Wings To Alaska

is the sky still blue where you [Music] live have they cut down your forests or your here can you see your country or do smoke stocks block your [Music] sky are your Meadows still wide and Unbroken [Music] is there Wilderness where you live and creatures unafraid of [Music] man has your country any strange and wonderful [Music] sights is there silence in your land silence so deep that you can almost hear the sunrise is there space and Elbow Room for you and generations to come you'll find these in only one place in all the USA a place called [Music] Alaska [Music] announ departure of Flight 901s Seattle is your jumping off Place Fairbanks is only 3 hours away by jet clipper your flag carries you North over Canada into the largest of all the United States to understand Alaska's size you must look at a map within the borders of this single state Li of all the land under the American flag if it were possible to set Alaska on the mainland of the USA it would cover six big Midwestern states and reach from Canada to Texas from Los Angeles to Savannah Georgia Alaska has a northern sound in our minds yet her reaches to the West this great land mass lies like a cap across the Central Pacific the warm Waters of the Japan current flow across the ocean to give Alaska's Southern Sea Coast a yearround temperate climate 3 hours from Seattle you become what Alaskan call Chicho an Indian word for newcomer whether at Fairbanks clear and Mild temperature in the comfortable 60s average for summer it's almost midnight when you arrive amazed at the sunshine welcome Chicho to the land of the Midnight Sun north of Fairbanks beyond the Arctic Circle the Sun never sets in Midsummer this is midnight now 1:00 in the morning now 2: a.m. these pictures were taken during a single night in Alaska's Northland the sun stands Above the Rim of the world still and hot the Earth itself seems to [Music] move in a frozen Wilderness far north of Alaska's cities the spring breakup begins [Music] only Eskimos and a few Travelers witness the victory of the [Music] Sun along the shores of the Bearing Sea and the Arctic Ocean live a people well suited to this land they know there is warm country to the South and some of them have traveled there to work in buildings and live in cities but in cities men do not hunt every day without hunting there's no excitement in a man's life summer here is too short to grow crops the Eskimo must hunt to live yet he also lives to hunt in boats of whalebone and walrus's hide they search for seal and whale and the white bear far [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] offshore [Applause] his first shot must be good a wounded seal can slip beneath the ice and the crack of a rifle will frighten everything in a 10 m Circle a seal hunt pleases a man but a whole village celebrates when a whale is [Applause] [Music] [Applause] caught a season without whale is as Bleak as a farm Without Rain the blanket toss once honored men who battled whales with bone Spears rifles make it easier but this ceremony still seems fitting for an eskimo's whole life is a dance on air an acrobat's trick of Liv Nature's old age itself is a kind of [Applause] [Music] Victory because they live so cheerfully in a Barren land an Eskimo ought to be the first man of the Moon he'd have a lean two built a fire and a cup of tea waiting for anyone who follows his [Music] Trail 1,000 miles south Alaskan Indians lived for generations and never knew Eskimos shared their land that's one measure of Alaska's size they fished and hunted in a warm and gentle land these totems tell of their battles to keep [Music] near kakan visitors still wonder at these family Coats of Arms which record hisory Legend status the warrior tribes who plac these totems defeated the Russian Invaders in their first attempt to cross the Seas from Asia after bloody battles the Russians triumphed established their capital and this church at Sitka less than 100 years ago with the payment of $7 million the United States bought this land the battles are over the totems no longer record Tales of combat in the new American scheme of things the children of Warriors carve ornaments for manicured lawns now and then the old Tales are brought to life the old chants remembered the old dances taught to a new generation beneath the ancient disguises are youngsters who live in the jet age the tribal rituals of their Elders are strange and unfamiliar they live in the 49th of the United States of America and American totems symbols and way of life have changed Alaska [Music] forever towns like Fairbanks Juno anage or modern outposts in the comfortable American [Music] frontier on beaches where gold hungry Prospectors scrambled ashore their children and their children's children children picnic the souro who fought their way to the Yukon 50 years ago would never believe their [Music] eyes the sea Co cities ketan Wrangle Valdez Petersburg and many smaller towns have salmon fishing contests Alaska has 35,000 M of Sea Coast more than all the Continental States together and these waters are thick with [Applause] fish [Applause] [Music] Alaska is more than picnic and playground in the cold pre-dawn hours the trollers slip into Port their holds crammed with halet and salmon with shrimp and king [Music] crab more wealth has been taken from the Seas near Juno and from all her gold [Music] mines when the catch is good there's barely time for coffee but now and then at Darkside there's a moment's welcome pause [Music] then the deck are cleared the ropes cast off there's work to be done in the Deep Waters beyond the sheltered harbors the Waters of Alaska were the first source of wealth now the roads are cut through and