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Show Springville Boy Writes From Fairbanks, Alaska Several Springville boys who left recently to make their fortunes in the far north, are having some interesting experiences it would seem from a letter received from one this week. Verl Ashcraft, son of Mr. and Mrs. Lloyd Ashcraft and Vincent Houtz, son of Mr. and Mrs. Heber Houtz, left recently for Alaska to work in the gold mines and according to a letter received by Verl's parents, he is located at Fairbanks Creek, about 30 miles east of Fairbanks. He writes that water is piped in for thawing out the ground. The round has to be thawed for two full summers before the dredge digs it up. One dredge will take in about $600,000 every month in gold and besides some silver. He further states that the weather there is better and there is less snow than there is farther far-ther south. When they go to work, they wear a shirt, a sweat shirt and a coat because it still gets cold enough at night to freeze ice on running water, he related.. By 8 a.m.t it is warm enough to work in just a "T" shirt and to get a little sunburn during the day. The trees in Alaska have just started to turn green. It is light about 19 hours each day and about June 21 they are looking forward to seeing the sun 24 hours each day, he said. The living quarters and meals are very good, Verl reports, except ex-cept we do not have any fresh milk up here. He reports that they have now started to work for a construction construc-tion company at an airbase there and that there is an active branch of the LDS church at Fairbanks, at which they have attended and which has about 70 members. |