00:00:00 About 70 years ago, in 1867, Secretary of State William H. Seward bought Alaska from Russia for $7,200,000.

00:00:28 When the purchase was announced, thousands of citizens throughout the United States protested, called it a waste of public money, and Alaska became known as Seward's Folly.

00:00:38 But let us see if these citizens were right or wrong in their conclusions.

00:00:43 Today, there is no man better qualified to give you a true picture of Alaska than Father Bernard Hubbard, known as the Glacier Priest, a Jesuit explorer who has spent over 10 years in our great northern territory.

00:00:57 Ten years ago, when I first began with my loyal young college men and faithful dogs, annual trips of scientific exploration to the north, I thought that Alaska was just a worthless knob of land on top of America where Eskimos lived in igloos amid desolations of snow and ice.

00:01:16 I was certainly surprised to find that it was anything but this.

00:01:21 The popular notions of Alaska are, for the most part, all wrong. It is the least understood of any United States territory. Its size, its extent, and its great variety are by no means comprehended. It is truly the land that nobody knows.

00:01:43 The best way to get an idea of the true size of Alaska is to move it down onto the United States.

00:01:53 Although only one-fifth as large as the United States in square miles, nevertheless, Alaska touches all four borders of our country. This will give you an idea of the wide expanse and spread of our great northern territory.

00:02:21 The most important fact to bear in mind is this. Alaska is roughly divided into three distinct sections which are as different from one another as day is from night. The section being enclosed now by the moving line is the Yukon area, taking its name from the great Yukon River which flows through it. A line of latitude drawn eastward from the center of this section will touch eventually on the southern coast of Greenland.

00:02:49 We are not surprised then to see here in this Yukon section what so many people imagine all of Alaska to be. Wastes of snow and ice traversed only by dog teams in a sub-zero temperature that is always a menace to life. The most grueling experience I ever had in Alaska was mushing a dog team 1,600 miles over the frozen Yukon.

00:03:09 The wolf dog called Malamute or Husky is man's most faithful companion in conquering the long distances where a very scattered population does not yet encourage a more modern form of transportation. Here is my team on the winter trail where the noble sled dog takes pride in his work. At home in his kennels, he is equally ready and anxious to be of service.

00:03:30 This is Katmai, my heroic old leader. He saved my life more than once. From this exceptionally fine group of dogs, I picked the ones that I still use in my Alaskan adventures. Some of my Eskimo friends are showing you where they live. Not in ice houses, but in dugouts or even pretentious log cabins. They are educated and quite artistic. Beautifully patterned fur garments shield them from the winter cold.

00:03:58 The reason Eskimos stay in this severe climate when a short migration would take them to more attractive spots is on account of the abundance of food here. For old Mary of Unalakleet, a hole in the ice, a hook, and a short length of line means a bountiful supper of tomcod.

00:04:17 For flesh meat, they have teeming herds of reindeer imported from Siberia years ago by the United States government. Finding in their new home on the Bering Sea an abundance of food under the winter snows, they have increased to the tens of thousands. This was the first herd of reindeer I ever saw. What impressed me the most was not the reindeer themselves, but the sea of moving horns.

00:04:42 In this region, nature stages her most dramatic spectacles, and here is the most awesome. When the Yukon is frozen, it is the winter highway. When it breaks up, it is a death trap. Just the day before this breakup, I mushed my dog team over these same ice blocks, now piling up in chaos.

00:05:13 Let's go southward now to the second distinct section known as southeastern Alaska. Very few realize how far south southeastern Alaska really is. A line drawn from the center of this section directly eastward will touch the British Isles, which are in exactly the same latitude.

00:05:32 It may surprise you to know that Juneau, the capital city of Alaska, located here in this section, is not a remote northern settlement, but in reality lies on almost the same latitude as the great city of London, and is just as easy to get to.

00:05:48 In climate as well as general appearance, southeastern Alaska is like our own New England states, such as Maine, New Hampshire, or Vermont. It may seem hard to believe, but nevertheless true, that Washington, D.C., the capital of our country, gets colder in winter than does Juneau, the capital of Alaska.

00:06:08 What stole my heart for Alaska was the first sight of its main approach by water, a beautiful sheltered stretch called the Inside Passage. In the last ice age, the same channels along which vessels moved so peacefully were mighty glaciers.

