The first newspaper printed in Fairbanks, the Fairbanks Miner, debuted in May 1903, and included this editorial, which condemned unregulated moose hunting and urged conservation:
STOP KILLING MOOSE
The game law of Alaska ought to be more strictly enforced. Its liberal provisions permit travelers and prospectors to kill game needed for their own use, but this will not justify the promiscuous killing of moose for sale. Nor will it make it less brutal for men to run poor heavily laden moose cows down in the deep snow and slaughter them and their unborn young for dog feed, as is too often done. Do not forget that there will be travelers and prospectors in the Tanana valley next winter.
In arguing that hunters should not kill wantonly, the Fairbanks Miner editor reminded readers that "there will be travelers and prospectors in the Tanana valley next winter." Ironically, his editorial omitted the subsistence needs of Athabascan people who had been in the valley for countless winters already.
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Kenai Peninsula moose |
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The first photograph of Fairbanks |
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The first newspaper in Fairbanks |
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