Northwest History. Alaska. General.

• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Published: 1935
• Subjects: Rip Van Winkle; Alaska; Fairbanks; A. H. Greecy; war veteran; gold country; Kuskokwim river; medical treatment; mine; feminine beauty; Northwest; Pacific > History > 20th century; Pacific; Rip; Winkle; Kuskokwim
• Online Access: http://content.libraries.wsu.edu/cdm/ref/collection/clipping/id/91944

"Rip Van Winkle" Sees New World: Alaskan Miner Gets Jolt On Visit To Fairbanks. 'RIP VAN WINKLE' Alaska Miner Gets Jolt on Visit to Fairbanks FAIRBANKS, Alaska, Aug. 24 (AP)—A "Rip Van Winkle" of the north, A. H. Greecy, 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. looked like these women," he said, wistfully, as he watched the girls and matrons of Fairbanks pass by. Auto Something New 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 3000) 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 the porcupines go by."