22 NOME NUGGET
OLDEST NEWSPAPER IN ALASKA—MEMBER ASSOCIATED PRESS
VOL. LV No. 97 NOME, ALASKA, FRIDAY, AUGUST 14, 1953 Per Copy—15^
800 SOURDOUGHS
AT 22d REUNION
RELIVE GOLD RUSH
LONG BEACH, Calif., UR—More
than 800 sourdoughs who pio
neered the Alaska frontier and
joined the Klondike gold rush in
1898 are holding their 22nd an
nual International Sourdough Re
union today.
Paul T. Mizzony, 72, National
City, Calif., told of his trek to
Dawson City, taking photographs
and developing and printing the
pictures as he went.
He recalled typical gold rush
prices—potatoes at $1 . a pound,
oranges at $75 a box and bananas
at $35 a bunch. But fellow sour
doughs paid most attention to
Mizzony’s tales of his trip over
Chilkoot Pass, felling timber for
rafts and boats and going down
the Yukon.
Leonard Seppala, Seattle, told
of his dash by dog team from
Fairbanks to Nome to take serum
to combat a diphtheria epidemic
in 1925.
Churchill Lion Mauls Keeper
LONDON, (#)—Rota, a lion that
Prime Minister Churchill gave to
the London zoo, mauled the head
keeper of the lion house Thurs
day. The keeper, Charles Hitch
cock, 46, had 11 stitches taken in
his hand.
Active Oil Seepage
In Alaska Glacier,
McKay Announces
WASHINGTON, UP)— Discovery
of active oil seepages in the little
known Malaspina Glacier area of
southern Alaska was announced
yesterday by Secretary of the In
terior McKay.
The secretary said Darwin L.
Rossman and George Plafker,
geologists, during July found sev
eral active seepages of high-grav
ity oil on two streams that drain
into a large unnamed ice-dammed
lake on the south flank of the
Samovar Hills.
The hill, located about 30 miles
from the Gulf of Alaska coast,
midway between Icy and Yakutat
Bay, are surrounded by snow and
ice fields of the Malaspina, Sew
ard and Gassiz Glaciers.
The Icy Bay - Yakutat Bay foot
hills belt of the St. Elias Moun
tains is being surveyed to deter
mine petroleum possibilities in the
Gulf of Alaska area.
Seepages of high - gravity oil
have long been known in the
northwestern area of a 300-mile
belt that borders the Gulf of Al
aska, McKay said. It is in that
area that the Phillips Petroleum
and Kerr McGee Co. jointly are
carrying out exploration for oil.
1,000 Perish As Earthquakes And Fire
Continue To Ravage Greek Islands;
Parts Of City Sink Into Sea
Trouble on Ceylon
COLOMBO, Ceylon, Iff) — Mili
tary authorities set up machine
gun posts at strategic points all
over Colombo Friday to guard
against any new rioting over in
creases in the price of rice. Earlier
violence has taken 21 lives and
injured 215 others.
Eklutna Project Ceiling
Raised to $33,000,000
As President Signs Bill
DENVER, (ff) —President Eisen
hower Thursday signed a bill in
creasing to $33 million the ceiling
on the money which Congress can
appropriate for the Eklutna hy
droelectric project near Anchor
age, Alaska.
The project originally was auth
orized in 1950 with a limit of
$20,365,400 on appropriations for
' it. However, this sum has been
about entirely used up and the
project is only 60 perment com
plete.
Sponsors of the bill raising the
authorization figure said that the
Eklutna project would add 30,000
kilowatts to the electric power
production of the Alaskan terri
tory and was essential to meet the
power needs of the territory.
ATHENS, Greece, WP) — Severe
earth tremors for the fifth day
turned Greece’s pleasant Ionian
islands into a place of terror yes
terady.
Billowing fires swept earth
quake ruins and huge slabs of the
ancient mountainous island of
Kefallinia, loosened by the trem
ors, were reported slipping into
the sea. Unofficial estimates said
just under 1,000 persons have
been killed.
Officials of the island reported
to the ministry of interior that
Argostolion, a city of 10,000 and
the island’s chief port, was “be
ginning to sink under water.”
The Athens newspaper Kather
ini quoted reports from the port
as saying some sections of the
town’s waterfront were being sub
merged slowly.
(Walter Hawkins of Coatesville,
Pe., TWA pilot, and Max Scribner,
Great Neck, Long Island, N.Y.,
engineer, Said their plane flew
over Kefallinia Wednesday after
noon and the stricken island
looked like a forest fire. Great
chunks of the coast could be seen
sliding and splashing into the sea,
they said. Clouds of dust rose over
the earthslides.
(Hawkins said slides of earth
could be seen under the water
(Continued on Page Two)
Alaska Residents Asked
To Volunteer For
Ground Observer Corps
JUNEAU, W)— An appeal was
made today for Alaska residents
to volunteer for ground observer
corps.
It came from James H. Crock
ett, retired colonel who heads the
Territorial Department of Civil
Defense. The Air Force trans
ferred control of the observer
corps to the territory Thursday.
Crockett said the corps needs
spotters for observer posts to
guard cracks in the Alaska de
fense armor. He explained the
mountains make gaps in the de
fense network across the nation’s
northern frontier.
Volunteers were asked to re
port to any local civil defense dir
ector or to write Juneau head
quarters.
Diamonds Worth Millions
Smuggled Into U.S.
UXBRIDGE, England, UP)—Dia
monds worth several million dol
lars were flown illegally into the
United States, by British Air Line
stewards acting as tools of an in
ternational smuggling ring, cus
toms officials charged in Middle
sex magistrate’s court today.
