Albuquerque Journal from Albuquerque, New Mexico • Page 33

ALBUQUERQUE JOURNAL Sunday, September 24, 1989 D5 EW MEXICO BUSINESS Handcrafted-Furniture Sale Benefits Convicts Government May Acquire Ghost Town Kennecott Camp Could Become Part of National Park System tions program that teaches traditional woodworking skills to nonviolent offenders. "Rarely does one have the opportunity to buy a piece of genuine handcrafted furniture and help someone carve a new, productive life for himself at the same time," Aguilar said. The festival will combine the program's best works with those of other area artisans. The Muebles de Taos Fall Furniture Festival started Saturday and will continue through Oct. 7 at the Holiday Inn Don Fernando de Taos.

The festival will feature northern New Mexico furniture handcrafted by 27 of the "best traditional and contemporary woodwork artisans of Taos according to Ben Aguilar. Aguilar is chairman of Muebles de Taos, the festival sponsor, which is a 4-year-old, community correc 4 THE ASSOCIATED PRESS -vf i. 'New Mexico Med Week' Set for Oct. 4 THE ASSOCIATED PRESS Hispano Chamber of Commerce, the purchasing council, Indian Business Development Center, the state Commission on the Status of Women, Los Alamos National Laboratory, Sandia National Laboratories, the U.S. Department of Energy, the state Economic Development and Tourism Department and the state Minority and Small Business Procurement Assistance Program.

The fee is $10 a person. For reservations and information, call 265-7677. Nine organizations are sponsoring "New Mexico Med Week Celebration 1989" Oct. 4 from 1 p.m. to 8 p.m.

at the Santa Fe Hilton Inn. The Rio Grande Minority Purchasing Council will hold a matchmaking seminar, and a second seminar will cover how to do business with government agencies. A trade fair will feature 50 government purchasing agencies, prime contractors and business resource organizations. Sponsors are the Albuquerque Weathered wooden buildings, which were part of the Kennecott copper mill camp, perch above the rubble field in the Wrangell Mountains as the only reminders of Alaska's largest mineral boom. Days Inn Opens 41 -Room Motel in Moriarty KENNECOTT, Alaska A half-century ago, federal officials made their first pitch to add to the National Park system the bright red buildings of this abandoned copper mill camp, the country's largest ghost town.

Several decades and proposals later, the idea is. alive again. Appraisers have finished poking through 40 or so structures built in 1906 for Kennecott Mines and a contract will be awarded soon to put a cost on removing any asbestos and industrial chemicals left behind, said Dick Martin, superintendent of Wrangell St. Elias National Park and Preserve, which surrounds the frontier mining town and its adjacent glacier, i The deal would include about 3,000 acres plus buildings; Kennecott Copper Corp. has to donate the subsurface rights, Martin said on a recent tour of the decaying yet sound 14-story concentration mill and leeching plant.

"The figures go anywhere from zero to four or five million dollars. But those are shots at the moon. Until an appraisal is done and a cost of dealing with hazardous materials is known, no one is doing much of anything." The National Park Service hopes to know the costs by October or November, he said. "We'll pass that along to headquarters either with a recommendation for acquisition or that it's beyond our abilities or financial constraints." The first proposal to fold the privately owned historic mining town into the national park system was made in 1938, Martin said. "It came up again in the '40s, and I believe it was discussed again in the '50s.

There were various proposals, like using the tramways for ski areas and the dormitories for hotels, but nothing has happened. "I guess I'm a little more optimistic that something will be done soon because of the appraisals." Kennecott Mines Co. took its name from Kennicott Glacier in 1906. But the company, which still operates in Utah, misspelled the name. Days Inn has opened a 41-room motel in Moriarty.

The motel is two stories with an interior corridor and features three suites. The motel is owned and operated by Sierra Vista Construction Co. of Pagosa Springs, Colo. Days Inns of America Inc. is the third largest hotel chain in the United States, with more than 1,330 hotels open in 50 states and Canada.

The general manager of the new motel is Kathy Kegel. Its 800 workers may be gone, but many of their books and papers still lie on desks and most of the machinery remains that they used to crush and extract ore from one of the richest copper deposits ever known. From 1911 to 1935, the Kennecott deposit, about 235 miles east of Anchorage, produced 4.6 million tons of ore that was refined into 591,535 tons of copper and 9 million ounces of silver worth some $300 million. The discovery of vast copper deposits in Chile and economic dislocations brought by the Great Depression killed Kennecott even though millions of tons of high-grade ore may still lie within Bonanza Ridge, which rises several thousand feet behind the processing facilities. But it's history that makes the site so valuable, Martin said.

