The Cordova daily times., 1919-05-31
AEROPLANE MAY HERD EINDEER
 OF ALASKA

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 After successful flights in Boeing Airplane Company's seaplanes in Seat tie, Alfred and Ralph Lomen of Nome, are seriously considering using the planes to herd their four big reindeer herds in the Nome district, according to the following article which appear cd in the Seattle Times:
 Taxicab service in the skies was ir- augurated in Seattle yesterday after. noon and so successfully that two Alaska sourdoughs, who were among the passengers, immediately after wards made tentative arrangements to herd their reindeer with airplanes. Which means that "Old Shep," who has been a good, old dog, must give way to twentieth century animal herd ing divisions.
 "If you take me out and loop me and taiispin me I'll pay you i've dcl- lars minute instead of the dollar a-minute rate for that cross-country flight" said Alfred Lomen, of Nome, Alaska, merchant and reindeer raiser, to Edward Hubbard, pilot of the Boe- ing Airplane Company's seaplane which was used in putting commercial flying on Seattle's list of latest novel; ties" yesterday afternoon.
 You know me Al; I'm the guy that can do those little stunts," Pilot Hub bard might have said, but, of course, he didn't What he actually said was: Impossible for the present, MT. To. men. My instructions are to do no acrobatics in this commercial aerial service"
 Forget the stunt stuff, Al; we'll have couple of our own one of these days and can do it ourselves" at this point chipping in Ralph Lomen, brother and business partner of the man who wanted to loop and taiispin and do the barrel-roll the first day up.
 For Use in Alaska
 "For," added Brother Ralph, "Im going to see whether MT. Boeing will build us couple of machines for use in Alaska"
 Then, the two brothers actually got down to cases and they discussed with the official family of the airplare com pany-President w. E.. Boeing, Sec retary J. T. Harrison and Salesmanager Herb Berg-the possibilities, practtca- bilities and even the "peculiarities" of an airplane, or seaplane, for herding their four big reindeer herds, now numbering 1SO0O head, in the Nome district.
 The Lomen brothers pointed out that as much as four hundred miles intervenes between some of the herds that it is not uncommon in going from one to the other to take several weeks to get there and then several months to get back Tn Lomens are the only white men raising reindeer in Alaska, by the way.
 Why, we could make the hops in two hours that it takes two weeks to do now," exclaimed one of them as he warmed to the subject. Then" he added, there are countless lakes upon which we could alight and take-oa; for these planes only drawn four inches of water Why, we could even land on the Pacific ocean in pinch," he exclaimed.
 Might Land on Ice
 "Or, we could put skids under the seaplanes, instead of floats, and you could land on the ice if you were travelling in that kind of going" said Secretary Harrison.
 All of which, as has been observed, was more or less tentative; but the Lomen brothers are apparently en- tirely sincere in their consideration of the subject. Their herds are growing and so is their shipment of reindeer meat to the States. They have spent seventeen years in the North and have for five years been developing the rein der herds for the market. Last year, their first considerable shipment was made, amounting to 10000 pounds of reindeer for food.
 The two men, along with James A. Gibbs, merchant from Fairbanks, ap- peared as passengers for the first days run of the Boeing Commercial Air Service. The three Aaskans had left the North and enlisted in the army, but they never got any farther east than Camp Lewis. where they