The Great Alaska Silver Rush

The lure of gold made Alaska famous, but to fishermen in Resurrection Bay the metal most worth pursuing is silver—the silver that glints in the scales of the silver salmon, Alaska's gamest gamefish. Each year fishermen from all over the U.S. and Canada journey to Seward for the annual Silver Salmon Derby, and this year more turned up than ever before. In the hurrying fleet of boats shown here as they roared out of Seward harbor on one of the derby's two successive weekends are some of the more than 3,000 anglers who came from 28 states to try their luck. But it was a Seward man, Herb Stetson, who hooked the $3,000 prize with a record-breaking silver that weighed 16 pounds 6 ounces and seemed a fair match for a small-sized blonde.

TWO PHOTOS

HARRY GROOM