00:06:28 When milder climates came, the ice melted away. Ocean water flowed into the carved out fjords, and now myriads of islands, some large, others small, but all beautiful, please the eye of the beholders, clothed as they are in graceful trees.

00:06:44 Along the Inside Passage are Alaska's first cities. This is Juneau, the capital city, with about 6,000 inhabitants, and the chief source of employment is one of the world's greatest engineering projects, the famous Alaska-Juneau gold mine.

00:06:58 Dense forests and smiling meadows make this region a veritable promised land. Fine government roads wind through these woods and meadows, and it almost startles a stranger motoring along to suddenly find himself in a wonderful dairying country, dotted with modern farm buildings and cattle as fine-looking as any similar seen in New England or in the beautiful Swiss or Tirelese Alps.

00:07:28 When I first saw this scene, if I wasn't sure I was in Alaska, I would have thought that I was back in Tyrol, where I spent so many happy years. Hundreds of waterfalls come down through the lanes of green and a virgin forest. The natural beauty of this part of Alaska equals anything of scenic grandeur in the whole world.

00:07:58 I am called the Glacier Priest on account of my years of research in the glaciers of Europe and North America. Nestled in the mighty mountains of southeastern Alaska are glaciers that make the largest ones in Europe look small.

00:08:21 Alaskan glaciers like this one move slowly towards the sea. When they reach the sea, the tremendous pressure exerted by millions of tons of ice from the back causes them to crack and break with the noise of thunder, and crashing walls of glacier ice float away as icebergs to melt and disappear in the deep fjords where they are born.

00:08:41 Most people think that all icebergs form this way, but to our surprise we found that the biggest ones pop up suddenly from below the surface. Here comes one from a thousand feet below.

00:09:03 It takes years of patience and waiting to get such spectacular pictures. Here is one I waited eight years to get.

00:09:29 This is just another of the surprising paradoxes of Alaska. To find these huge glaciers in the gentle southeastern section when one would expect to find them farther north.

00:09:41 Leaving southeastern Alaska, I will now take you to the section being enclosed by the moving line. The line has enclosed what are known as the Alaska Peninsula and the Aleutian Islands, the most spectacular area of it. A festoon of fire dotted with dozens of giant active volcanoes. A long finger-like sweep of ash-covered desolation and endless tundra. I call this my own Alaska, for here were spent many years of exciting adventure.

00:10:09 The mysterious solutions are the cradle of the storms. On one side, warmed by the Japanese current. On the other, chilled by the cold Arctic currents coursing down through the Bering Sea. These differently temperatured bodies of water set into motion air masses that sweep from west to east and influence the weather of the whole northern hemisphere.

00:10:31 Here is the now-dying Valley of Ten Thousand Smokes. In 1912, a cataclysmic eruption destroyed all of its plant and animal life. I have explored this region with my party on land, sea, and air, all seasons of the year in six different expeditions. Fire-borne monsters rise gracefully into the Alaskan sky, like this Shishaldon, shaped like Fujiyama, the most beautiful volcano on Unimak Island.

00:10:57 And further north on the Alaska Peninsula is the largest active crater in the world, Aniakchak, with its devastating eruption pits miles in area, sending steam and gas and ashes into the air. I made this great crater the scene of several years of exploration, and with my party descended to the very bottom of these steaming pits to discover new scientific secrets. These numerous craters furnish the reason for stark desolation such as this.

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00:11:56 There are only a few inhabitants on the Alaska Peninsula and Aleutian Islands, for this land is not ready for inhabitants yet. Great changes occur every so often. It is unstable and still in the making, and the day is far off when it will be permanently formed and beautiful.

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00:12:54 Salmon drifting downstream with the current soon after they are born. Once they reach the waters of the Gulf of Alaska, they vanish completely, somewhere in the Pacific, no one knows where.

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00:13:16 In May, millions of full-grown salmon school together in the North Pacific to begin their great migration, known to Alaskans as the Salmon Run. Many of these millions find their way to the better-known fishing grounds of southeastern Alaska and British Columbia, but a still greater number travel northward to the Gulf of Alaska and the Bering Sea.