"There's always going to be some great value here for the public, even if some of these buildings fall down. The more that are standing the better, clearly. But there always will be a great deal of value because of the people who lived here, the scenic value and what they did here." With help from volunteers, he said, it might be possible to make the area safe for visitors to roam outside the buildings, but it would be "simply beyond our ability" to pay for restoring all the buildings to safe condition. "We may fix up one of the buildings for visitor contact or interpretation." Only a few tourists now walk or ski the trails leading to mines with names like Bonanza, Mother Lode and Jumbo. People either fly to the gravel airstrip at McCarthy, five miles down a rutted road, or they drive scenic Edgerton Highway to its terminus at the Kennicott River, then pull themselves hand-over-hand on a cable tram that separates the road from the wilderness.

At 13.2 million acres, Wrangell-St. Elias National Park and Preserve is the nation's largest national park. It abounds in wildlife Dall sheep, buffalo, caribou, moose, wolves, brown and black bear, among others. It also includes nine of the 16 highest mountains in the United States. Mount Wrangell is an active volcano with steam and the odor of sulfur wafting near its summit.

Miners still extract gold and silver from more than 900 active claims within the park, which is six times the size of Yellowstone but, because of its remoteness, has fewer visitors in a year than Yellowstone on a summer weekend. More than a million acres within the park are privately owned. Several of the buildings and the Kennicott Glacier Lodge would not be part of the ghost town buyout, Martin said. Duke City Crucial Market for New Beer marketing found the name had a "pure, masculine, refreshing image among consumers." Price for the new beers is $1.59 to $1.99 a six-pack. Edson said Coors was taking aim at Old Milwaukee, the top selling popularly priced beer in New Mexico.

"We test-marketed the product and found our targeting audience was made up of blue-collar males, between 25 and 54, which included many Hispanics," Edson said. The Adolph Coors Co. has launched a new campaign to broaden its market by entering the popularly priced beer category with its Keystone and Keystone Lite six-packs. Albuquerque is considered one of the key cities for Keystone among the 49 states, Canada and Japan in which sell Coors products, said Pat Edson, a spokesman for the Golden, based brewery. The name Keystone' was used because test Dixie's New Strategy: Growth From Within First National Ban! Mortgage Lending Services Now in Citywide On the other hand, advanced, innovative regions can offer a more skilled work force and a richer environment for innovation and productivity." For half a century, the South kept costs to business low by holding down taxes.

That meant lower investment by state and local government in education, roads, bridges, and other public works. That was all right as long as the South had to compete only with Northern and Western states. Now Southern officials say they must quickly move to a new that emphasizes human skills, a strong infrastructure, and assistance to business. According to a survey of Southern economic development officials, the No. 1 need in the South is improved education, particularly in primary and secondary schools.

They say this is "the most important ingredient for future economic growth." In the past, better schools were supported by some Southern officials, but improved quality meant higher taxes and that collided with the previous strategy to attract business from other regions. Now Southern leaders widely agree that growth must come "from within," says Castle. Growth must be fostered by innovation from a steadily improving work force that includes more scientists, engineers, and technicians. South Carolina has already moved ahead with one of the most noteworthy education programs in Dixie. The state is operating an incentive program that awards the best schools.

Cash and non-cash prizes go to the South Carolina schools that show the greatest year-to-year improvement in test scores. THE CHRISTIAN SCIENCE MONITOR WILMINGTON, Del. The South is giving up its "bargain basement" strategy for attracting new business. For 50 years, Southern states have touted low taxes, moderate wages and cheap land to lure new factories from other parts of the country. It was a strategy that worked.

Southern industry rapidly expanded. Now times have changed. As the United States moves into a global economy, Southern states find themselves competing with developing countries where wages are only one-tenth those in the U.S. Governors from across the South are meeting here this week to look for new ways to stimulate the region's economy. Delaware's Republican Gov.

Michael Castle, chairman of the Southern Governors' Association, says it's time to move away from competition between the various states and regions for industry. A new strategy for the 1990s is now emerging, an SGA survey of Southern leaders finds. In the future, the emphasis will be on growth from within. The change has been forced on the South both by the emerging international competition, and by rapid technological change. The SGA report says: "The emergence of a global division of labor means that a strategy of attracting low- and moderate-cost, and low- and moderate-skill firms is no longer the route to economic success it once was.

"Regions following a low-cost strategy are finding themselves squeezed in the middle. On the one hand, developing nations can offer even lower wages (and) taxes. Neighborhoods ACADEMY AREA RESIDENTS First National is now even closer to you. To help serve the expanding needs of the Academy area, we've opened a new office with Mortgage Lending Services. ALSO AVAILABLE CITYWIDE! You'll receive the same competitive rates and complete lending services we offer Downtown, the Northeast and Westside.

Just a little more convenient. Now we're quicker and better than ever before. Stop by and see us when you're in the neighborhood. SALE PRICE GOOD SEPT. 24, 1989 thru SEPT.

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