Return of Gustavus lands from National Monument.

By BOB KENNING

A new duck hunting territory and a new homestead area have been opened up by the recent Presidential proclamation releasing nearly 30,000 acres from the giant Glacier Bay National Monument.

The proclamation, issued March 31, releases 10,184 acres of valuable timber land on the east side of Excursion Inlet and puts it back into Tongass National Forest where it will be administered by the Forest Service.  A total of 18,934 acres, much of it potential farm land, has been released from the monument in the Gustavus area.

In the center of the newly opened Gustavus area, otherwise known as Strawberry Point, the government retains, however, 4,308 acres embracing the airport area.  Soil studies conducted last summer by the Alaska Agricultural Experiment Station and the Soil Conservation Service, according to the Presidential announcement, "indicate the area might have potentialities for development as an agricultural community."

Over 8,000 acres are open to homesteaders in the area, and at present there are thirteen patented homesteads "let out of the park" by the order.  The agricultural possibilities statement of soil experts is no news to veteran homesteader and prospector Charles Parker, who has been carrying on a vigorous campaign since 1939 when Secretary of Interior Harold Ickes and President Roosevelt stretched the Glacier Bay Monument to 2,297,598 acres. 

Parker and other residents have been battling to get homestead land opened in order to attract more settlers, get proper schools for their children, and make possible financing of docks and roads which would make it feasible for farmers and stock raisers to serve the Juneau area markets.

Rainfall in the area is "about half what it is in Juneau" Parker declares,  and  the  vast  grazing lands  he  asserts  are  "the  best in this area."  Hay is a good crop at Gustavus, Parker says, with plenty of dry periods during the cutting season, and large areas of native joint grass which stay green all year to provide ample winter forage for cattle.

For many years, the Parkers and other homesteaders from Strawberry Point, as the Gustavus area was formerly known, used to bring in large quantities of excellent root crops and strawberries to the local markets here as well as range fed beef. Mr. and Mrs. A. L. Parker landed in Gustavus and took up homesteads in 1917, taking up six tracts within the family before homesteading was stopped by the 1939 order.

Four Parker sons and one daughter took up homesteads. They were Charles, Glen, Bert and Leslie, and daughter May, now Mrs. Archie Chase. Another daughter, Eunice, Mrs. Fred Cliff, married the purser on the old steamer Georgia and is living in Seattle today. The rest of the Parkers still hold to their hopes for a "bigger and better Gustavus," doing a little farming, a little mining, and occasional logging, but never getting far from Strawberry Point.

Mrs. Chase added to her 120 acres when she married her husband Archie, who also had proved up on a 120-acre plot. The two live now on the edge of the airport there and, in addition to various government duties in connection with the airport, operate Riverside Lodge to accommodate airplane passengers and other visitors.

Included in the list of those who have patented ground in the Gustavus section are Fred Matson, Lester Rink, Sam Buoy, Henry Johnson and John Peterson. The Rink homestead, proved up before the law changed in 1917, embraces 320 acres while the other plots are 160 acres in size.  Jim Chase, father of Archie, is another homesteader in the area, having purchased the Harry Hall homestead. Still another homesteader is Gene Chase, a son of Archie Chase.
 
Although the farming possibilities of the area have long been known, to many, the new release order, is more important in that a large area has been thrown open to duck hunters for the first time in 16 years.  Geese and ducks by the thousands stop to rest on the Gustavus flats and in the many sloughs that criss-cross the grassy coastal plain, but when the 1939 order took in the area, hunting was forbidden.  Although no express orders have yet come through from Washington, it is presumed certain that hunting will again be permitted in the public lands area at Gustavus.

Loggers are happier over the release of the Excursion Inlet acreage which is said to include fine stands of spruce and hemlock.  Gov. B. Frank Heintzleman, who has spearheaded the fight to get the Gustavus area open to settlers again, called the new release order of the present administration "another firm step"  towards releasing vast government  holdings in Alaska "to proper private use."

Meanwhile, the National Park Services still awaiting Federal funds for development of tourist facilities within the Monument area itself.

A resort site held by the National Park Service is connected with the Gustavus Airport by a 4-1/2 mile road leading from the airport to the mouth of Bartlett River.