00:13:36 Of the millions that travel northward each year, one thing is always certain, they never fail to appear first at a group of islands known as the Shumagans, situated near the middle of the Alaska Peninsula. The term millions is not exaggerated. For example, in 1932, the run of salmon that emerged from the deep sea near the Shumagans measured 12 miles wide and continued past a given point for 28 days.

00:14:03 It seems strange that these salmon should come first to the Shumagan Islands instead of seeking the more direct way to the Bering Sea through the passages to the westward between the Aleutian Islands. But science offers a reason. At one time, the Alaska Peninsula was a group of islands, and the water passages between them were the shortest routes from the Pacific Ocean to the Bering Sea coastlines.

00:14:27 For countless generations, the salmon are believed to have used these short passages. Volcanic eruptions have since filled in these passages, but the salmon have not had time to form a new habit and still persist in following the old instinctive routes. Finding themselves blocked by the solid dry land of the Alaska Peninsula, the salmon now turn westward. A new habit is teaching them to find their way into the Bering Sea through the passages between the Aleutian Islands.

00:14:58 When the salmon which have evaded the fishermen finally enter the freshwater streams, the streams in which they were born, then one of the great epic struggles of nature begins. Day after day, week after week, for hundreds and even thousands of miles, they battle their way upstream against swift currents, seeking quiet waters where they may spawn.

00:15:19 In the soft water of the ocean, these fish were in the finest of condition. Now in freshwater streams, they stop eating entirely, lose their beautiful silver color, take on brilliant hues of pink, red, and purple, and they are safe from fishermen's nets, for they are totally unfit for human consumption. Some of the streams are so shallow, they travel for days and weeks with their backs out of water.

00:15:46 Their particular mission in the economy of creation is to see that their species is perpetuated, even at the cost of their own lives. Next year, their offspring will swim downstream and lose themselves in the ocean. But the adult salmon, now fighting against the swift current, will never return, for as soon as the spawning is done, they die.

00:16:07 Self-preservation, proverbially the first law of nature, in this instance becomes the law of the preservation of the species.

00:16:15 As they fight their way upstream, a grotesque physical change takes place.

00:16:24 A peculiar overshot and underslung jaw with big teeth develops and grows longer day by day. These powerful jaws enable them to dig holes in the gravels and mud at spots in which they choose to lay their eggs. No longer are they able to feed.

00:16:38 Battered and worn, they rest occasionally under a river bank or in some quiet eddy before again attacking the rapids and falls and swift current ahead.

00:17:09 Not anywhere, nor at their own seeming convenience, do they stop and spawn. A God-given instinct drives them on and unerringly do they obey.

00:17:20 If the salmon deposited their eggs at random on the bottom of the riverbeds where the riverbeds would freeze, the eggs would be destroyed. Ice crystals would pierce them like so many little pins.

00:17:32 With the cunning of God-given instinct, they drive onward until they reach a spot such as this where bubbling springs come up out of the mud and gravel.

00:17:40 Instinct has taught them that water coming directly from a spring does not freeze in winter and here the eggs will be safe.

00:17:49 When the eggs are finally laid and cared for, the salmon swim a little distance from the nest and fan the water with their tail fins, causing a layer of mud to settle and completely hide the eggs from sight.

00:18:01 Thus securing them from enemies and serving as an incubator until they hatch out the following spring.

00:18:10 Many never live to complete this inspiring work nature has given them. The battle upstream is too much. They die on the way.

00:18:18 The last act of this great tragedy is when the spawned out salmon lie on the riverbank, dying that their species might live.

00:18:26 Then bears, seagulls, hawks, foxes and other carrying eating creatures flock to the scene.

00:18:33 For them the feast of the year and soon dispose of the spawned out salmon.

00:18:41 Seward thought he had bought a land of gold. He had. But it was really these silver millions that made Alaska so valuable to America and the world.

00:18:54 Each year from February to May, hundreds of men leave Pacific Coast ports and soon spread out on the coastlines of Alaska, busily preparing for the salmon run that is to come.

00:19:06 For it is during these great runs the salmon are caught by the fishermen.

00:19:11 As soon as melting snow and ice permit, salmon traps such as this one are driven at strategic points.

