The Waterbury Democrat., 1946-09-04
byJ. 4. KrMg

The Army flew Fred back to Barrow by way of Fairbanks, but he went home without ever conducting his business in Nome Next time," of the Alaskan newspapers put it. "he will know better than to ac- cept a ride with strangers"
 Flying in Alaska is 8 principal business. The number of passenger-miles flown there in a year c 30 times many, per capita, as in the States.
 I have the utmost respect for the bush pilots who have pioneered aviation in that vast unchared coun- try flew with them in southeast Alaska, where we had some calls to make at communities without air fields and where only float planes would serve How they find their way in rain and fog through the thousands of islands of the Alexander Archipelago Is @ mystery to me.
 The day Alaskan coastal and Ellis Airlines flew Us from Juneau to Sitka to Ketchikan, the storm clouds were riding the white caps of the Pacific. Even the Alaskan ducks and geese were sitting that one out but the pilots flew us safely right through it. They fly anywhere, any time. In that part of Alaska the saying is that the only time the planes are grounded is when the snow is so thick the pilots can't see their propellers
 Some interesting facts about Alaska: It is as far from the eaSternnost to the westernmoSt points Of Alaska as from Charleston S. O., to Los Angeles and as from the northernmost to the southernmost as from Lake of the Woods, Canada to the Mexican border JaponSh Island opposite Sitka, IS believed locally to have been so named by the Russians be- cause it to be the original landing place for Japanese which Gov. Alexander Baranof first gov ernor of Russian America, planned to import slave labor. During the Russian occupation, Sitka was the largest and most prosperous settlement on the entire Pacific Coast of North America. All the real seaskn coats in the world originate in two small islands off the Alaskan coast-the PriblofS. These islands have a population of approximately 470 Aleuts and 3000O00 fur seals The pes of the latter at present market prices worth about $8750 apiece
 The spruce and hemlock forests of southeastern Alaska alone produce in perpetuity almost 10OO 900 tons of sulphte pulp year. which is about one fourth of the present newsprnt consumption in the United States. {. The temperature in the Yukon Valley the Arctic Circle reaches as high as 100 degrees in midsummer. The Aeuts of the Aleutian Islands and the Alaskan Peninsula communicants of the Russian orthodox faith. Most of these people much Russian aboriginals in blood Fairbanks had Russian population of several hundreds all during the when this the point flown to the USISR. There many points of contact between Alaska and Russia Russias big Diomede Island is but two miles distant from little Domede Island in the middle of Boring Strait, The Eskimo inhabitants of the two islands have ex- changed family visits for many years and have until recently, intermarried.
 One of the great opportunities in Alaska is the tourist industry. In Alaska you will the most magnificent scenery in the world It is everywhere in Alaska. One of the objectiveS of my department in the immediate future will be to cut away the red tape now involved in establishing tourist facilities in the territory For hundreds of thousands-perhaps mihons-of Americans will be wanting to see the wonders of our last great frontier. I recommend trip to Alaska for anyone who is feeling Respondent about the world. It will his faith in the pioneer harddhood Of our nation and open vistas ahead