22 NOME NUGGET
OLDEST NEWSPAPER IN ALASKA—MEMBER ASSOCIATED PRESS _
62nd Year No. 82 NOME, ALASKA, WEDNESDAY, JULY 12, 1961 Per Copy 15tf
U.S. Hits the Jackpot . . . TWo
Satellites Get Into Orhit Today
First Missile-Alarm
Satellite to Pass Over
Soviet Union Now in Orbit
POINT ARGUELLO, Calif. !/P—
The United States today fired —
into a record 1,850-mile-high orbit
— the first missile alarm satellite
to pass over Russia.
The Air Force expressed sur
prised delight both with the
height and the nearly perfect cir
cle.
High altitude benefits the ef
fectiveness of Midas’ detection
system, the Air Force said, be
cause it permits a larger scanning
area.
Midas III is circling the globe
once every 2 hours and 40 min
utes. The orbit is approximately
circular, that will carry it re
peatedly over Soviet territory.
The orbit was achieved by re
starting the satellite’s engine over
Africa for a brief burst that in
creased altitude and made the
orbit more circular.
Midas III is pioneering a satel
lite series aimed at giving nearly
instant warning of hostile missile
firings. In its nose is an infrared
eye which can sense heat from
the exhaust of a missile blasting
off hundreds of miles below.
Midas and its sister satellite,
the camera-carrying Samos, are
designed as space-age replace
ments for the U-2 spy plane shot
down over Russia more than a
year ago.
FORMER ALASKAN PICKED
UP ON BAD CHECK CHARGE
SEATTLE (/Pi — A man charged
with grand larceny collapsed in
the sheriff’s office Tuesday soon
after his arrest and was treated
in a hospital for an overdose of
sleeping pills.
Clyde W. Mathews, 39, former
ly of Fairbanks, collapsed while
being questioned. Detective Garth
Hoffman said Matthews told him
he took the pills, expecting to
die. He was reported recovering.
Matthews, released from prison
about two months ago after serv
ing a sentence on a bad check
charge, was accused of passing
$400 in bad checks in Seattle in j
the last two weeks.
Arctic Navigation Opens
Along the Siberian Coast
MOSCOW UP) — Arctic navi
gation has opened on the sea
route along the Northeastern
Coast of Siberia.
The first convoy of the year,
led by the icebreaker Stalin, has
left its Bering Sea port for the
Arctic Ocean and the Chukotka
Peninsula, Tass reported in a dis
patch from Vladivostok.
Included in the convoy were
new icebreaking cargo ships that
can make their own way through
the ice. Tass said each carries
helicopters for aerial survey of
the course.
YANKEE STAR MANTLE
BEANED ON THE FAIRWAYS
SAN FRANCISCO UP) — Mickey
Mantle, the New York Yankees
star outfielder, was knocked down
by a golf ball Monday but ap
parently was only stunned.
The ball struck Mantle’s right
forehead, about an inch above
his eye, and raised a red welt.
The accident was witnessed by I
Roger Williams, sports editor of
the San Francisco News-Call i
Bulletin.
1
Air Force Orbits
Hurricane Hunting
Satellite Tiros III
CAPE CANAVERAL. Fla. — j
A hurricane hunting weather |
satellite was fired into orbit to
day to gather information on the
origin, development and move
ment of the monster tropical
storms.
A 92-foot Thor Delta rocket car
rying a 285-pound Tiros III satel
lite roared aloft from Cape Can
averal this morning.
It went into a nearly perfect
circular orbit with its most dis
tant point from earth — the j
apogee—450 miles out, its closest j
—perigee— 425 miles away. It is j
circling the earth once every 100 j
minutes.
In Washington a spokesman for j
the National Aeronautics and i
Space Agency reported that the I
Tiros III transmitted 35 pictures j
of the earth’s cloud cover on its |
first pass around the globe. The
pictures taken with wide-angle i
television cameras, were trigger
ed by signals irom the Space
Agency’s Wallops Island, Va.,
station.
The pictures showed cloud for
mation over New Foundland, the
Gulf of St. Lawrence and the St.
Lawrence Valley region.
The launching today was plan
ned to coincide with the season
in which hurricanes normally
form in the Atlantic and Carib
bean.
The waterglass-size cameras
also were to photograph other
areas of the world during these
periods and throughout the month
of August.
From their vantage point in
space, the cameras are designed to
snap 32 pictures each on every
80 - minute orbit. Each photo is
to cover an area about 800 miles
square.
