The Daily Alaska empire., 1940-12-17
GULL(0vE pI0NEERI5
 IN JUNEAU
Man and Wife Take Living from Southeast Alaska
 Farm-No Relief

Independence in Alaska on 85 cents. That might be the title of the success story written in faith and hard work by MT. and Mrs w. c. Graham, of Gull Cove. who found happiness and living when they began pioneering in Alaska at ages beyond sixty.
 It's brief story, but in these days of relief it is poignant with promise that the backbone of America, the pioneer, is not in the limbo.
 Mrs. Graham, 66, sat on the edge of a chair in the apartment of MT. and Mrs. Lyle Hebert this afternoon and over a cup of coffee shyly con- firmed reports of hers and her hus- bands remarkable success.
 Caught in Crash
 Ten years ago, on the heels of the depression, well-doing Bill Gra- ham, "Smokehouse Bill' to the host of friends he made in the early Alaska days, was wiped out in his hotel businesses at Stanwood, Wash ington. and Eugene, Oregon.
 In his stress, Bill bought 46-foot boat the Maude Hazel, and with what little finances remained to him, returned to the Mother North Five years ago, he married his long time friend and widow. and together they went out to the Excursion Inlet cannery for a summer of work.
 85-Cent Home That fall, they landed in Gull Cove with their boat. In this little harbor at the entrance of Idaho h. let, they looked with appreciation on the gentle sweep of beaches trimmed with tall green timber. They found the meadows profuse with wild berries, the waters filled with fish, and the woods plentiful with game.
 They checked their assets and found-85 cents (cold cash) and a sack of sugar.
 Pioneer on 85 cents and slim larder? Why not?
 They picked berries of many var ieties, canned them and returned to Hoonah. There they bought seeds for garden with their 85 cents.
 The Home Grows
 That was their start. The next year they returned to put in an acre of vegetables and to build home from what they took of the woods and the flotsam piled beaches. They had filed for a homesite.
 Such was the beginning, surely not as easy as the telling. Four years ago, they wanted a radio, a washing machine and an electric light plant.
 Luxuries
 Their assets for these 'luXuries" were $39 realized from seasonal lab or with the canneries and from sale of their berries and root crops. The distributing firm Outside accepted the $39 as first payment. At S5, a month, big money for business and future begun with 85 cents, the Grahams paid off. Today they're clear.
 Trollers and visiting hunters have brought tales to Juneau of the Gra- ham vegetables and canned berries -"turnips and rutabagas that you eat like apples" "jellies and jams that grandmother never heard of :" and it's true
 Graham's Store
 The Grahams have store" with their own produce. They sell 19 diff ferent varieties of canned wild ber- ries at IS cents half pint, 25 cents pint, and 50 cents quart-wild crabapple, black currant, high and low bush cranberries, three kinds of huckleberries, five kinds of blueber- ries, strawberries, lagoonberries. groundberry for which the Russians had a name, salmonberries, elderber- ries and wild gooseberries. Last year the Grahams packed about 800 cases"-a dozen jars to case.
 The Graham garden produces >------------