Alaska News Notes
Four years ago lie aid Amundsen, the
Arctic explorer, mailed ajetter in the
far North to a friend in Minneapolis,
After various adventures the communi
cation reached its destination a fen
days ago, bearing on its face an epic
of the postal service at the world’s
edge. Eskimo carriers and dog teams,
starting with the letter, had succumbed
to cold and-stavvadon, and their mail
pouch laid for nearly four years pre
served by ice and snow until last sum
mer, when a party of Russians discov
ered it. They scat the letter to Am
undsen’s home in Norway, where his
brother Leon forwarded it to its Min
i naapolis destination.
■ George JobansoD, who went adrift in
the gas boat Viking at Kanatak sev
eral weeks ago, aud who has not been
seen since, was a well known Alaskan
and Yukon character, having at one
■ time been rated at a million dollars,
taken out of his properties. It is said
that Johansen dissipated his fortune on
wine, wome and song, and turned to
cooking for a living. When the Viking
went adrift in ih.e gale which swept
Kanatak, Johansen was the only man
aboard of her, and it is said h,e was to:
! tally ignorant of the way to start a gas
engine o> to handle a vessel. All hopes
of his being alive have been abandoned.
An effort will be made during the
present session of congress to secure
legislation providing for a closed sea
son on halibut in Alaskan waters. A
90-day closed season is to be sought, ex
tending from November 10 to February
■ 35, annually. This is generally con
ceded to be the spawning season for
halibut, ft is also the most stormy
season of the year, and annually lives
and boats are lost on fishing trips, and
severe hardships encountered by every
boat engaged ia the industry.
* After a lapse of nearly eight years,
aggressive, mining operations will
again be resumed in the Porcupine dis
trict this coming spring by Tim Vogel.
Mr. Vogel left for the States recently,
and- before leaving stated that as soon
as the Welts road opened in the spring
he would arrive with about twenty tons
• pf-maebinery and supplies to be freight
ed into the Porcupine in order that
sninii.g activities may get an early
start. Gold was first discovered on the
Porcupine in 1898.
Joseph B. Strauss, of Chicago, one of
America’s foromost bridge builders,
became on January 1 consulting en
gineer for the Alaska railroad. Mr.
Machine, Black
smith and
Sheet Metal Work
All Kinds of Repairs
Stoves Built
and Repaired
Robt. E. Lowrie
Tokotna, Alaska
Strauss will not be stationed in Alaska,
but the railroad will have first call
upor. his services at any time. He will
come North in the spring for a thor
ough inspection of the line.
Gus Larson, who was a resident of
the Copper river valley some ten years
agp, passed through McCarthy recent
ly, on his way back to Kennecott. Gus
made a stake iq the Copper river sec
tion, and then returned to Norway,
bought a farm and married, and is now
the father of four children. Money
came in good during the war. but since
that time it has been such tough sled
ding that he decided to come to Alaska
to make another stake.
J. L. Waller, Anchorage attorney,
was recently elected president of Igloo
No. Lj, Pioneers of Alaska, succeeding
Henry Sogn. Other officers elected
were: W. M. Sinclair, first vice presi
dent; Charles L. Kemp, second vice
president; O. L. Booth, re elected sec
retary; I. Bayles, re-elected treasurer;
William Mullin, chaplain; Henry Sogn,
historian; George Howe, Sr., sergeant
at arms; W. J. Boudreau; re-elected
trustee.
Tentative arrangensewt*; have been
announced by the Alaska-Sibsran
Navigation Company of San Yancisco
for a direct steamship service from San
Francisco to Seward The new service
will be used for the transportation of
coal directly to California. It is said
the company is seeking preferential
rates on the Alaska railroad so as to
make it possible to compete with Aus
tralian coal. The service would in
clude three freight steamers.
The Territorial law establishing a
closed season on the commercial sal
mon fishing industry in Southeastern
Alaska has been upheld in the dictrict
court for the First division by Judge
Reed, who held that the law js Dot in
consistent with the federal law applie
able to the satne subject and not irrec
oncilable witb its intent and provisions.