Teamster Boss Hoffa to
Visit Alaska Next Month
FAIRBANKS (41 — James Hof
fa, president of the giant Team
sters Union will visit Alaska next
month, Bob Dixon, business agent
for the local Teamster Union said
today.
Dixon, who has just returned
from the National Teamsters Con
vention in Miami said Hoffa
wanted to come to Alaska to see
first hand exactly what the Team
ster organization is doing in the
49th State.
“Naturally we want to show
him a good time,“ Dixon said.
He said Hoffa would stay from
a couple of days to a week on a
visit sometime between August 15
and September 1.
“We hope he will be able to
visit Fairbanks, Anchorage, Ju
neau and Nome,” Dixon said.
Dixon said it was hoped that
Hoffa might invest some of the ;
millions in the internationals1
treasury in Alaska.
He stressed, however, that Hof- i
fa had not yet been approached
on the subject.
SHOCKED . . .
BLACKBURN, England (41 —
Convicted burglar Bill Turner,
who spent 32 of his 52 years in
prison, fainted in court when the
judge sentenced him to 6 months
for breaking into a tavern. Tur
ner later explained his fainting j
spell: “I thought it was going.
to be 14 years.”
DC-8 Jetliner
Crashes in Denver
17 Persons Perish
DENVER ifl) — Federal investi
gators rummaged through the torn
skeleton of a United Air Lines
DC8 jetliner today to learn the
exact cause of Tuesday’s crash
landing and fire in which 17 per
sons died.
The huge plane, enroute to Los
Angeles from Philadelphia touch
ed the runway, veered sideways
and burst into flames.
Of the 122 aboard, 16 were
killed, 18 escaped injury, 50 went
to Denver hospitals and 38, in
cluding 7 crew members, escaped
serious injury. In addition, a
Denver man died when the plane
smashed his truck.
The nose section housing the
captain and first and second of
ficers escaped serious damage in
the crash. Some of the four stew
ardesses suffered slight burns and
shock in aiding passengers.
A civil engineer, Henry Blom,
52, driving a survey truck for the
! city, was killed when the plane
crushed the truck.
In addition to Blom, 16 pas
sengers died. They included five
men, seven women and four chil
dren.
Passengers said they were alert
ed by the pilot, Capt. John Grosso
of Denver, 10 minutes before the
j crash that something was the mat
| ter with the hydraulic system, an
important element in the brakes.
There was a strange mixture of
quiet calm and anguished des
peration when the plane touched
the runway, then skidded off,
crossed 100 yards of field and
burst into huge billows of flame
when the landing gear crumpled
on the protuding strip of a new
taxiway being constructed near
by.
the protruding strip of a concrete
taxiway being constructed near
by.
When the landing gear of the
plane buckled under the impact
of striking the protruding taxi
way, the right wing dipped and j
one of the wing tanks was ripped
off, igniting the jet fuel.
In moments the left side of the
sleek plane was burning with such
intensity that it melted metal.
The president of Continental
Air Lines, Robert Six, witnessed
the crash. “It was a rotten piece
of luck,” he said. “If the plane
hadn’t piled into that concrete
abutment it would have ridden i
out the landing without incident.” j
72 Perish In Crash Of
Ilyushin-18 Airliner
CASABLANCA, Morocco Iff! —
A giant Czechoslovak airliner,
carrying 72 persons from Prague
and Zurich, struck a powerline
and exploded on its glide toward
a landing here today. All aboard
perished.
Airport officials at Zurich, the
plane’s only stop after it left
Prague, said the departure mani
fest showed 64 passengers and
eight crew members and that all
apparently had boarded at Pra
gue. Presumably there were no
Americans aboard.
The Soviet-built four-engine ;
turbo-prop Ilyushin-18 had been I
scheduled to stop about 30 miles
away at Rabat’s Sale Airport but I
because of bad weather was \
directed to the Camp Gaze Air- \
port about 10 miles from this port ;
city.
Two Additional
Charges Filed Against
Ketchikan Arsonist
KETCHIKAN UP) — Two addi
tional charges of arson have been
filed against a former Ketchikan
volunteer fireman who had al
ready been accused of deliber
ately setting three other fires,
District Attorney Howard Staley
reported.
William Mitchell, 33, was ac
cused in the new charges of start
ing fires in the Tongass Trading
Co. Bldg, and the Stedman Hotel
on July 3.
He had apparently been charged j
with setting a fire in the Federal j
Apartments Bldg, the same day I
and with two other counts of
arson in connection with previ
ous Ketchikan fires.
Mitchell was free on $7,500
bond when the July 3 fires were
started. He was arrested early
July 5 in Auburn, Calif.
