THE NOME NUGGET
Published Monday, Wednesday and Friday by the
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Telephone 443 - 2381 ’ $1.50 PER MONTH
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E P. BOUCHER . Managing Editor
CLINTON GRAY . Production Manager
Entered u second class matter October 14, 1943, at the
post office at Nome, Alaska, under Act of March 3, 1879.
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w05»^. ^impspi p
Salmon Navigation . . .
> 5||j! (Christian Science Monitor)
^rygj-4.': .A-. •■:v.•&• : Jffir.,-- .- *iWlr; ^
HPHE FISHERIES BOARD of Canada (an organ
A ization that doesn’t fell ihook, line, and sinker for
just any new theory) reports that its tests strongly
indicate that the sockeye salmon migrates with the
aid of celestial navigation.
Basically, the experimenters found -that when
overcast skies or artificial coverings obstructed (the
sockeyes’ view of the sky they wandered aimlessly.
But when no such obstructions blocked the watery per
spective of the heavens, the migrating fish went con
sistently in one direction.
Normally we leave the drawing of morals from
animal behavior to Aesop and James Thurber. But as
observers of the great human migration from apparent J
ignorance to improved understanding we are inclined
to pay our respects to the sockeye salmon, not so much
as an example but as a reminder to humans.
Moral: It is wiser, less troublesome, and quicker
to get to where you are migrating if you don’t try to
guide by the nearest piece of floating seaweed, or by
what that passing school of herring is doing. Instead,
try swimming above them to get a new fix on your
guiding star.
i . ■ ---...n
Back to School
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Tablets - Pens ^
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Childrens’ Shoe! %*
Wearing Apparel
U of A Officials
Study Growth of
School Population
University of Alaska officials
are studying current statistics on
the school age population of
Alaska and are actively prepar
ing for the growth in numbers
expected during the next five
years.
The figures, recently compiled
from the U. S. 1960 census by
the personnel of the U. S. Depart
ment of Health, Education and
Welfare, indicate that Alaskans
face the greatest growth of any
of the 50 states in increased num
bers of children between the ages
of 5 and 17 years old. “This pre
sents a multi-edged challenge to
Alaska,” president William R.
Woo^ pointed out recently. “Not
only will the state university be
confronted with an increased en
rollment on the main campus, in
our community colleges and in
other off-campus courses, but we
will be challenged to prepare more
teachers and administrators for
the schools of Alaska.”
Alaska is already facing a crisis
in classroom space. According to
tables presented in the report,
Alaska public schools enrolled
43,306 students in the fall of 1960
but had available for them only
1,143 public school classrooms.
Under these conditions, there
was an average of 37.9 students
for each public school classroom
in Alaska. The nationwide total of
36,305,104 students enrolled in
1,338,560 public school classrooms
indicated for 1960 a national
average of 27,1 students per class
room.
Another facet of the situation
is unanswered in the reports now
being studied by the University of
Alaska officials. The public
school population of the state in
1960 was 43,306; however, there
were 54,703 children between the
ages of 5 and 17 years old in Alas
! ka listed in the 1960 census. “What
are the educational opportunities
for the 1,1.397 students not en
rolled in public schools; Are there
schools for them to attend? Are
they enrolled for correspondence
courses? Can they meet the re
quirements for entrance into the
courses for advanced learning of
fered in various locations about
the state by the University of
Alaska?”
•' i ‘ • *
SEVEN-POUNDER . . .
WASHINGTON UD — A seven
pound baby gorilla was bom early
Saturday at the Washington Zoo.
Officials said it was only die
fourth gorilla ever bom in capti
vity, and the second in the Unit
ed States.
Ignored by its mother after
the unattended birth, the male
offspring was placed in an incu
bator and fed with a special for
mula. Later it was taken to the
suburban Maryland home of Ber
nard Gallagher, the zoo’s gorilla
keeper, where it will remain dur
ing infancy.
