Northwest History. Alaska. General.

• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Published: 1935
• Subjects: Fairbanks; automobile; Spanish War; wild interior; Alaska; Rip Van Winkle; A. H. Greecy; war veteran; Kuskokwim river; gold country; medical treatment; Wiseman; feminine beauty; mine; Northwest; Pacific > History > 20th century; Pacific; Rip; Winkle; Kuskokwim
• Online Access: http://content.libraries.wsu.edu/cdm/ref/collection/clipping/id/91943

"Rip Van Winkle" Visits Fairbanks: Spanish War Vet Who Has Been In Wild Interior 35 Years Sees His First Automobile Saturday. 'RIP VAN WINKLE" VISITS FAIRBANKS Spanish War Vet Who Has Been In Wild Interior 35 Years Sees His First Automobile Saturday. Fairbanks, Alaska, Aug. 24.—(/P)— A "Rip Van Winkle" of the north, A. H. Creecy, Spanish-American war veteran, was seeing a new world here this month after 35 years in the gold country of the Kuskokwim'river. He came here by airplane from Wiseman for medical treatment. When he was 25, in 1900, he went into the Kuskokwim, where he works an open- cut mine. "I never before saw women that looked like these women," he said, wistfully, as he watched the girls and matrons of Fairbanks pass by. Sees First Auto. He saw automobiles for the first time. Calling them "porcupines," he said: "I can't figure out which is the front end of them and which way they are going to go." "Fairbanks (population about 3,000) is as big a city as I want to see. I'm surprised at the tall buildings and the wide solid streets." He tasted his first fresh fruit in 35 years here, "I think I'll go down to the hotel," he concluded, "and sit at the window and eat some fruit and watch feminine beauty and porcupines go by."