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Aided by landing lights and gasoline flares on the ground, Pilot Harold Gill am settled down on the Fairbanks airport, six hours and 15 minutes after eating off from Barrow, He was accompanies ty George Saunders, mechanic; S. A. Smirnov, Soviet radioman who has been stationed at Barrow, and Price Hopson, 15-year'Old Eskimo boy, who is go-ins;to Wiseman.Clear Flying -The weather was perfect, clear all the way from Barrow, over the Brooks range, to Fairbanks/’ Gillam reported.The flier was out eight days on the round trip to Barrow, a charter flight for the Soviet government.He took off from Fairbanks, Monday, January 31, with radio parts and provisions, was forced down Monday afternoon 30 miles south of Barrow, and spent the next four days awaiting the arrival of gasoline brought by searching parties from the Arctic outpost.Long. Cold NightsAfter lus cold days and nights on the tundra, Gillam decided in favor of more fur apparel than he usually carries, and he returned here withnew mitts and a parka made at Barrow.is was warm enough in a flying suit in the daytime/’ Gillam said, but those four nights in the ship were cold/'The pilot and mechanic had only one sleeping bag, and the weather was 20 below or colder, and windy.Beans and More Beans Saunders’ memories of the trip are of cold nights on the bleak, Sat tundra, beans cooked In a five-gallon can over a gasoline rirepot, and more beans.When the Eskimo muhers arrived at the plane with a reindeer mulligan, bread and butter (sent out by Mrs. Stanley Morgan), and the drivers heated the mulligan and made a big pot of hot coffee—that was just about ‘'the farthest north” in Saunders' estimation.11 Dog Teams Alfred Hopson and Harold Leavitt were the first Eskimos from Barrow to reach the Gillam plane, but soon thereafter 10 more teams showed up, the flier reported, “and when we left Barrow there were exactly 123 dogs hitched to sleds by Eskimos who were seeing us off/'Price Hopson, youth who came to Fairbanks with Gillam, is the nephew of Alfred Hopson. He is going to his mother at Wiseman.Sees First Tree Yesterday was a big day in young Hopson's life for he had his first plane ride, saw the first mountains he had ever seen, saw his first tree, and had his first ride in an automobile.The taxicab ride from the GlUam!-Airways hangar to town was not ex-; actly his first auto ride, for he mod-jestly stated that he had ridden in | Sergeant Morgan's snowmobile at j Barrow.I The talkie at the Empress Theater ! lst night excited him, but he had. | seen movies before on the Coast j Guard cutter at Barrow and on the ' Russian icebreaker Krassin.Wants to See a Horsej What Hopson really wants to see iis a horse—he’s heard and read j about horses, and he hopes to see a I real live horse before he leaves for ; Wiseman.! Although he*s spent most of his ! young life around Barrow, he isn’t j exactly untraveled, for he has been i to Herschei Island.! Called by Motherl! The 2ast mail to Barrow brought : a letter to Hopson from his mother,: who now Jives at Wiseman, asking • him to come to her. His stepfather,; Frank J. Miller, is mining on Linda : creek, tributary of Gold creek. The j mine is 15 miles from Wiseman. Ace ' Wilcox and E. ColJins are Mr. Mfi-! ler's parmers in the mine.“Fer Goodness Sake!” Catherine Cato, 25. Juneau Indian, believed ro be dead, sat up in : the hearse and wanted to know ; where she was. She was hit on the ; head with the butt nf a gun during : a fight between two men in a cabin : on Lemon Creek. It was thought she ■ was dead and the hearse came far r her. While on the way to town she | sat up and demanded to know where she was.
Newspaper Details
Fairbanks Alaska Miner
Fairbanks, Alaska, US
Tue, Feb 15, 1938
Page 12
Full Page
Clipped by
Anonymous
AK, USA 16 Nov 2023
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