 h.p. and “The Valley.” The latter was filmed at Matanua.ka ANCHORAGE FIELD ALASKA'S BUSIEST Merrill Field at Anchorage is Alaska’s busiest airfield. Recently 35 planes were on the field in onn day. And this did not include any | to the Interior. .o That last year the Fairbanks EX-! periment Station raised 2,500 bush- els of grain, 212 tons of ensilage, 80 tons of hay, 32 tons of potatoes, | 28 tons of rutabagas, and approx- | imately one-quarter of a ton of| raspberries? . FULL LINE DIESEL ENGINES and ACCESSORIES Ketchikan Anchorage Times cut. — | encouragement of immigrant fami- | the | farming CUMMINS NORTHWEST DIESEL SALES, Inc. P - - O T {mmuusu FO0D | | vear and quick disposal of The shipment homes in a few hours after its | arrival, Although not a large | shipment, the ' initial order in- ;r]udcd cottage cheese, pure pork link sausage, ring style, Polish | sausage, frankfurters, ham, bol- ogna and fryers. | lies to populate the region, men- tioning Holland and Denmark as most likely sources for such people. (Guarantees Protection For You and Your FINDS PROFITABLE INTERIOR MARKET | Fairbanks got its first shipment of foodstuffs from Matanuska dur-| ing the latter part of June last, the | consignment indicated a strong dc-‘ mand for Alaskan produce in lhe] Fairbanks market. disappeared ' into 1 All the produce arrived in good condition, the cottage cheese being described as of especially high| quality. 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