m NOME NUGGET
OLDEST NEWSPAPER IN ALASKA—MEMBER ASSOCIATED PRESS
VOL. LXI No. 99 NOME, ALASKA, WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 19, 1959_Per Copy—15^
Japanese to Climb
McKinley in“Arctic
Scientific Study
TOKYO, UP) — A Meiji Univer
sity official flew to the United
States today to prepare for a 1960
Japanese scientific expedition to
Mount McKinley, the highest
mountain in North America.
Daisaku Goto, a mountaineering
expert, is expected in Anchorage
September 2, after visiting Amer
ican mountaineering experts in
New York and other cities.
Goto said he will seek advice
from American officials on how
to scale the 20,320-foot mountain
next year and the necessary pro
visions.
Goto, who will spend about
three weeks in Alaska, was sent
by the university to prepare for
a 15-man scientific group to study
Alaskan archaeology and eth
nology.
Goto said he will also try to
obtain detail maps of the moun
tain from American Air Force
authorities in Anchorage.
The scientific team to be
headed by Misao Watanabe, pro
fessor of cultural geography, is
expected to leave Tokyo June 1,
1960, and will stay in Alaska for
about three months.
The cost for the expedition is
estimated to be about 14,336,480
yen ($39,823*.
The team will be split into two
groups, one scaling Mount McKin
ley. Another will explore the re
gions from Anchorage, Juneau,
Sitka, in the south to McGrath,
Nome, Fairbanks and Kotzebue
in the north.
An official of the university
said the team will survey* the
existing cultures of Eskimos and
Indians in comparison to Asian
cultures so that the extent of
, intermingling and migration of
races could be determined.
The official said the present
theory is that the races and cul
tures of North America have come
from Asia via the Bering Strait
through the Soviet peninsulas of
Chukotsky and Kamchatka.
Follow-up Quake Possible
PASADENA, Calif., UP> — An
other large earthquake is possible
within two weeks in the Yellow
stone National Park area, an ex
pert said today.
It is possible, said Dr. Charles
Richter of the California Insti
tute of Technology, but not neces
sarily probable.
He. said he thinks it is possible
because a strong quake" in the
same area in 1935 was followed
in about two weeks by another
equally strong.
Usually, succeeding shocks are
smaller.
MATS Plane Returns
To Base After Engine
/ Trouble on Alaska Flight
McCHORD AIR FORCE BASE,
Wash., IJPl — Engine trouble over
the Queen Charlotte Islands
forced a four-engined Military
Air Transport Service plane to
return here under escort Tuesday.
The C-118 was en route from
McChord to Elmendorf Air Force
Base at Anchorage, when it de
veloped trouble in one engine
and feathered a propellor. It flew
back to McChord under escort
of a Royal Canadian Air Force
Neptune and landed without
incident.
i ‘Crank’ Hurls Acid
At Congressman
WASHINGTON, LB — Repre
sentative Frank Thompson <£>
i NJ> today said “a crank” tossed
a fluid which he believed was acid
into his automobile as he drove
to the capitol Tuesday.
The fluid, hurled from a pass
ing panel truck, burned a hole in
Thompson’s shirt and marred the
paint on his automobile. Congres
sional associates said Thompson
had a burn on his shoulder the
size of a dime.
Thompson played a leading role
in House consideration last week
of a labor control bill, as a backer
of a Democratic-sponsored meas
ure opposed by most union lead
ers. The House first turned down
a more limited measure and then
passed a still more stringent bill
than Thompson advocated.
A source close to Thompson
was quoted as reporting the Con
gressman said he had been getting
anonymous threats over his labor
bill activities.
In answering reporters’ ques
tions, however, Thompson at
tached no significance to the inci
dent of the fluid. He attributed
it to “the work of a crank.”
Police said Thompson told
them it was possible he had an
gered the men in the truck by
inadvertently cutting across their
path in traffic.
A sample of the fldid was ob
tain^ from the side of Thomp
sn’s car and the FBI was testing
it to determine what it was. >
Giant Montana’s Copper
Works Struck by Mine,
Smelter Workers
BUTTE, Mont., UP) — Miners
and smeltermen today struck the
Anaconda Co., ope of the world’s
largest copper producers.
A walkout by an estimated 5,600
members of the International
Union of Mine, Mill and Smelter
Workers began at Butte, Anacon
da, Great Falls and East Helena
in Montana and Tooele in Utah.
