The Wrangell sentinel., 1925-08-06
Wrangell As Seen
 By an Outsider

W. H. Porterfield, president and contributing editor of the San Diego Sun, made the Southeastern Alaska trip on the Admiral Rogers recent ,ly.
 Mir. Porterfield was so impressed with what he saw or Wrangell while the vessel was in port that ne wrote the following letter which was published in the san Diego sun ln its issue of July l6
 WRANGELL, Alaska, July D. You have heard or the Switzerland ot America. Here il Is. No greater tribute to its beauty could De ut- tered.
 from the summit of Mount Dewey, about oUu feet aDoye the little pay about which the village is built, We looked out upon the scene spread below ana about. and beyond us. At our feet three arms of the inland sea, stretching up into mysterious fjords between dark green mountain slands-make a startling replica Of Lake Lucerne and indeed the whole region re- minds one so forcibly of that part Of Switzerland that one inyoluntar- fly looks for the ubiquitous funicu lar railway with which the Swiss mountains are ascended by the tour ist.
 Instead we have climbed a very difficult, because very slippery path, made possible only by the thoughtfulness Of the builder who provided a banister of poles for the entire distance.
 I thought l had seen jungles in Hawaii and Jamaica. l never saw such rank vegetation anywhere as in the gardens of Wrangell and upon the slopes of Mount Dewey great berry bushes and vines of most known and some unknown yarieties-strawber and great black berries nearly as big as demi- tasse cups, just coming into bear ing. Flowers! Old fashioned bleed ing hearts, columbines of every hue as tall as we were, and great red poppies positively enormous.
 When We stepped on the ship at Wrangell, a surprise awaited us in meeting there our fellow townsmen, Mr. and Mrs. George NJ. Bidwell. l asked Mr. Bidwell why he lived up here in the shadow of the Arctic circle when he could spend his life in San Diego, and he replied, Well, you see, like the climate"
 The spectacle of a retired busi- ness man, able to do as he likes, leaving the greatest climate in the world to spend nine months of the year in Alaska for pleasure, sort of startled me and then MT. and Mrs Bidwell took us to their lovely home overlooking the village and bay, and showed us strawberry plants as big as washtubs and cur rant and gooseberry and raspberry and blackberry bushes all loaded with luscious fruit just coming into bearing, and rhubarb plants the biggest I ever saw and a vegetable gerden where the vines and plants seem to fairly jump for the joy of growing, and l began to un- derstand a little of the charm of this far northern home.
 Then Mir Bidwell told me of his power cruising launch, with which he cruises from Juneau to Ketchikan exploring all sorts of wonderful fjords, catching { h e choicest game fish which inhabit these waters, and I understood a little more. Then he told me of the hunting. of the grouse, a glori fled quail, built like a quail but ing and tasting like a quail but weighing three pounds! Of the deer, the bear, the wild ducks anG geese and a hundred other varieties of the finest game on earth, and l began to understand a little more.