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 $1.50 PER MONTH
P.O. Box 618 $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.
ALASKANS ARE AMERICANS, TOO
By Robert Taylor, U.S. Press Assn.
In his State of the Union address delivered to a
joint session of Congress last February second, Presi
dent Eisenhower said:’ “Most of these particular re
source problems pertain to the Department of the
Interior. Another of its major concerns is its island
possessions. Here, one matter deserves attention. The
platforms of both political parties promised immediate
statehood to Hawaii. The people of that territory have
earned that status. Statehood should be granted
promptly with the first election scheduled for 1954.”
It now seems very probable that Hawaiian state
hood will be among the first acts of Congress—also
that Hawaii’s first election will be “scheduled for 1954”
—when the islands will elect two Republican senators.
We wondered last February why our “island pos
sessions” should take precedence over our peninsular
possessions. Alaska, after all, is not only the northwest
gateway to our own continent, but has been American
—in fact, in spirit, and in performance — since we
bought this prodigious territory from Russia in 1867.
But it now appears that the resources to which
the President referred did not involve the fabulous
wealth of mines and fisheries with which Nature
invested Alaska, nor even the resource of strategic
location. Rather, it seems, “these particular resource
problems” concerned political resources rather than
natural or tactical. '
We do not think anyone objects to the admission
of Hawaii . . . but Alaska was in line first. What a
p ty this mighty dominion can be expected to produce
only Democratic senators in 1954!
WHO-DUN-ITS POPULAR
V/ITH HARVARD STUDENTS
CAMBRIDGE, Mass., (^)—Har
vard may be noted for its culture
but the mo'st popular books with
students and faculty are murder
mysteries, according to Robert H.
Haynes, “one or maybe two thou
Widener Library.
“At any particular time,” says
Haynes, ‘-one or maybe two thou
sand murder mysteries are out of
the library.”
New Transport Firm Will
Serve Alaska From Seattle
SEATTLE, [3—Organization of
Arctic Freightways, Inc., to pro
vide motor-freight service be
tween Seattle and Alaska cities
under an Interstate Commerce
Commission certification, was an
nounced Monday by Harry Moore,
operating manager.
The line will begin service at
once. It plans five-day deliveries
at Fairbanks.
Moore said carriers will travel
via the Alaska Highway.
Review of Mining
Potentialities Of
Seward Peninsula
By HOWARD LYNG
Territorial Senator
The twelfth in a series of articles
exclusive to the Nome Nugget
Soon after returning from Golo
vin from the Nome strike in Octo
ber, 1898, Eric O. Lindbloom, age
40, John Brynteson, 29, and Jafet
Lindeberg, 24, pooled their mining
claims and formed the Pioneer
Mining Company. This first major
Nome mining company was soon
incorporated and expanded, and
during its 24 years of existence
produced millions of dollars in
gold and employed many hun
derds over the years.
Their operating methods began
with the primitive pick and shovel
system and winter dumps, but
with the building of comprehen
sive ditches soon progressed to
ground sluicing, hydraulicing and
finally to 4 to' 6 48-foot hydraulic
lifts, depending on the water sup
ply.
A California mining concern,
called the Hammon Consolidated
Goldfield, acquired the Pioneer
Mining & Ditch Co. in 1922. They
immediately built two dredges in
the Little Creek area, 2Vfe miles
back of town. They were named
No. 1 and 2, and operated for
years east and west from where
constructed.
Dredge No. 2 was later moved
to Center Creek, a mile from town.
It supplied the tailing piles from
which Nome Field, Marks Air
Force Base, was built in 1941-42
43.
In 1923 Dredge No. 3 was erec
ted at Wonder Creek, south of the
3rd Beach and closer <to Nome.
These three dredges had a nine
cubic-foot bucket capacity.
In 1923 the U.S. Smelting, Re
fining and Mining Co. of Boston,
Mass., acquired an interest in, and
in 1925 full ownership of, the
properties, dredges and other as
sets of the Hammon Consolidated
Goldfields.
Other major mining ground in
the immediate Nome area ac
quired by the U.S.S.R. & M. Co.
was that of the Nome Mines Corp.
This property included that of
another major early-day mining
company called the Wild Goose
Mining and Trading Company.
Included in these holdings was
an older dredge called No. 4,
which had operated along Snake
River in the vicinity of what was
later called Nome Field. It was
shut down in 1929, dismantled in
1931, and 'the machinery sold to
the Arctic Exploration & Mining
Co. at Candle on the Arctic Circle,
in 1931.