Okinawa Digs In
For Wild Typhoon
Expected Saturday
NAHA, Okinawa, 141 — This
great American island base dug
in Friday night for one of the
wildest typhoons ever recorded
in the Pacific.
The Army ordered Condition 1
Alert at 10 p.m. (2 a.m., Bering
Time)—with the storm only about
12 hours away.
The typhoon’s winds were
howling up to 184 miles an hour.
Already angry gusts whipped
across air base runways and some
B-29 Superforts took off for safer
airfields elsewhere in the Pacific
—possibly Japan, the Philippines
or Guam.
Other aircraft stayed at the
field, loaded with sandbags or
circled by fuel trucks filled with
oil to break the typhoon winds.
Maj. Maurice R. Fowler, spokes
man for the Tyukus command,
said 24 hours of emergency ra
tions were issued.
“Wives were lined up at the
store buying flashlight batteries
and supplemental food,” he said.
“The typhoons center is still
420 miles southwest of us,” he
said, “but it is 200 miles across
and that puts its forward elements
just 200 miles or so away.”
* * *
NORFOLK, Va., (41—The sea
son’s first intruding hurricane
smashed the North Carolina and
Virginia coastal areas early today
and moaned on north.
The big blow packed winds of
80 miles an hour or more near its
center. Two lives Were reported
lost.
U.N. Command Asks Communists
If They Plan To Hold Allied POWs
Facing Or Serving Jail Sentences
-
Health Experts
On Reconnaissance
Tour of Territory
A team of health experts ar
rived here yesterday on a sur
vey to determine how healthy
Alaskans are. They were guests
of Dr. Fred Langsam and the
Rotary club at their regular
luncheon.
The group is making a “recon
naissance tour” and is composed
of Dr. Thomas Parran, founder
and dean of the University of
Pittsburgh Graduate School of
Public Health and also retired
surgeon general of the United
States Public Health Service; Mr.
Walter McNerney, assistant pro
fessor of hospital administration;
Dr. James Crabtree, professor of
P u bl i c Health Practice and
Safety for the Tennessee Valley
Authority; and Dr. Antonio Ciocco
who is head of the Johns Hop
kins School of Medical Research.
Among subjects they are study
ing are: hospital facilities and ad
ministration, clinics, maternal and
child care, tuberculosis, teeth,
living conditions, population, and
the death rate. They are covering
the entire territory and expect td
finish this first phase of their
work in September. They expect
to return next year for further
study. It is understood that their
final report and recommendations
will be made in October, 1954.
U.S.- British Split
Seen Over Russia
In Korea Talks
UNITED NATIONS, N.Y., UP) —
Britain and some other western
allies were reported ready today
to go on the floor of the U.N.
General Assembly with a demand
that Russia and India be included
in the forthcoming Korean politi
cal conference.
Informed sources said the split
between the United States and
Britain over the composition of
the Korean parley is muoh more
serious than previously indicated.
The British are understood to
feel even more strongly about the
question of Russian participation
than about the possibility of India
being given a seat.
The United States has indicated
that the U.N. side of the confer
ence should be restricted to the
16 countries which fought under
the U.N. banner in Korea.
As for Russia, the U.S. position
is that the Soviet Union may rep
resent the Communist side in the
talks but should not sit as a U.N.
representative.
■? (By tne Associated Press)
PANMUNJOM, Iff) — The U.N.
Command asked the Communists
officially today if the Reds plan
to hold back any Allied prisoners
“sentenced to confinement for any
reason” from the Korean War
prisoner exchange.
Returning Allied POWs have
said others were left behind, jailed
on phony charges. There has been
no official report of the number.
The U.N.C. made its first offi
cial demand for an answer in a
meeting of the joint U.N.-Red Re
patriation Commission at Pan
munjom. The Reds gave no im
mediate answer.
Col. Louis C. Friedersdorff, the
chief Allied representative, asked
confirmation that the Reds would
send back all prisoners who insist
on repatriation.
As the commission met, 84 Am
ericans and 322 other Allied cap
tives rode eagerly from Red cap
tivity to freedom at the exchange
point here.
PANMUNJOM, (ff)— Another 400
prisoners of the Communists be
came free men at this dusty vill
age Thursday even as the Reds
warned ominously that they have
the right to hold back Allied pris
oners facing or serving jail terms.
Prisoners freed in the ninth day
of the great POW exchange were
75 Americans, 75 British and 250
South Koreans. Most of the re
patriates appeared healthy as they
bounced from the Red trucks that
brought them to freedom.
Meanwhile, Red China’s harsh
warning backed stories from re
turning prisoners that buddies had
been left behind, sentenced to jail
for terms up to three years by the
Reds on such charges as “instiga
ting against peace.”
U.S. Secretary of State Dulles
(Continued on Page Two)
American Expedition
On 25,000 - Foot Level of
World’s 2nd Highest Peak
SKARBU, Kashmir, UP)—An ex
pedition of nine Americans strug
gling toward the 28,250-foot sum
mit of Mt. Godwin Austen was
reported today to have reached
the 25,000-foot level after fighting
through severe storms.
The Himalayan peak, known
also as ASK2, is the world’s sec
ond highest mountain.
The latest message from the ex
pedition said preparations Vere
being made to set up its seventh
advance camp. Success or failure
in conquering the peak is expec
ted to be known within a week
and will depend largely upon the
weather.
The expedition has not used ox
ygen equipment yet and will try
to reach the summit without it,
according to the latest reports.
YOUTH FOR CHRIST MEETING
Sattelite Field -- Leave from Covenant Church 7 p.m. Saturday Night - Dr. Mecklenburg, Leader
SOFTBALL GAME — WIENER ROAST —COMMUNITY SING — FELLOWSHIP HOUR