1THE KUSKO TIMES
A. X. Grant, Publisher, Syle
Owner and Editor.
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Entered as secona-class matter Au
j.gust 29th, 1923, at the postoffice at
’ Tokotna, Alaska, under the Act of
T March 3, 1879.
Takotna, Alaska, August 25, 1928.
] HARROWING EXPERIENCES
OF POINT BARROW PARTY
RELATED BY RELIEF PILOT
In the years to come, when tales
( of pioneer aviation in Alaska are re
, called, recounted and retold, one of
i the outstanding ones in thrilling ex
J pel iences will be that telling of the
Fox Film party expedition in the vi
, einity of Point Barrow. The story is
. graphically told by the Anchorage
' Times, as follows:
Showing visible effects of the
: strain to which he had been subjected '
for many days, but relating his story |
with unassuming modesty, Matt Nie- j
» minen, pilot of plane No. 2 of the An- j
, chorage Air Transport, which was
: sent to Point Barrow from Fairbanks j
May 24 to search for the long miss-:
j ing Fox Film-p^rtv >■» a two-hour in
terview last night with the Times,
told o fthe efforts to find and rescue
i the missing men and of the final suc
, cess of the undertaking.
Weather conditions were most un
. favorable for flying from the time
Nieminen and Heyser, the radio oper
; ator taken along from Fairbanks, left
i Kotzebue for Point Barrow on May
• 25, the fog at times being so dense
i that flying was impossible.
Reaching Barrow, Nieminen found
that Wien and hfc plane, carrying
Hart, one of thd Fox Film party, had
i reached their deV ation May 14, and
t that up to May 25f nothing had been
1 heard from Merrill, Rqbertson and
i Clark, who had been forced to remain
, on a lake 150 miles from Barrow
> when Wien finally got away on his
] long tires from the deep snow.
Nieminen gives Wien the highest
praise for the heroism displayed in
i the search for his missing comrades,
the Nome pilot having spent 25 hours
; in the air in the fiercest kind of
- weather. At one time Wien was
forced down by snow and fog at a
. reindeer camp and had to remain
there for four days, having been ab
: sent from Barrow when Nieminen ar
j rived there.
“We left Fairbanks with a radio set
a weighing over 300 pounds,” said Nie
a minen in telling the experiences of his
itrip. “I had taken every precaution
possible to make sure the set would
work satisfactorily both in sending
;and receiving messages. Part of the
(equipment was a 27-foot mast, which
was necessary because of the lack of
' Takotna Pool Hall |
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j Charlie O’Halloran - - Prop.
THE ALASKA PIONEER.
Sometime, when the North has its Epics
And hidden pages tinfold
The records of argonauts seeking,
Ever, their fleeces of gold,
There'll he tales of adventure and daring.
Tales full of struggle and strife
That break through the crust of the surface
And deal with the bedrock of Life.
And these stories will rank with the greatest,
For, waiting that mag icalpen
Is an empire of untold riches,
PDeDveloped by unknknown men,
Men who are un-sung heroes,
Who have blazed there an endless trail
That death no longer may lie in wait
For those who falter and fail.
There ae men who have shot the rapids.
Who have scaled the mountain peak;
Cut inch by inch through an icy pass,
.Then gave of their strength to the weak;
Who have staggered with heat in summer,
Who have frozen in winter snow;
Who have .faced the menace of breast-high drift.
Or treacherous overflow.
Who have driven their foot-sore huskies.
Patient yet wild-wolf wise,
Straight to the end of the trackless wast"
Where a haven of safety lies.
Such are the true Alaskans—
The men who have fared .them forth
To make a State of a Wilderness,
To conquer the untrod North.
And I think,, as the Trail is endng,
Fo each weary Pioneer,
His hardships will count as virtues
When he crosses the Last Frontier.
-Esther Birdsall Darling.
trees of any kind along the coast
route we intended to follow from
Kotzebue.
“When we left' Kotzebue foor Point
Barrow on May 2?^We took a course
across the Baird and DeLong moun
tains to the headwaters of the Utukok
river. We hit the coast in 2 hours
and 45 minutes and followed the coast
line to Icy Cape, a native village,
where we landed and asked if the
planes of Merrill and Wien had been
seen. Nothing had been seen or
heard of the planes. Our next hop
was to Wainwright, which took 45
minutes. We refueled there and made
inquiry as to the planes, but the an
swer was the same as at Icy Cape.
“We then took off for Point Barrow
at 8 o’clock in the evening and reach
ed Point Barrow at 9:15. The weather
was fine at Barrow when we landed,
but it had been foggy and tough
going all along the Utukok river.
“Hart was on the ground when we
circled over Point Barrow and sig
naled us to land on the snow. But I
circled around trying to locate a sand
spot where a landing would b esafer.
Finding none, we went down and
landed in the snow successfully.
