Editor:
This Alaska town of Anderson that is offering free land, well don’t jump too quickly.
Anderson was first homesteaded in the 1960s. The man who did was hoping the men working at Clear, Alaska, Air Force Base, which was just a few miles from there, would buy lots, build and bring their wives up from the lower 48.
Anderson is about 80 miles below Fairbanks, and no one at that time would build. No services were provided. The land is frozen seven to eight months of the year. The temperature in winter is mostly below zero. I worked at Clear AFB for seven years and have seen 60 below zero and never above 30 below for weeks on end.
So if you need groceries, it’s off to Fairbanks; and how about work to be done on your house? How do you get a man to do it in that kind of weather? There are no motels in the area. There are no materials in the area. In other words, you are in the middle of nowhere, and just where do plan on working for wages? Take a look at an Alaskan map.
At times, on our one day off, we would want to fly to Anchorage, about an hour and a half away, but the engines would not start. It was too cold. Ask a pilot how cold that takes.
Howard Baker
Crawfordsville