Fairbanks Daily News-Miner from Fairbanks, Alaska • Page 15

Fairbanks Daily News-Miner, Fairbanks, Alaska, Saturday, August Three sourdoughs part of Alaska Pioneer newspaperman returns to Fairbanks after 60 years SAM CRAWFORD By DEAN WARINER News Editor A i A a a newspaperman walked the street; of a i a earlier this week-streets he hadn't seen for GO years-- and wondered, "what hasn't changed?" He was looking for the Barnette house along the Chena River in which his family had lived as early as 1904. "It was a two-story log home," recalls Sam Crawford who was a staffer for the Fairbanks i and the old Fairbanks Times. "I believe it was the only two-story log house in townatthattime." After leaving Fairbanks in July of 1911, Crawford pursued a journalistic career in Washington and did not return to Alaska until this week. "This was a trip to reminisce," said his wife, Frances. Crawford's a R.M.

Crawford, was a real estate and mining broker here during the gold rush days following the discovery here hi 1902. He had known Capt. E.T. Barnette, the founder of Fairbanks when it was little more than a trading post. "My father had some mining property i Barnette," Crawford said.

"That was before he (Barnette) became known for his dealings." Barnette was later charged with embezzling money from his own bank and fled from Alaska and the country. Sam Crawford left Fairbanks to a the i i of Washington in 1911. His family also departed a few years afterward. a newspapers in Chehalis, Bremerton and other Washington weekly and daily newspapers before deciding to take up radio news. "There wasn't any local news reporting on radio in thosedays," he said.

"I had to nuke a job for myself and did at KGY in Olympia, the state capital. "I guess I had about the first local news program in the state," he said. "The only other radio newscasts were from networks." After 17 years as a KGY newsman, Crawford switched over to advertising sales for the station until his retirement this year. Crawford said some Fairbanks oldsters might remember his brother Bob, a concert baritone who was to do a show in Fairbanks the day Wiley Postand Will Rogers died in a plane crash near Pt. Barrow.

"Bob decided to put on a benefit for the two popular heroes," Crawford said. "He was well liked by Fairbanksans and he died hewasgivenquitea tribute by the newspaper. He always said Won't givea memorial to me when I die. Give me a toast (See CRA WFORD, Page A-3) Former bush pilot makes last flight Klondike Crowley honored By CHUCK HOYT Staff Writer A lifetime of flying for former Alaskan bush pilot James T. Stewart came to an end a week ago when Pan American World Airways flight 892 arrived in Seattle from Honolulu.

Stewart, born in Seattle, of a father who climbed over the Chilkoot Pass in 1892 looking for gold, made Alaska his home until moving south shortly after the beginning of World War II. On retirement Aug. was one day shy of his 60th birthday, which is the mandatory retirement age for Pan Am skippers. He first moved to Seward with his parents, James A. and Christia Stewart, and then to Fairbanks where he went through school, graduating from Fairbanks High School and later the University of Alaska in 1934 with a degree in civil engineering.

But Stewart had already soloed an airplane after three hours and 35 minutes dual instruction in a monocoupe under the instruction of Jack Herman, and from then on according to Stewart, "Inever wanted to do anything but fly an airplane." Stewart, the brother of Alaska IJnck of Fairbanks, who has also been employed i Pan American here for well over 30 years, took to hanging around Week's Field and would do anything to get a ride in an airplane. In 1933 his career began and from then on he has logged around 31,000 hours with Pan Am all over the globe in airplanes dating back from the DC3s to the Boeing 707s. Stewart was never the skipper of the new huge Boeing 747 as when it came out a few years ago the company termed him too close to retirement age to have him checked out on the new JAMES STEWART behemothsofthesky. Stewart's first aviation job was with Noel Wien as co-pilot and a i on i Ford Tri-motor. Then he spent several years flying the bush for the late a Pollock of Pollock Airways.

He joined Pan Am's Alaska subsidiary, a i i Alaska Airways with headquarters in (See STEWART. Page A-3) The first white mate bom in Dawson City was guest of honor at his birthplace before he made a brief tour of Alaska last week. Klondike Timothy Crowley ishis given name. He was bom November 2,1897. "My parents were married in Butte, Mont, and honeymooned in the Klondike," he said.

From there they went to Skagway and hiked up the Chilkoot Pass. They built a boat on Lake Ben net and floated down the Yukon to Dawson. "They left Jan. 1, 1897 and arrived May 20, 1897," he said. They staked a claim on Sulphur Creek.

Later, his father, Tim Crowley and Jim McBride bought the mine. Two Below. "In 1903 we left and went to Seattle, but not for long," he remembers. The next year his father came to Fairbanks and a little later the same year, his mother, two brothers and he followed. Still prospecting, his father worked on the Discovery Claim on Fairbanks Creek.

"He worked it for 60 per cent of the profits and gave the other 40 to the owners," he said. "It was likea lease." "I can remember playing along the creeks in the winter," Klondike Crowley says. "I hauled wood my father cut for the cabin on my dog sled and traveled all overthearea." "We were all bundled in parkas and warm clothes and we never even thought about the cold," he said. Fairbanks Is a whole lot different than it "But I can remember looking out the second floor window of the Steel wasabout six years old," he said. On his tour of Alaska he has been presented with the keys to the cities of Ketchikan and Juneau and even better he said, he was greeted at the airport by the mayors and city managers of those cities, accompanied by a lot of pretty girls.

Klondike Crowley is a member of the Yukon Order of Pioneers, as was his father, and he wears his father's pin. He has lived in Seattle for most of his life and was recently retired as a fire department chief after 41 years. He is also a retired i secretary of the a i Horse Racein Association. KLONDIKE CROWLEY.