“From Hart I learned of the plight
of the boys. After leaving Wiseman
on Sunday, May 13, they flew for 4
hours and 15 minutes, when they
struck oafg and could not proceed.
Finally they found a lake and Wien
landed on the lake and found the
snow deep. Wien had balloon wheels
on his plane and signaled Merrill not
to land, believeing he could not get
up again with the smaller wheels on
his plane. Wien tried to take off
again, but could not make it. Mer
rill circled for a short distance, but
could see nothing better in the way
of a landing place because of the
heavy fog and decided'to land, which
he did successfully.
"They shoveled and picked all that
night to make a place 'from which
they could take off. Wien finally got
away and went to Barrow, about '160
miles distant. The fog was bad all
the way and made a landing danger
ous, but Wien landed without mishap.
Wien made preparations to return the
next day to Merrill’s plane with shov
els to dig out a runway, but Mondayy,
the 14th, the weather was so bad he
could not take off. .The fog had been
so thick when Wien flew into Barrow
that he could not pick up £ny land
marks by which he could return .to
Merrill’s plane, and when the weather
finally broke so he could .fly he
searched in vain for the lake.where
Merrill went down. Knowing his
comrades were out there only a! hun
dred miles, Wien suffered untold
agonies because he could not locate
them. He flew for 25 hours in his
searching trips, covering distances of
approximately 2,500 miles. Gasoline
was supplied by the government hos
pital at Barrow, a common low-grade
of commercial gas.
“As soon as Wien and Hart landed
at Barrow, Hart dispatched eleven
dog teams to search for Merill, Rob
ertson and Clark. Wien found two old
skiis that had been left by Wilkins.
They were badly damaged, but he
finally succeeded in repairing them,
and put them on his plane, making
landing much easier.
“When Heyser. and I landed at Bar
row on the 25th, Wien had been out
| scouting for two days, and there was
fear that something had happened to
his plane. - He finally returned to
Barrow on the 27th, after having
been down for four days at a reindeer
camp because of the heavy fog. The
weather continued bad on the 28th,
but late that day it cleared a little
and I took off on wheels. The fog
suddenly thickened again and I had
to return and land.
“We could do nothing until June 1,
when the weatoher became wonder
ful. Wien and Hart took off, and
Hart accompanied me. We had agreed
on signals, and Wien, because of his
slower plane and left control, stayed
to the right, and as my plane has
right control I kept to the left and
'behind Wien.
“We flew about an hour close to
.the coast, then went farther inland.
.1 kept the plane zigzagging for 45
minutes, and finally saw Merrill’s
plane on the lake. We flew over the
plane and there were no signs of
life—no indication of anyone having
been there for several days. I finally
landed on a spit of a hill and nosed
over, but suffered no serious damage.
Wien then landed on the lake on skiis
beside Merrill’s plane and got Russ’
log. It was apparent that Merrill,
Robertson and Clark believed Wien
had never reached Point Barrow.
“After we got my plane straight
ened out we took off from the. lake,
Wien flying high and heading for the
camp of John Ilegness at Halkett, on
the coast about 125 miles from Bar
row. Wien .was to get Hegness to
take up the search for Merrill and the
other two men. Merrill’s log showed
that Robertson and Clark had left
him on May 22, while Merrill had re
mained with the plane two days
longer.
“As Wien started for the Hegness
camp Itook a low course,...and two
miles from the lake saw dog-team
tracks that were not fresh. A few
minutes later I saw men’s tracks
crossing the dog-team tracks. I then
took a course for the coast, and fol
lowed the men’s tracks down the
coast line to an igloo where thee were
lots of tracks but no one there. Later
I
we saw dog teams on the ice. We
then started for Barrow, and in a lit
tle while saw two men on the ice. We
flew log and signaled to the men, who
seemed all in. We circled around and
Found a sand spit and made a landing.
The men proved to be Robertson and
Clark. Robertson had packed Clark
for two days, although the latter was
much the larger man. They had trav
eled from May 22to June 1 without
snowshoes and with very little food.
Robertson had lost half a dozen toe
nails from freezing his toe’s, and
Clark’s tendons had broken down so
he could not walk. They were 45 or
50 miles from Barrow when we found
them.
“I dumped the #» ergency stuff out
of Che plane and left Heyser on the
beach and took' off for Point Barrow,
where Robertson and Clark were
given immediate attention at the hos
pital.
“Returning to the beach, .1 picked
up Heyser and our emergency sup
plies and reached Barrow aga’n at 7
o’clock in the evening I began ser
vicing the plane preparatory to an
other search for Merrill, whom I was
sure by this time must have been
close to the coast.
“Shortly after 7 o’clock Wien came
in reporting that ,he had found four
dog teams on the lake two miles from
where the two planes had been forced
(Continued On Page 3.)
Max Simel : S:,r
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