The July 3 fires caused dam
age estimated at some $250,000.
Japan to Build Largest
Gym for 1994 Olympics
TOKYO (UP) — The Japanese
| Education Ministry said today it
plans to build what it terms the
! world’s largest gymnasium for the
1964 Tokyo Olympics.
The Ministry said the gym will
consist of a main structure cap
able of seating 25,000 spectators
and an annex seating 4.0GO.
The main structure will have
three pools, one of 50-meter
length with nine swimming lanes,
a diving pool and another 50
meter pool for swimming prac
J tice. These pools would be so de
I signed that they could be board
ed over and used as halls for
judo matches and even for indoor
track meets.
The annex is for basketball
games.
The construction costs are esti
mated at $6,940,000.
Board of Directors Elected
For M & M Bank At
Stockholders Meeting
At the regular annual stock
holders meeting yesterday of the
Miners and Merchants Bank,
Boyd Harwood, Leslie Nerland,
George Rayburn, and Nels Swan
berg were re-elected to the Board
of Directors.
Nick Nussbaumer, a director
since January of 1957, declined to
continue as a director due to his
retirement from business and tak
ing up residence in California in
the future. In appreciation of his
fine leadership and service to this
bank since its reorganization in ;
1957, the stockholders unanimous
ly elected Mr. Nussbaumer as a
lifetime honorary member of the
board.
Elected to replace Mr. Nuss
baumer was R. C. Bailey, who is
also the executive vice-president
of the Alaska National Bank at
Fairbanks.
A meeting of the new board of
directors was held immediately
following the stockholders meet
ing, at which the following offi
cers were re-elected:
Boyd Harwood, chairman of the
board and president; Don Hoover,
executive vice-president; William
Haley, cashier, and Gordon Os
borne, assistant cashier.
George E. Bell, who has been
employed at the main office of
the bank for the past year, was
elected to the position of assist
ant cashier.
Matt Cullen from
Ford Foundation
Pays Visit to Nome
Matt Cullen visited Nome visit
ed Nome yesterday while on a
quick one-week tour of the state
for the Ford Foundation. A studv
is underway by the Ford Founda
tion concerning the feasibility of
contributing to staff services for
the legislature.
This particular project under
the Ford Foundation started in
Washington, D. C., Cullen stated
and was so successful that it was
tried out for the past three years
at state level in California and
proved so valuable that the states
of Washington, Hawaii, Okla
homa, Kansas, Illinois and In
diana are now using the service.
This service to the legislature
is the granting of funds to grad
uate students who are planning
on law as a career or working
toward a doctorate in political
science, sociology, economics and
other related social sciences. These
students will do research and pre
pare reports for the legislators of
both the minority and majority
leaders leaving these persons
more time for their other duties.
This results in specially train
ed people, preferable from uni
versities within the state, but also
recruited from other states. Those
recruited will usually remain to
use their training and talent for
many years. Their experience is
' invaluable for future studies.
The Ford Foundation became
interested in this field because so
much support was being given to
science and engineering and so
little emphasis or encouragement
was being given to students in
this field of work.
A million and a half dollars
has been set aside for this proj
ect and Mr. Cullen estimates that
five or six such students could
be used at the Alaska Legislature
if the state choses to provide
matching funds with the Founda
tion for their salaries. Ford Foun
dation also pays for the adminis
tration of the program for these
special “internes.”
On this trip he will visit An
chorage, Fairbanks, Kotzebue and
Juneau. Mr. Cullen first became
interested in Alaska while doing
research on Alaska as assistant to
Sen. Henry Jackson of Washing
ton State in 1954.
Scholarship Information To
Be Sent Out to Alaska Schools
JUNEAU UFl — Gov. Egan’s of
fice said today a report contain
ing information on 133 different
college scholarship programs will
soon be mailed to all Alaska high
schools.
The report was prepared by
the State Department of Educa
tion.
Covered in the report are 52
national college scholarship pro
grams; five at Sheldon Jackson
Junior College, Sitka; 52 at the
University of Alaska: 10 at Alas
Methodist University; and 14
special scholarship programs
available to Alaska native stu
dents.
THE WEATHER
Cloudy today with fog tonight.
Low tonight 40-45, high tomor
row 50. In the last 24 hours: High
of 58, low of 42. Sunrise at 1:59
a. m., sunset at 10:13 p. m. Tem
peratures a year ago today: High
of 47, low of 37. Extremes on
this date since 1907: High of 68
in 1919, low of 31 in 1928.