VV. E. Matthews, an oldtimer of the
North, died recently in the St. Ann
hospital at Juneau, of heart disease,
brought on principally by agitation
over the recent death of his ll-vear-old
sod. Mr. Matthews entered the hos
pital the following day. He was "3
years of age, and came to Juneau in
1-885. _
Apparently overcome by heart fail
ure, Edwio Robinson, of Seward, was
found dead in his cabin recently, by a
friend who had gone to his home to
make a call. Robinson bad lived in
Alaska for many years, and was well
known all over the Territory.
Mrs Katherine Carter, wife of C. D.
Carter, well known Alaska dentist, has
tiled suit for divorce in the Seattle
courts, according to a Seattle paper.
The couple were married in Seattle
January 25, 1923.
A 30 ton Denver mill will be shipped
in April to the property of the Alaska
Mills Mines Corporation at Nuka Bay.
It is said that a crew of ten men will
be employed on the ground next, sum
mer.
School Terras in Alaska.
Confusion seems to exist in the minds
of some school boards relative to when
a school year of a definite number of
months should end.
The average school ia Alaska is in
session for nine months. The school
law defines a school month as ‘‘consist
ing of twenty days, or four weeks of
five days each.” A teacher has taught
one of the nine months., therefore,
when she has completed four weeks of
work or twenty days of actual teach
ing, school holidays excepted. For ex
ample, the month in which Thanksgiv
ing day falls will consist of but eighteeu
teaching days, .since Thanksgiving day
and the d»v following ate legal school
holidays.
The question of the week or two
weeks vacation taken during the
Christmas season need not be a trouble
some one. For example, in the year
]‘J23 the majority of the schools closed
ou Friday, December 21. Some planned
to remain closed for one week and some j
for two weeks. Suppose a teacher had
taught for two weeks on the current
month when the vacation period began
and that school t -mained Josed for one
week. A tive-week neriod would then
elapse between the receipt of two
monthly pay cheeks. In other words,
the teacher does not receive pay for
the week of vacation.
In the case of a few incorporated !
towns which maintain a forty-week
school year and require that school be
in session for a minimum of thirty- 1
eight weeks, the above ruling would
not apply, since the teachers’ contracts
call for payment of the annual salary
in ten installments over a forty-week
period.--Alaska School Bulletin.
Clancey stopped his friend Sweeney
on the street one-day.
, “1 hear you’ve moved, Sweeney.
How do you like your new place'"”
‘‘Well, Alike, it costs a lot, but there
is a lot goes with it. An’then thim ,
new conveniences are great things,
Sure we've been living a month there
now and the first day we lit the gas
range in the kitchen and it ain't out
vet.” — Everybony’s Magazine.
For a Nice Lunch
or First-Class Meal
Call At
Durant’s Cafe
Flat City
All Kind:% of
Rough Lumber
Tokotna'l Del i ve ry
$80 PER 1
The Pioneer Trader,,
Furs Bought and
Sold
Miners", Prospectors’
and Trappers’
: Supplies
Steamer Service On the In oka
River.
Ask the People of Ophir about ub.
STATION
Fairview. Innoko River
Rough and Dressed Lam
ber of All Kinds
INNOKO LUMBER CO.
BLACKBURN & ELDRIDGE .
McGrath. Alaska
Provisions Notions Furnishings
Indian Mitts. Moccasins and Snowshoes
Furs Bought and Sold |Wh'te Fish and Dog Feed
DogHarness Collars Sled Lashings tank Heaters
DIRECT SERVICE
Seattle to Kuskokwim River
Via inside Passage
Personal Attention Given to Freight Ordered
for the Kuskokwim. Send in Your Orders,
For Rates and Accommodations apply to
Kuskokwim Fishing & Transportation Co,
T Ooirnan Dock Seattle. Wash.
t
1
The Kusko
Times
$1 Per Month