Further information on the area, can be had from the Governor's

Return of Gustavus lands from National Monument.

By BOB KENNING

A new duck hunting territory and a new homestead area have been opened up by the recent Presidential proclamation releasing nearly 30,000 acres from the giant Glacier Bay National Monument.

The proclamation, issued March 31, releases 10,184 acres of valuable timber land on the east side of Excursion Inlet and puts it back into Tongass National Forest where it will be administered by the Forest Service.  A total of 18,934 acres, much of it potential farm land, has been released from the monument in the Gustavus area.

In the center of the newly opened Gustavus area, otherwise known as Strawberry Point, the government retains, however, 4,308 acres embracing the airport area.  Soil studies conducted last summer by the Alaska Agricultural Experiment Station and the Soil Conservation Service, according to the Presidential announcement, "indicate the area might have potentialities for development as an agricultural community."

Over 8,000 acres are open to homesteaders in the area, and at present there are thirteen patented homesteads "let out of the park" by the order.  The agricultural possibilities statement of soil experts is no news to veteran homesteader and prospector Charles Parker, who has been carrying on a vigorous campaign since 1939 when Secretary of Interior Harold Ickes and President Roosevelt stretched the Glacier Bay Monument to 2,297,598 acres. 

Parker and other residents have been battling to get homestead land opened in order to attract more settlers, get proper schools for their children, and make possible financing of docks and roads which would make it feasible for farmers and stock raisers to serve the Juneau area markets.

Rainfall in the area is "about half what it is in Juneau" Parker declares,  and  the  vast  grazing lands  he  asserts  are  "the  best in this area."  Hay is a good crop at Gustavus, Parker says, with plenty of dry periods during the cutting season, and large areas of native joint grass which stay green all year to provide ample winter forage for cattle.

For many years, the Parkers and other homesteaders from Strawberry Point, as the Gustavus area was formerly known, used to bring in large quantities of excellent root crops and strawberries to the local markets here as well as range fed beef. Mr. and Mrs. A. L. Parker landed in Gustavus and took up homesteads in 1917, taking up six tracts within the family before homesteading was stopped by the 1939 order.

Four Parker sons and one daughter took up homesteads. They were Charles, Glen, Bert and Leslie, and daughter May, now Mrs. Archie Chase. Another daughter, Eunice, Mrs. Fred Cliff, married the purser on the old steamer Georgia and is living in Seattle today. The rest of the Parkers still hold to their hopes for a "bigger and better Gustavus," doing a little farming, a little mining, and occasional logging, but never getting far from Strawberry Point.

Mrs. Chase added to her 120 acres when she married her husband Archie, who also had proved up on a 120-acre plot. The two live now on the edge of the airport there and, in addition to various government duties in connection with the airport, operate Riverside Lodge to accommodate airplane passengers and other visitors.

Included in the list of those who have patented ground in the Gustavus section are Fred Matson, Lester Rink, Sam Buoy, Henry Johnson and John Peterson. The Rink homestead, proved up before the law changed in 1917, embraces 320 acres while the other plots are 160 acres in size.  Jim Chase, father of Archie, is another homesteader in the area, having purchased the Harry Hall homestead. Still another homesteader is Gene Chase, a son of Archie Chase.
 
Although the farming possibilities of the area have long been known, to many, the new release order, is more important in that a large area has been thrown open to duck hunters for the first time in 16 years.  Geese and ducks by the thousands stop to rest on the Gustavus flats and in the many sloughs that criss-cross the grassy coastal plain, but when the 1939 order took in the area, hunting was forbidden.  Although no express orders have yet come through from Washington, it is presumed certain that hunting will again be permitted in the public lands area at Gustavus.

Loggers are happier over the release of the Excursion Inlet acreage which is said to include fine stands of spruce and hemlock.  Gov. B. Frank Heintzleman, who has spearheaded the fight to get the Gustavus area open to settlers again, called the new release order of the present administration "another firm step"  towards releasing vast government  holdings in Alaska "to proper private use."

Meanwhile, the National Park Services still awaiting Federal funds for development of tourist facilities within the Monument area itself.

A resort site held by the National Park Service is connected with the Gustavus Airport by a 4-1/2 mile road leading from the airport to the mouth of Bartlett River.

Further information on the area, can be had from the Governor's