THE NOME NUGGET
Published Monday, Wednesday and Friday by the
NOME PUBLISHING CO.
NOME, ALASKA
E. P. BOUCHER .. Managing Editor
CLINTON GRAY .Production Manager
Telephone: Main 125 P.O. Box 618
$1,50 PER MONTH_ $16.00 A YEAR
Subscribers not receiving their papers by 5:30 p.m.,
call Main 125 for special delivery. After 5:30 call Black 102.
Entered as second class matter October 14, 1943, at the
postoffice at Nome, Alaska, under the Act of March 3, 1879.
WHAT THE TOURISTS THINK OF ALASKA
An interesting analysis of the Tourist Industry
has recently been completed by the Bureau of Business
Research of the University of Washington from June 1,
1952 to September 1, 1952. During that period a total
of 70,000 people entered Alaska, 53 per cent by air,
19 per cent by sea, and 28 per cent by highway, and
65,000 departed in the same percentage of method of
departure.
Some of the interesting facts gleaned show that
California and Washington together accounted for
about one-half of all the visitors and the rest of the
states of the union contributed in almost equal num
bers.
Over one-half the visitors -were men, one-third
were women and the rest were children.
The majority of the tourists were middle-aged or
older with the steamship routes taking the oldest and
the younger ones arriving by motor. Sixty-one per
cent of the visitors were married.
Professional workers, including teachers, account
ed for almost one-fourth of the total.
Over 91 per cent were making their first vacation
trip to Alaska.
The dollar volume for the four-months tourist
business for those on vacation only was over 6.3 million
and three-fourths of this amount was for transporta
tion and half of the visitors came by steamship to the
Territory.
Of a total of 52,000 visitors in the Territory, 2,369
visited Nome.
Of a total of 2,577 questioned on where they got
their information on taking their trip, 1,251 obtained
it from previous visitors to the territory, with travel j
agents all over the country being responsible for inter-1
esting 746 travelers. It is also interesting to note that
news items in papers all over the states were respon
sible for 267 visitors.
Major findings showed that $500,000 was paid
HOW LONG CAN HE TAKE IT? I
for food and over $250,000 for lodgings and over
$350,000 for souvenirs.
What Tourists Liked Best
Seventy-one per cent of the tourists named the
wonderful Alaska scenery as what they liked best re
gardless of which route he traveled. Other things they
expressed as outstanding were the frontier atmosphere
and the friendliness of the people.
Highway passengers had most of the complaints
for inadequate housing and lack of improved camp
sites; while a small percentage of the boat passengers
didn’t like southeastern Alaska’s fog and rain and
dirty towns, particularly Fairbanks and Anchorage.
Recommendations are headed by requests to im
prove the roads and housing accommodations, while
many wanted everything left just as it is—a frontier.
One tourist wrote:
“Of my many travels, from coast to coast and
border to border, including Mexico and Canada, I
can truly say that you haven’t lived til you’ve seen
Alaska. Maybe it’s the ruggedness and vastness and
stillness that accents Alaska. I don’t know, but it is
impressive and as much as I’ve enjoyed other beauties
of the world, there is none superior to Alaska and its
effect on you. There’s hidden beauty in the wildness
of Alaska that the others don’t have.”
Government Seeks to Own
Illegal Gold - Diggings of
Would - Be Sourdough
HOUSTON, Tex., UP*—1The Fed
eral government has filed a 'peti
tion seeking permanent owner
ship of the illegal gold-diggings
of a would-be Alaska sourdough.
’The 84 ounces of gold retort—
$2,856 worth at $34 an ounce —•
have been In a Secret Service Of
fice safe here since being seized
Oct. 17, 1949.
Secret Service agents seized
the gold when a 65-year-old wan
derer tried to sell it via Railway
Express to a Chicago smelting
company. A check revealed the
man formerly had worked as a
watchman for a Fairbanks min
ing company which lost over
$8,000 in gold when the watch
man disappeared.
The government also lost the
man. Moving out of Houston
ahead of the agents, he disappear
ed southward and was last heard
of in South America.
Governor Heintzleman
Names Ben Young To
Board Road Commissioners
JUNEAU — Governor B. Frank
Heintzleman Monday announced
the following appointments to the
Employment Security Commission
of Alaska:
' R. L. Jemberg, Ketchikan;
Lyle E. Anderson, Anchorage;
Robert Dixon, Fairbanks. The
fourth member o-f the new com
I mission created by the 21st Leg
| islature will be announced within
J a few days.
