The Wrangell Sentinel

CLEAN-UP CAMPAIGN

Urging clean-up campaign by residents of seacoast towns and settlements of Alaska, Dr. W. W. Council, Territorial Commissioner of Health points out the need of making as fine an impression as possible upon tourists visiting Alaska this summer.

Steamship companies report that advance bookings indicate a record number of tourists will visit Alaska this season, Dr. Council said.

When these tourists arrive, we have a real opportunity to make friends for Alaska who will hereafter take a genuine interest in matters affecting the Territory. These visitors will talk about Alaska to their friends at home. If their impressions are favorable, their subscriptions will bring other visitors. We should see that their reports of Alaska are truly enthusiastic.

Our visitors always carry home vivid and delightful memories of our scenery—the rugged shores, rushing streams and waterfalls, and the great expanses of timber. The romance of Alaskan life, and the picturesqueness of our industries, particularly the fishing and packing of salmon, are always of great interest to our visitors from the Outside. The fishing industry which is an every-day affair to Alaskans is full of the unusual for tourists many of whom live hundreds of miles from the sea. The boats, seines and canneries are novel and interesting sights to these people. They add color and human interest to the scenic attractions of Alaska for the average visitor.

"If all our people, especially those living along the seacoast will carry on a private clean up drive around their own homes, making the settlements surrounding the salmon canneries as attractive in appearance as possible, the favorable impression which our modern salmon canneries give to visitors will be heightened and they will carry away impressions of a busy and capable population, as well as a scenically wonderful country," Dr. Council continued.

…This favorable feeling for Alaska can be of great value when questions touching on the Territory are before the country. Too, an impression of cleanliness and sanitation will do much to increase the market for the vast supply of sea food which Alaska supplies the world, and from which so many Alaska residents derive their livelihood."