Negotiations have been under
way since June 1 for. a new con
tract to replace a three-year pact
which expired June 30. Mine
mill workers have continued work
on a day-to-day basis since then.
A union official said mine-mill’s
principal demands are a wage in
crease of 15 to 17 cents an hour.
Current wage scales range from
$2.20 to $2.55 an hour.
President Signs Measure
Allowing State to Select
Federal Oil Lease Lands
WASHINGTON, UP) — Alaska
will be able to select federal lands
on which oil, gas and coal leases
have been taken under an act
signed by the President Tuesday.
Under the Alaska Statehood
Act, Alaska was allowed to select
102,550,000 acres of public lands
in the next 20 years. Excluded
were lands on which mineral
leases were taken since signing
of the statehood act.
The new law, introduced by
Representative Ralph Rivers, al
lows the state to include leased
lands in its selections. Terms of
the leases will not be affected, the
land merely come under jurisdic
tion of the state.
Rivers said upward of 20 mil
lion acres of leased land are in
volved.
Gruening Calls on
Seaton to Validate
Promise to Settlers
WASHINGTON, OP — Senator
Ernest Gruening still wants In
terior Secretary Fred Seaton to sit
down and listen to a recording of
remarks he claims Seaton made
in Alaska last year.
Those remarks, says Gruening,
gave the impression Seaton would
not oppose legislation to grant oil
and gas rights to certain settlers on
Alaska’s Kenai Peninsula where
oil has been discovered.
In a recent letter to Seaton, the
Senator says Seaton assured the
homesteaders the matter of min
eral rights1 would be untangled to
their satisfaction.
Gruening claims Seaton told the
settlers “the only remedy you
have is to get the law changed.”
A bill introduced by Gruening
to accomplish this has been stalled
in committee by opposition from
the Interior Department.
“It is clear,” says Gruening, “that
the bill will rjever be enacted in
the face of present departmental
opposition. I have done my utmost
to make it possible to validate
your promises. It is now up to
you.” , ,
Under a 1922 law, the govern
ment retains mineral rights to
land for which homesteaders
have not filed papers of proof
that they have fulfilled require
ments or title under the Home
stead Act.
This provision went into effect
in May, 1957, when the Kenai was
declared a potentially productive
oil and gas area.
The settlers claim they settled
on the land in good faith and
were carrying out requirements of
the Homestead Act when the dec
laration was made. They feel that
those who were on the land prior
to oil discovery should be given
mineral rights to their land.
Gruening’s bill would accom
plish this by amending the act.
“I would like to repeat now
for the third time my invitation
to you that you sit down with me
and listen to a playback so you
can assure yourself that it is in
deed your own voice speaking and
that the quotations I have made
from your remarks are fair ones
and not taken out of context,”
Gruening wrote to Seaton.
Grilening - Bartlett Team
Offer Bill To Incorporate
Alaska Railroad Holdings
WASHINGTON, (# — The
Alaska Railroad would be incor
porated as the Alaska Railroad Co.
under a bill introduced by Sen
ators Ernest Gruening'and Bob
Bartlett.
The measure would “permit the
railroad to be managed in the
manner of an iftdustrial operation,
providing a general transportation
service to the public.”
The railroad, built by the gov
ernment, is operated by the De
partment of the Interior. The bill
would not take the railroad from
departmental jurisdiction. 11
would be run by a seven-member
board, appointed by the Secretary
of the Interior.
The reorganization proposal is
aimed at making the road self
supporting.
Money now in the Alaska Rail
road revolving fund would be
transferred to the company to be
used for operation and manage
ment.
Helicopters Hover for Clear ■ Weather
Search of Montana Earthquake Area
By TOM MADDOX
WEST YELLOWSTONE, Mont.,
UP — Earthquake-born avalanches
still trapped campers and fisher
men in the wild mountains of
southwest Montana today.
The known death toll was eight,
but it may go higher.
Many vacationers — officials
don’t know the number —
huddled at a make-shift camp
ground on a hillside where they
were supplied last night by air
with blankets, water, food -and
cigarettes.
Leaden skies today stalled a
helicopter air lift rescue operation
The overcast also delayed start
of a bulldozer probe into the huge
slide at Rock Creek campground
— where the top of a mountain
gave way Monday night and
created a new hill 200 to 300 feet
high. This search was to deter
mine whether other quake victims
may be buried in the bebris.
