Show ro am in around with the NEA one in a series of ar articles by albert W epperson who recently returned from a trip with the national editorial association so to alaska leaving mt mckinley park hotel betel hot bet t ea the morning of june 14 we again boarded the aurora crack train of the alaska railroad tor for a days visit to mythical fairbanks our trip took us through healy where large coal mines are located and at nenana benana we crossed the tanana river where as we mentioned in a previous article we saw I 1 the gauge that determines the I 1 breaking up of the ice each year for one of the greatest betting pools in the world the huge railroad span across the tanana river was dedicated by pres harddng when he made his visit to alaska our arrival at fairbanks fairbank was shortly after noon and we were taken by bus to the country club for lunch it was a grand affair with very little speech making though we did hear bear the pros and cons on tho the alaska statehood question souvenirs were gold nuggets passed along the tables on large platters some thought though they were real until a bright wag scraped the gilt paint from his pebble trust a newspaperman to spoil all a good tiling thing some of our group took a trip to the placer mining operations ions near the city but our group decided to shop the town though we did make a tour through ladd air base before getting into the city one of the most interesting places we visited was charlie mains department store it was just like one of those places you re read ad about charlie main alain has been in alaska since 1909 first going to nome in the gold rush ile he later settled in fairbanks and opened a trading establishment and his present pies store Is the outgrowth of this venture mains department store has everything from raw furs to candy abdy his method of operation is much the same as it was in those early days with hundreds ot of boxes lining the shelves lanterns candles traps and hunting equipment are displayed around the store charlie a genial man in this last frontier confided to us that this fall lie he planned to fly 0 outside o u aside to detroit and visit a sister he had not seen in 30 years ile he would buy a car drive across the country fishing en route to seattle here he would sell the car and a n d fly back to fairbanks we could have spent hours listening to charlie as lie he repeatedly repeat ed struck store matches in an effort to keep his pipe lighted and related incidents in this north country he also showed us some of his gold nuggets and dust this city of 1000 persons Is served by two newspapers the fairbanks miner a daily an and jes sens weekly we visited the plant of the latter which Is temporarily housed in quonset huts occupation of this makeshift make shift building was alas necessary due to a tire fire that destroyed a previous plant we did not get to meet E F jessen the publisher but we did meet james E canfield the advertising manager who told us of plans tor a new building for this famous weekly newspaper dessens Jes sens weekly Is a wonderful job of news papering it was paper day when we visited fairbanks ind and we noted that nearly everyone in 0 0 tot IQ 1 i fairbanks most northern point of our visit to alaska the city was carrying a copy of this newspaper tabloid in size the issue of june 14 had 36 pages i packed with local news and a supply of advertising that would make i any newspaper man jealous prices in fairbanks were the highest we had seen during our visit to the territory haircuts were 2 shoe shines 50 cents milk 30 cents a glass and 80 cents a quart and we noted on a menu that an egg salad was its no wonder that wages are high in tills this area they have to be for one to live at fairbanks the un university diversity iver sity of alaska Is located and we understand I 1 that tuition Is free to any girl from the states who will enroll at the institution there Is such a shortage of girls in the territory an important gold mining center fairbanks Is an mr air center and terminal for both the alaska highway and alaska railroad on the lawn at the depot at fairbanks Is engine no 1 of the alaska railroad one of those little chagi chug chugs you have seen in pictures now retired atter after years of 0 service ice too short in r fairbanks air our stay was tor for we left at 6 pm tor for our trip to mt alt mckinley park some of our party including faye williams left us at the country club after lunch for an air tour across the arctic c cirri circle e to yol across the arctic e circle to Y v I 1 about this Is artica icV 01 1 trip I 1 la a an article art to pear next week V 0 |