cAmerica s Last Frontier”
VOi
47
KODIAK, ALASKA, JANUARY 30, 1943
PRICE 10 CENTS
Construction Scow Lost In Storm;2 Drown
I Hospital Change
Announced
The board of trustees of the
Griffin Memorial hospital an
sounced this week that an invite
»tion has been extended to Dr.
A. Bates Jones, city, and Dr. H.
F. Brundage, base contractors’
hospital, to avail themselves of
the premises and facilities of the
hospital, and to bring in patients
there.
Dr. A. Holmes Johnson will
continue as medical director of
the hospital, and C. R. King,
acting chairman of the board,
said the board had accepted Dr.
Johnson’s offer to move his office
for private practice from the hos
pital, to facilitate the new ar
rangement.
Mr. King said it is possible
that other doctors may be allow
ed the same privi ege, depending,
however, on space and equip
ment available.
The board also announced that
John Steffgen has been awarded
the contract for additional con
struction improvments to the
hospital, in the amount of over
$13,000. The work is scheduled
(continued on page 4)
Firemen To Meet
There will be a meeting of the
Volunteer Fire Department next
Tuesday, 8 p. m. at the Mecca
There will be refreshments.
The Story Of Winnie Bear
Winnie and the Highland
Park Zoo, Pittsburgh, are both
lucky.
If Winnie hadn’t been very
lucky one day last spring, she
wouldn’t be alive today. And, in
that case, the Zoo wouldn’t have
Winnie.
Winnie is a valuable addition
to the Zoo because she’s a Kodiak
hear cub. Kodiak bears inhabit
Kodiak Island and environs, off
the coast of Alaska. They tend
to stay there because they are so
large. A full-grown Kodiak will
weigh almost a ton.
Well on the aforementioned
lay last Soring, Winnie was tak
tiR a walk with her papa and
nama near their home on Uganik
Jay, which is on Kodiak Island.
They were going along a ledge
>n a cliff.
There was a hole in the ledge.
Vinnie, who probably was not
laying too much attention to
nhere she was going, fell through
t.
She landed on another ledge
>elow, unhurt, but she couldn’t
let back to the upper ledge, or
lown from the one on which she
°und herself. And her parents
xiuldn’t reach her.
Pftpa and mama paced around
intil darkness fell, then went
iWay, evidently giving Winnie
'P for lost. She would have been
too, if it hadn’t been for her luck.
A party of hunters had land
ed on Uganik and had been
watching the antics of the elder
bears through field glasses.
The men where from the Nav
al Air Station at Kodiak. They
were Joe Wilhowe, Sunburv, Pa.;
Anthony Evanco, Renovo, Pa.;
James Brain and Clive McCloud
of the state of Washington; Pete
Brown of Canada, and Al Her
man of California. With them
was Robert von Scheele of Afog
nak Island, who had brought
them to Uganik in his boat.
By the time the hunters had
worked their way up to the cliff
the elder bears had disappeared,
but the next day two of the men,
Evanco and Scheele, came back
walking below the cliff and
heard Winnie crying.
The two hunters scaled the
cliff and sighted Winnie. She
didn’t know what was good for
her. Scheele had to hold her
with a forked stick while Evanco
tied her feet.
The problem of getting her
down the cliff was solved when
Evanco took off his wool shirt,
tied the sleeves around her, and
lowered her to the other mem
bers of the party who had arriv
ed at the base of the cliff.
It took Winnie a long time to
(continued on pa e 5)
This snow hanked hilt is head
quarters of a squadron of U S.
Navy patrol planes somewhere
in the Aleutian islands. Blustery
wind, snow and fog add to the
difficulties of carrying rn opera
tions in that icy theatre of war.
Eclipse Memo
What: Total eclipse.
When: Next Thursday, Feb. 4.
Time: Starts 2:22 p rn., total
at 3:22 p. in.
Where: Starts in Siberia,
sweeps across Alaska, ends about
Dawson.