In the early 1930s the famous
Bessie Bench and several other
nearby 3rd Beach claims were
purchased from old-time trader
Herbert Greenberg, and a consid
erable group of Bourbon and Dry
Creek, as well as tundra claims,
acquired from the E. E. Powell
Corp.
The U.S.S.R. & M. Co. took aver
the entire management of the op
eration in 1925, and immediately
proceeded to do considerable ex
perimenting with cold water
thawing and various dredging
methods. As a result of trial and
error and lessons learned, the pro
ject was finally placed upon the
sound and solid basis which has
proven so successful over the
years, and has played such an
integral pant in the economic life
of the City of Nome.
In 1941 the company construc
ted a large, modem dredge with
a bucket capacity of nine cubic
Heintzleman And A
Satisfied With P
Discussions At C
ANCHORAGE, —'Gov. Frank*
Heintzleman met for nearly three
hours yesterday with a group of
Anchorage Republicans who have
been criticizing his administration.
The session, which was behind
closed doors, was the climax to a
series of meetings between the
governor and various civil and
political groups. It broke up amic
ably after a check, point by point,
of the matters under fire by the
critical Anchorage faction.
Both Gov. Heintzleman and
Walter Hickel, president of the
Anchorage Republican Club, ex
pressed their satisfaction with the
progress made in the discussions
when interviewed after the meet
ing.
A statement approved by Hein
tzleman and Hickel released after
the meeting gave this detailed
account:
“Gov. Heintzleman and the
group of 18 Anchorage Republi
can businessmen who presented
the letter of criticism to the gov
ernor met for three hours this
afternoon at vStudio ‘A’ of KENI.
The meeting, chairmaned by Hick
feet and able to dig to a depth of
90 feet below water. This huge,
million dollar dredge was com
pleted and placed in operation at
the tail end of the 1941 season to
do a bit of token dredging.
In 1942 the high-handed and
arbitrary Washington D.C. shut
down of the gold mining indus
try completely closed down this
new dredge along with its three
companion dredges. They re
mained shut down until 1948,
when the company haltingly re
sumed with one dredge, unable to
recruit the needed labor in com
petition with the extremely high
wages paid by the government
contractors at Fairbanks and An
chorage, principally, on their
mammoth military construction
jobs, railroad rebuilding and road
programs. It was not until the
1952 season that all four of the
companie’s dredges were once
again in operation, with employ
ment in excess of 100, where prior
to the shutdown average seasonal
employment was around 300.
Early this spring, No. 3 Dredge,
near Cooper Gulch, turned over
in the dredge pond with the melt
ing of the ice. The machinery has
been salvaged and the Company
plans to place it in a new hull to
be constructed on the Submarine
Beach in 1955.
The Submarine begins slightly
west of Snake River and lies
about a quarter of a mile back
from the present ocean beach at
an elevation of 19 feet below sea
level. Cold water thawing had
been inaugurated in this area
prior to the 1942 shutdown, and
with the opening of a camp in the
spring cold water thawing will be
resumed in 1954.
(To be Continued)
tnchorage GOPs
rogress Made In
losed Door Meeting
el, proceeded in an amicable and
thoroughly constructive atmo
sphere. The seven subjects of the
letter were discussed in detail.
“On outright support of state
hood by the governor and the
question of a special session of the
legislature, the group presented
many reasons supporting their
affirmative position on these mat
ters. The governor commented, ‘I
am impressed with the presenta,
tion on statehood and the need for
a special session.’ The governor
declined to give an answer forth
with on these matters but said, ‘I
will give most careful considera
tion to what has been said here,
but I also want to discuss these
matters elsewhere in the territory.
I will be prepared to make my
position known in the near future.’
“On these subjects: Alaska pub
lic works appropriations; division
of Bureau of Reclamation survey
funds; creation of a joint U.S.
Canadian commission and road
appropriation cuts, the discussion
developed that the principle diffi
culty had arisen because of a lack
of information that Gov. Heintzle
man was already proceeding in a
vigorcrus manner on these matters.
“With respect to the request for
a replacement of a member of the
governor’s personal staff, Robert
Dearmond, the group felt that
there was inadequate attention to
matters from the Third Division
and all western Alaska and that
much of this could be laid to
Dearmond’s door. Gov. Heintzle
man explained that Dearmond
carried neither administrative nor
executive authority; serves in a
personal and confidential secre
tary capacity and that he was not
prepared to displace him.
“The discussion developed that
it was more of a question of good
and adequate liaison and repre
sentation between the governor’s
office and western Alaska than of
any one person’s actions. The gov
ernor stated that he would inves
tigate the possibility of an addi
tional position in his office and
funds for this purpose.
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