Superase Bond Typing Paper
For Sale at the Nugget
—-~vr.r
GLUE POT
Soda Fountain
i Community Rides the Waves of
Alaska’s Waterways .. . and Love It
! J
By Ward Sims
WHALE PASS, Alaska UP) —
Little Barbara Gildersleeve has
spent most of her six years riding
the waves of Southeast Alaska’s
endless waterways and loved it.
“It’s fun living on a raft,” she
says. "We play on the beach. We
play on the floats. We fall in the
bay.
Barbara, other children and
17 adults live in Gildersleeve, a
community built on 17 big floats
fashioned from giant Alaskan logs.
Small, comfortable homes have
been constructed on six of the
floats and house trailers occupy
two more. Other floats carry a
converted storage shed equipped
with basketball hoops and a vol
leyball net — the town’s new
gym. There’s a one-room school,
storage buildings and two small
seaplanes. - :
The children are happy about
it all. They don’t even mind the
lifejackets they must wear each
moment out of doors because, as
Barbara puts it, “they keep us
from going down in the water
when we fall in.”
To the adults, life is a little
more complicated.
There are no stores within 35
miles. There is no post office.
Trips to the “outside” are rare
luxuries.
The town was founded by Mur
ray and Roger Gildersleeve in
1956. That year the brothers,
formed a smal logging company.
They started with a home, a bunk
house and equipment all on one
The 17 floats are lashed to
gether and occupy an irregular
area roughly 500 by 100 feet.
When logging operations shift
and they decide to move, they
call a big tugboat to tow the
whole works to its new location.
In recent months it was lo
cated near shore in a sheltered
bay in Whale Pass, on the south
side of Thome Island, some 70
miles northwest of Ketchikan and
35 miles south of Wrangell.
The children and their 26-year
old teacher, Lee Axmaker spend
their days in the one-room school
house. If things get a little tense
in the 16 by 24 room, Axmaker
starts physical exercises for his
charges.
With the men working and old
er children in school, life is prob
ably most difficult for the women.
■¥ With no stores around, “we btry
most of our groceries in case lots,”
Mrs. Roger Gildersleeve says. “I
will normally have 70 or 8G Cuses I
of canned goods on hand to start
the winter.
Mail goes In and out on a gov
ernment boat which stops at the
town every Tuesday. There is only
one radio-telephone.
Newcomers face the task of ad
justing to i life spent in close
personal contact, day after day,
with the same people.
Still, there is surprisingly little
friction. In the opinion of Bob and
Carol Harding, parents of four
who have been in Gildersleeve
three years, religion is the most
important factor in keeping peace.
Most of Gildersleeve’s residents
are active members of the Seventh
Day Adventist Church.
Mrs. Harding says, “it ties each
and every one of us closer to
gether.”
Recreation, too, is a family un
dertaking.
Summer evenings may be taken
up with a community potluck sup
per in the gym, a huge beach
picnic, a beachcombing trip or a
fishing expedition.
The fishing would make Isaac
Walton do hand-stands.
Huge salmon and halibut can
be caught a few hundred feet
from the town. Lakes and streams
are literally full of trout.
With fall, hunting becomes the
major off-duty activity. Venison
from the Sitika black-tailed deer
which roam the woods is a
familiar item on family menus.
Trapping for various fur-bear
ing animals of the area provides
both sport and extra cash during
the, winter months.
Law enforcement has never
been a problem. Roger Gilder
sleeve says, “we haven't had any
thing we couldn’t settle peaceably
among ourselves.” Liquor does
not have a place in the com
munity.
But the town is split down the
middle on one issue — politics.
“We really had a stir here last
fall," Roger recalls.
“It was just about 50-50 Demo
cratic and Republican.
“We all vote absentee ballots
and the ballots were sent to me for
distribution.
“Of course, I knew who were
the Democrats, and were the Re
publicans, and, being a good Re
publican, I was tempted to with
hold a few ballots.
“But I played good citizen and
passed them out anyway.”
Sli A small cellar bar
in downtown Tokyo has posted a
drink list including, in English:
High balls, maiuium (sic) balls
and tow balls. /
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