Governor Heintzleman also an
: nounced these appointments to the
Territorial Board of Road Com
missioners created by the 21st
Legislature: First Division, P. C.
McCormack, Wrangell; Second
: Division, Ben Young, Nome;
Third Division, Ed Holt, Valdez;
Fourth Division, Cecil Wells, Fair
banks. The fifth member of the
board is Highway Engineer Irving
: Reed.
E. Wells Ervin of Anchorage
and Marshall Crutcher of Kodiak
have been appointed by the gov
ernor to the Territorial Banking
Board.
Three Cases of Polio
Reported in Juneau Area
Over July 4 Weekend
JUNEAU, — Three cases of
polio in the Juneau area were
diagnosed by local physicians
over the July 4' weekend, bringing
to 13 the total number of cases
reported in Alaska since Jan. 1.
Stricken were a Douglas boy,
10, a nine-year-old Juneau boy
and a 24 year-old woman whd
lives just outside Juneau.
Alaska Department of. Health
records show 111 cases reported
since the first of the year in the
Whitehorse area of Canada.
Sen. Taft Undergoes Operation
NEW YORK, m—Sen. Robert
A. Taft Wednesday underwent an
exporatory operation involving
the abdominal wall.
A New York Hospital bulletin
said;
“He stood the operation well
and his condition is good.”
The senator has been suffering
from a serious hip ailment. He
has been using crutches.
Taft gave up the active floor
leadersip of the Senate several
weeks ago and Sen. Knowland of
California took over the job from
him.
Ordinary bottle glass melts at
a temperature of 2550° Farenheit.
Izvestia Blasts Officials
Who Place Nationalism
Above Communism
MOSCOW, (£>—'The Soviet gov
ernment newspaper Izvestia de
clared Tuesday that the Commu
nist Party has “crushed all its
enemies” who tried to undermine
the unity of the party and the
confidence of its members in the
“victory of socialism.”
The newspaper also warned in
an editorial that any leader who
neglects Communist theory is un
worthy of the title and “life soon
er or later will rid itself of him.”
“The unity of the party ranks,”
Izvestia declared, “was, is and
shall be the basis erf strength and
unconquerability of our party.”
(The Moscow dispatch, which
passed through Russian censor
ship, listed no specific culprits.
The frequent references to party
unity, however, seemed to indi
cate that the editorial was anoth
er blast in the recent campaign
against party and government of
ficials who place considerations of
“nationalism” above the concept
of Communism embracing all the
diverse nationalities which make
up the Soviet Union. This drive
has resulted in the replacement,
or purge, or numerous govern
ment and party officials in various
of the republics making up the
Soviet Union.)
Small Plane Wig-Wags
Lost Prospectors to Safety
ANCHORAGE, uF) — Two An
chorage prospectors, Sim Pete, 50,
and Leo Stephan, 35, were led to
food and safety over «the weekend
by the wig-wagging wings of a
private plane flown by Stanley
McCutcheon, Anchorage business
man.
McCutcheon reported he sight
ed smoke signals while near Bel
uga mountain northeast of here.
Standing beside the signal fire
were the two miners. McCutcheon
guided them to a nearby lake by
waggling his plane’s wings, then
picked them up and flew them to
Alexander Lake at the head of the
Susitna River. There the men
were given food and clothes.
The prospectors said they had
been without food for five days
after a bear raided their food
cache and they became lost in try
ing to hike tor a cabin in search
of supplies. They were traveling
in the opposite direction from the
cabin when found.
Legal Blanks at The Nome Nugget
Arctic Sanitary Service
#
Phone RED 181*
r". . .. ■ 1 ...
ARCTIC OIL DELIVERY
WE CHECK YOUR TANK REGULARLY
Ben Young
Phone BLACK 76 (Shop) or MAIN 52 (Residence)
k, ■ i __
I SALE Wed. thruSat^j
New FAB Spray
I Different Colors— Renews all Faded Fabrics 3 25 was 3.55 I
Used MERCURY Outboard
6 H.P_LIKE NEW — 98.50
Sunbeam Irons — CASCO Steam Irons
I IRONING BOARD PAD & COVER SETS — 2.25 were 3.00 I
Preway Oil Burning Stoves
LOOK THESE OVER
Coleman and Primus Stoves
(Overstocked) — 6 95 were 14.00
New Metal Adjustable Ironing Boards
Bicycle Parts and Accessories
Chevrolet, Pontiac, Oldsmobile and Buick
Automobiles — Parts and Accessories
I Nome Motor Company g