in a Land once called sewards ice box there are some areas with growing Seasons 200 days long blessed with Sunshine 20 hours a day and summer temperatures in the '90s crops ripen in weeks instead of months even the Wilderness [Music] blooms this was land thought expensive when bought from the Russians for 2 cents an acre beyond the clearings another portion of Alaskan he her forests Perpetual sources of lumber and [Music] Pulp the wealth of the land Rivals that of the sea but beneath the land are unmeasured riches gold the first lure is still mined although a man with a pick in a pan hasn't got a prayer against the big dredges but there was a time not long ago when three men with two fry pans between them worked a stream like this and stumbled on $700,000 worth of gold in 2 days [Music] when the news reached San Francisco Gold Fever raced like an epidemic through the streets the stern wheelers carried the Prospectors North from Seattle to Skyway now they stand as totems to man's Everlasting drive to get rich quick there was a time when men walk these decks with nothing to their names but a tin pan and a dream within a year the same men walked out of the Wilderness some millionaires most [Music] broke the memories of the Gold Rush remain bright as the yellow metal a few old Steamers still carry Travelers along rivers once rich with AE the flavor and excitement of those Gody days are Forever part of the Alaskan scene [Music] there's something of the pioneer and prospector in every Alaskan in a land with not enough neighbors every newcomer is welcomed as a [Music] friend although the the Rough and Ready way of life has become traditional The Traveler will find good food and wine in many cities Alaska is reaching middle age the Wild Frontier settlements are becoming tame once these were Trailside camps for Prospectors and fur Trappers of half a continent the trading posts are gone but in Juno and other major cities the treasures of this great land are still gathered yet those who live on pavement and work with paper know that Alaska's cities are small and our Wilderness [Applause] great there is land no surveyor has measured more waterways than a man can travel in his lifetime and where neither Wheels nor hulls can go the Airboat skims the land some men claims she'll ride the morning dew others say damn Sand's enough experienced airboat men ask for 2 or 3 in of water [Music] a few minutes ride from the center of town the Wilderness begins in this land of fox bear moose and Elk man is but a traveler through Big Country who leaves no Mark of his passing and destroys Nothing by his visit here for every solitary air Boatman there are a thousand Travelers who want more comfortable [Music] Adventure from the Sea Coast into the kondai country from skyu to White Horse the railroad follows the route of 98 this was the path of the gold [Music] Seekers here civilization is still only as wide as a railroad track perhaps someday cities will grow and the Wilderness will disappear but not yet not for a [Music] while in these high mountain passes many PR fell cursed and turned back they longed for the secure and sheltered route that had taken them this far the Inland [Music] passage along the coast of Alaska as's Panhandle lies calm and sheltered ocean like no other in the world a chain of islands just offshore acts as barrier and Breakwater here the mountains meet the sea and plunge like sounding whales a yard from Shore the Bottom's 2,000 ft down from katakan to Petersburg Juno and hannes these cruise ships follow the path but not the style of the gold seekers in this modern Frontier hardly anyone recalls when the only bread was sourdough and fresh eggs were scarcer than nuggets moving North the Green Hills disappear the air grows sharper seals slip from Flat winter ice and the ice itself changes shape and color becoming icebergs this is Alaska's Glacier Land There are 40 of these moving rivers of ice in Alaska one of them 1200 ft high and larger than the state of Rhode Island Boulders trapped in the path of these mountains have been ground of flower thousands of years ago moving slabs like these covered half of North America reshaping the landscape beyond all imagination the mysterious Inland reaches of the Alaskan Glaciers are just now being explored here are mountain ranges without name and valleys where the snow has never been marked by footprint perhaps these will become the Alps of North America drawing skiers and Sportsmen from all corners of the world high above the snow line and valleys known to Bush pilots and few others lies a skier's DreamWork World Perpetual snow untouched untracked unending one helicopter ride carries them up in the morning the rest of the day can be a downhill [Applause] run skiers no more nor less than other alaskans depend on air travel in a vast country with few roads the airplane is a Lifeline invisible tracks in the sky bind the land as the American West was bound by the first transcontinental Railway since the coming of the airplane there are no isolated Villages no longer is time measured by the speed of a dog team it's an ancient continent but a young state and the people have the enthusiasm of Youth they're proud of their history confident of the [Music] future in this land of newcomers each person is as good as any other there are fewer barriers between peoples and each individual has unique value this is a good land for the young and those who guide them it is a rich land for those who love Wilderness and until a traveler not yet a conqueror this is America's last As you move through this wide country you will share Alaska's great gift a place for each man to know himself there is no greater gift than [Music] this