How: View with smoked glass,
developed film (black) negitive.
Vantage point: an airplane. Next
best, high on a hill, because of
closeness of sun to horizon. Only
catch; the weather. Must be
clear to be observed
No President’s
Ball For Alaska
Acting Governor E L. Bartlett
has announced that there will be
no President’s Birthday Ball
campaign in Alaska this year,
due to difficulties of communica
tion.
Any community wishing to
sponsor such a ball on its own
may do so, but no arrangements
have been made for one here.
Immunization
Thursday
An immunization clinic will be
held for the infants and pre
school children of Kodiak at the
(continued on page 4)
Lightning Unusual
Lightning, rare in this vicinity,
was observed in a few brilliant
flashes about 8:30 Sunday
evening
By Ralph H. Schiliios
Tragedy struck suddenly off
Kodiak Island amidst the snow
storm of last Sunday morning
when the power scow "Teddy” of
the base foundered in the heavy
sea with a loss of two of her
crew, A. R. Armstrong and Wn.
A. Shepard, by drowning.
A graphic account of tbe
tragedy was given by K. P
Haugen, Master of the vessel,
after the rescue of the remaining
five men by a Navy and Army
rescue crew two hours later when
the ship had been washed up on
the rocky shore
The ‘ Teddy,” thought to be
in sea-worthy condition, was
| fully manned, fueled, and provi
sioned and out on a trip in con
nection with its work when at
10:30 a. m. Sunday morning, it
suddenly encountered a sea so
violent that the course of the
vessel had to be reversed. Cap
1 fain Haugen reports that follow
ing two huge combers that jarred
the structure mercilessly as they
struck head on, he put about and
a few moments ’ater the steering
gear jammed and all control waa
lost. The engines throbbed to *
stop and engineer reported that
(continued on page 4)
Kodiak Kickshaws Many
It looks like we are going to
have to start a Disillusionment
Department to take care of the
absurdities about Kodiak that
are continually appearing in
print.
Personal Romances, one of
those oh-how-i-have-suffered
periodicals, had a 2-part story
supposedly written by a lady in
Kodiak, describing her life and
loves with a pilot in the service
two pilots, to be exact. We want
to blast her following statments:
1. She lived in a tar-pape*
shack (possible) and the cracks
were covered with furs to keep
the wind out. We interviewed a
number of ladies about their
sheared beavers, caracu's, Per.
sian lambs and minks, and they
assured us they didn’t use them
for that purpose.
2. She went to bed and listen
ed to the (ice breaking up). She
should have had her refrigerator
repaired
3. She watched s ildiere crawl
ing down the street on all ours,
beater, down by the terrific wind.
The wind here isn’t half as bad
as that in the story.
4 Natives can be hired for
$10 to kill a man. Correctly,
they’ll do it for $50 a month, but
the man has to be a Jap!
Then there were a few minor
things like her gentleman friend
flying hia private plane about
the island (privates don’t have
planes!) and her Hero on a picnic
in summer whites, etc We gave
up about there.
The curient Alaska Sports
man has an article by a woman
describing her postal experience*
at Eklutna, and in it she has IX.
some «.ir.g or-other being trans
fered to \lie bubbling hot spot
of Kodiak ” When in reality it’*
bigger than a spot, anything but
hot, and definitely not bubbling,
although the woman who wrote
ttat certainly is.
We hate calling one of on»
contempo ary Alaskanew papem
to task, so we won’t mention any
names, but one of them, a week
ly, seriously prints an article
that says the soldiers of Kodiak
have been using salmcn to trade
with the natives, but that down
town they are still using colored
beads to make purchases "ac
cording to a Kodiak newspaper”
We suspect the Kodiak Bear,
army publication, for starting
the latter with a humorous
article. But everyone (almost)
knows the Bear is to be read
with a grain of salt and vivid
perspicacity
This article will be continued
as soon as we discover more c i
ump'e< of the.e hoJiak kick
shaws