Four of the dead were from one
family. They were F. R. Bennett,
45, of Coeur d’Alene, Idaho; his
two daughters. Carole 17, and
Susan, 5, and a son, Tom, 11.
A 15-year-old survivor, Martin
Stryker of Berkeley, Calif., told
today how his father and step
mother, Mr. and Mrs. E. H. Stry
ker, died in the slides.
Martin and his brothers, John,
13, and Morgan, 8, were sleeping
in a separate tent 20 feet away.
“We could hear trees cracking ”
he said. “When we got out of the
tent two trees had fallen across
our car and another crushed our
boat.”
Then a tremendous roar echoed
down the mountain a second be
fore the avalanche hit the parents’
tent.
Three helicopters were poised
at West Yellowstone to operate
the air lift to bring out the per
sons in the lakes area above the
Madison River Valley, where the
quakes Monday night and Tues
day hit with the most force.
Many got out last night when
buckled, broken U. S. Highway
287 was opened by a road crew,
Idaho State Police reported. Some
were able to drive out their own
cars.
For hours they had been
trapped between the slide and
damaged Hebgen Dam seven miles
away.
Police of three states — Idaho,
Wyoming and Montana — worked
side by side in the rescue efforts,
along with sheriff’s officers, Civil
Defense workers, the Civil Air
Patrol, Red Cross workers, men
from military units and the U. S.
Forest Service.
Approximately 60 persons were
injured, but only 27 remained in
hospitals in four Montana towns.
Six were reported in critical con
dition.
Most of the victims were camp
ers enjoying outdoor vacations in
the rugged wilds of southwestern
Montana, less than 20 miles west
of Yellowstone Park.
The quake first struck near
midnight Monday at Hebgen Dam
and farther downstream in the
Madison River Valey, famous
trout fishing country.
There were an estimated
22,000 to 25,000 vacationers in
Yellowstone Park when the
quakes hit, but no one was re
ported hurt there.
Steel Industry
Statistics to be
Made Public
WASHINGTON, W) — A collec
tion of facts about the steel strike
will be released by the govern
ment tonight in the hope of budg
ing the deadlocked negotiations.*
Secretary of Labor James Mat
ched said he would make public
statistics his staff has gathered
about wages, profits, productivi
ty, prices and related aspects of
the industry.
Mitchell, who announced his
decision to release the report after
conferring with President Eisen
hower, said he hoped the informa
tion would cause both sides to
“bargain a little harder and reach
a settlement.”
But in New York, chief federal
mediator Joseph Finnegan said
Mitchell’s announcement had no
effect whatsoever on negotiations
Tuesday.
The strike has lasted 36 days.
Half a million steel workers are
out and 150,000 in related indus
tries have been laid off.
TUESDAY BASEBALL SCORES
(By The Associated Press)
American League
New' York 5, Detroit 3.
Washington 11, Cleveland 4.
Boston 5, Kansas City 4.
Chicago 6, Baltimore 4.
National League
Philadelphia 2, St. Louis 1.
Cincinnati 7, San Francisco 0.
Los Angeles 7, Milwaukee 6.
Pacific Coast League
Seattle 3, Vancouver 0.
San Diego 6, Phoenix 3.
Cloudburst, Flash Flood
Ravages Desert Town
NEEDLES, Calif., UO — A desert
cloudburst followed by a flash
flood struck the Needles area
Monday night, washing out roads,
rail and phone lines and sweep
ing at least one man to his death.
Three other men are missing,
flung across the desert by a tow
ering wall of water which trapped
a six-man railroad working party
More than 200 motorists were
stranded on U. S. Highways 66
and 95, badly torn by washouts
east and south of here. Needles
is on the Colorado River at the
California-Arizona line.
Sheriff’s officers said the flood
sealed Needles on three sides,
north, south and west. The rain
ended as abruptly as it started.
Brother Milton Reported
To Have Carried New
Khrushchev Offer to Ike
WASHINGTON, Oft—Dr. Milton
Eisenhower is reported to have
brought to his brother, the Presi
dent, a new proposal by Soviet
Premier Khrushchev for a long
term solution on Berlin.
Authoritative sources said to
day Khrushchev unveiled his
plan at a private meeting with
Milton Eisenhower during his re
cent trip with Vice President
Richard Nixon.
Khrushchev’s proposal was said
to be essentially that the Soviets
will agree to let the West German
government take over Commu
nist-encircled West Berlin, with
guaranteed access to the city,
provided the Western Allies with
draw from there.