Evening star., 1935-08-17
ALASKA STUNNED
BY THE TRAGEDY
Two Had Won Hearts ot
Territory, Says Rex
Beach.
BY REX BEACH.

tCOpyrl8nt, 1880, py the hseoCihtcu FIeobD
FAIRBANKS, Alaska, August H.
Alaska is stunned by the catastrophe
at Point Barrow.
1t feels the disaster more keenly
because it has for the last week
played host to viii Rogers and Wiley
Post and had just become personally
acquainted with both men.
Yesterday everybody in this country
was smiling at Wills Jokes. On every
pair of lips were the names of the
two famous visitors, the two newest
and truest friends Alaska has made in
many years.
Today there are no smiles up here.
This is the blackest day Alaska has
known.
Population Stricken Dumb.
When the news Of the crash in the
chill fog of the Arctic tundra was
made known yesterday the entire
population of the territory was stricken
dumb. have never seen people so
completely stunned.
We know no more about the details
IAAdll JOu AAlOW do JCIB 4OA tAAS OAAAONN
States Signal Corps, which affords
the only radio communication in the
North, there being no telegraph or
cable, has broadcast to the world all
there is TO know.
Will and Wiley started for Point
Barrow, ran into fog, were forced to
land and ascertain from natives their
whereabouts. When they took of the
engine misfired and the ship nosed
into a death dive. The account Is
almost as short, as stark, as shocking
as the tragedy itself.
But Alaskans were at first incredu-
lous. This thing might happen-to
other flyers, said they-but not to
Wiley an dto Will. Then. as the mes
sages continued to come in, Alaska
bowed her head and wept.
Crash Blamed on Weather.
Weather did it," the timers
say.
They shake their heads and assert:
Point Barrow and those Arctic bar
rens aren't Alaska-they're l,400 miles
North and the climate is tricky. Will
and Wiley should have been careful. !"
But Wiley was careful. viii told
me in Juneau that he was the most
careful pilot he had ever flown with,
almost too careful it seemed to VIII.
And he was skillful. too. Amelia Ear
hart had told Will that she considered
Post the finest flyer alive.
What actually went wrong so feet
above that shallow tundra river may
never be known. But this much is
absolutely certain in the minds Of
every air-minded Alaskan . . it was
too much for human skill and quick
thinking to cope with.
was in Kechikan last week when
that plane roared north through the
murk and drizzle above us and over
the local radio I heard that Will
Rogers and Wiley Post were in it.
The next night walked in on them
at Juneau while they were having din
ner with Joe CroSson. ace pilot Of the
Pacific Alaska airways.
| Joe's the fellow who always went
after Wiley up here when he got in
trouble.
Evasive on Plans.
Will explained that both times Wiley
few around the world he sat down in
Alaska and Joe had to give him q
hand
What are your plans?" asked
them.
Wiley grinned and said nothing.
| Will confessed:
I'VE haven't any. We're Just on a
vacation. We want to see Dawson
and Fairbanks and those farmer colo
nists Cat Matanuska). of course. and
we'd like to see the Mackenzie River,
too. We might even hop across to
Siberia and go home that way.
when Wiley was flying around
the world those Russians laid out his
course and told him exactly where
to head in at and made him stick
to it. Now they have given him per-
mission to fly anywhere and stop any
where as long as he wants. We have
the maps and 1t would make a swell
trip to go home by way of Iceland
and Greenland. The longest water
jump is only 1000 miles"
Post Goes to Sleep.
We gabbed there until midnight
until Wiley went to sleep with hi;
head on his arms.
He never has a word to say" Will
told me- Il do the talking for the
team and it works out fine"
This was Wills first trip to Alaska
He loved it and he loved the people
Juneau went wild about him, as did
the several other towns he and Wiley
visited.
In Thursday nights local paper was
an article quoting him as saying that
he proposed to come up here next
Winter and hole up with some old
timers so as to really get acquainted