00:19:18 At points where the salmon have been most bountiful in previous years.

00:19:23 These salmon traps, consisting of a long double row of piles which stretch out from the land and terminate in another group of box-like in arrangement,

00:19:31 are the most effective and economical means of catching large numbers of fish at one time.

00:19:36 Between the piles, strong nets are fixed. Then a matter of waiting until exciting words flash by radio from the Shumagan Islands, the salmon are ready.

00:19:46 All country swings into action. All of Alaska becomes salmon conscious and rightfully, for it means work for over 21,000 men.

00:20:00 Fast tenders are dispatched from the canneries to the traps, which become filled suddenly with wriggling silver flashes by the thousand as if by magic.

00:20:09 There is nothing to keep these fish from swimming out once they are caught.

00:20:15 Only the instinct never to turn back keeps thousands of salmon in the traps.

00:20:20 Once the salmon have started to run, the canneries must operate at a terrific pace, 24 hours a day.

00:20:28 The fish traps must be emptied of their flashing finny hordes at least once a day to make way for more trapped thousands.

00:20:35 This work is known as brailing.

00:20:38 When the cannery tender is pulled alongside the trap, a scoop net is lowered into the heart and soon the wriggling mass is transferred to the hold and decks of the tender or accompanying scowls.

00:20:48 Truly a dramatic sight.

00:20:50 These traps catch as many as 35,000 sleek and meaty salmon per day.

00:21:05 This trap fishing, of course, is only one of the methods used to catch the millions of salmon.

00:21:31 Other fishermen in small, fast, sane boats armed with nets sweep the seas where the salmon are known to be moving.

00:21:38 The salmon run is short, lasting from the middle of May until the middle of August, and every means is taken to catch as many fish as possible.

00:21:48 From the time the salmon are caught to the time when they are canned and cooked, only 24 hours is allowed by law.

00:21:54 Many of the salmon canneries allow only 12 hours for these operations to ensure the freshness and quality of their packs.

00:22:02 Some salmon traps are as many as 80 miles away from the home cannery.

00:22:06 Hence it is a steady race for the captains of the speedy trap tenders and sane boats which transport the fish.

00:22:12 Truly there are no more courageous skippers to be found elsewhere on the seven seas.

00:22:17 Day and night, at top speed, they plunge through blinding fogs, through storms, sleet and rain,

00:22:24 along coastlines which abound with treacherous rocks, reefs, and conditions more unfavorable to safe navigation than in any other place the world over.

00:22:34 Imagine yourself for the moment here on the tender Trojan, approaching a typical Aleutian cannery at Falls Pass on Unimak Island.

00:22:46 The whistle sends the ever-present seagulls into flurries of screeching excitement.

00:22:51 For them it is a dinner bell announcing the approach of a square meal.

00:22:55 All during the season they flock to the canneries and wait for the cleanings of the fish on which they feed.

00:23:04 .

00:23:24 Once alongside the fish house dock, the tender crew loses no time in transferring its cargo of freshly caught salmon.

00:23:31 For as soon as one tender is unloaded, another to take its place.

00:23:35 A sane boat fresh from the open seas, or an independent fisherman with his catch.

00:23:40 No human hands touch the fish. A mechanical elevator moves them rapidly into the sorting bins in the fish house.

00:24:01 A machine almost human, the iron chink, cuts off the heads and tails, cleans and in some cases molds the fish to fit the cans in a jetty.

00:24:32 .

00:24:44 From the fish house the salmon travel in pure, clear spring water to the canning house.

00:24:50 .

00:25:02 As thousands of fish are cleaned and delivered to the canning house hour after hour,

00:25:07 there must be thousands of cans to imprison the delicate flavor for which the Alaska salmon has found universal renown.

00:25:14 Ingenious machines such as this one have been developed to reform the cans,

00:25:20 attach and seal the bottoms and deliver them in rapid succession to the canning house nearby.

00:25:26 .

00:25:46 .

00:26:05 Through years during which the salmon industry was growing in Alaska,

00:26:09 can manufacturers found it advantageous to ship partially formed cans to the fisheries.

00:26:15 For a time the cans were made entirely by hand at the canneries, fashioned from sheets of tin, but this method is now little used.

00:26:23 Finally the idea of shipping partly manufactured cans was evolved by the can manufacturers.

00:26:29 Millions of these are now shipped to Alaska where they are completed at the canneries.

00:26:34 .

00:26:42 Filling machines are no less a wonder than the iron chink.

00:26:45 The salmon are placed on a conveyor at one end, sharp knives cut them into sections,

00:26:50 then they disappear into the depths of the machine.

00:26:53 When you next see them they emerge at another opening.

00:26:56 The salmon tucked neatly into cans, each can full containing the proper weight and choice cut of fish.

00:27:02 There is even a device which rejects cans that are underweight.

00:27:06 From the filler the salmon proceed to another machine known as the clincher.

00:27:10 Moving often at the amazing speed of 140 cans per minute,

00:27:14 the clincher puts the tops of the cans in place automatically.

00:27:18 .

00:27:25 Next along the route of travel is the vacuum sealing machine.

00:27:29 This receives the cans with clinched covers, sucks all the air out and seals the cans hermetically.

00:27:35 To this machine developed by can manufacturers we owe a great debt.

00:27:40 For without its benefits and its perfection in sealing cans so that no air can reach the contents,

00:27:45 no food could be preserved in this manner.

00:27:48 Rolling merrily onward the cans pass through a washing machine.

00:27:52 .

00:28:03 Then nimble rackers scoop them up and place them on the cooking trays.

00:28:07 .

00:28:32 Large cavern like steam cookers known as retorts stand ready to receive tray loads of freshly canned salmon.

00:28:39 .

00:28:57 For an hour and a half the salmon cook under heavy steam pressure,

00:29:00 simmering in their own juice until done to a queen's taste.

00:29:04 .

00:29:25 Day and night during the season the cannery is a beehive of activity.

00:29:29 Continuous cleaning, canning and cooking of many varieties of salmon.

00:29:33 In addition to these canneries on land there are even floating canneries.

00:29:37 Ships that are equipped with canning machinery and move from place to place following the fish.

00:29:42 .

00:30:03 Constant inspection eliminates the slightest leak in any can.

00:30:07 Cans properly sealed contain no air and this ensures the continued freshness and purity of the salmon.

00:30:14 Usually in 12 short hours salmon fresh from the sea are sealed fresh in the can and set out to cool.

00:30:21 .

00:30:47 Modern labeling machines make quick work of their task.

00:30:51 There are several varieties of salmon and most canneries have a special label for each brand.

00:30:56 You may wonder how the labelers can distinguish the various varieties which are canned each day

00:31:01 and set out to cool thousands tier upon tier.

00:31:04 The answer is simple.

00:31:06 The salmon are canned in batches, one variety at a time.

00:31:10 As the cans pass through the clinching machine a special marking for each variety is stamped on the cover of each can

00:31:17 and thus these labelers have no trouble in putting the right labels on the right cans.

00:31:22 .

00:31:39 Sealed and boxed the salmon are now ready for shipment to the markets of the world.

00:31:43 Canada, Europe, especially England and the British Empire in general are Alaska's best customers

00:31:49 and our own country of course is the greatest consumer of all.

00:31:53 .

00:32:22 .

00:32:41 I still find many people who think that Alaska was a useless acquisition.

00:32:45 I can merely adduce a few simple facts in answer.

00:32:49 Each year the original purchase price of Alaska has come out of the great 590,000 square miles of territory

00:32:56 in its gold output alone.

00:32:58 The furs of Alaska have yielded millions.

00:33:01 Farming and dairying are now succeeding in the Matanuska Valley.

00:33:05 There are almost inexhaustible deposits of coal, oil, sulfur, iron, copper

00:33:11 and other metals and minerals worth millions.

00:33:14 Its forests would supply the world indefinitely with pulp.

00:33:18 But even if Alaska had none of these tremendous resources and supplies of raw materials

00:33:23 it would have been worth its price merely for the wealth of its adjacent waters.

00:33:28 For the salmon industry grosses each year in canned salmon alone

00:33:33 several times the original purchase price of the whole territory.

00:33:37 Truly Seward signed for a bargain.

00:33:41 Not Seward's folly but Seward's far-sighted wisdom.

00:33:45 The End