July-August, 2021
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Alaskan History
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July-August, 2021 This issue’s cover is a P. S. Hunt photograph of Keystone Canyon, just north of Valdez, from Addison Powell’s "Trailing and Camping in Alaska, Ten Years Spent Exploring, Hunting and Prospecting in Alaska 1898 to 1909,” published in 1909 by Newold Publishing Company, NY.
Powell was a guide for Captain William Abercrombie’s 1898 Copper River Exploring Expedition. Keystone Canyon was named by Abercrombie on that trip, presumably for the Keystone state, Pennsylvania. The Lowe River traverses the steep-sided three mile long canyon, with numerous waterfalls lining the walls of the canyon.
Hunt’s view was most likely from the historic Valdez Trail, built by the U.S. Army in 1899 to offer a glacierfree route to the Klondike goldfields.
The original photograph can be seen at the Library of Congress:
h t t p s : / / w w w. l o c . g o v / re s o u rc e / ppmsc.01567/
INSIDE THIS ISSUE: • Dispatching the U.S. Army to the Territory of Alaska - From the book, Narratives of Exploration in Alaska: “Wherever he went he found that somewhere or somehow the military branch of the Government had with wise, unerring foresight established posts for his protection and relief.” • The Clay Street Cemetery, Fairbanks Pioneers’ Final Resting Place - In many cases, these graves are the only remaining physical evidence of once-prominent Alaskan miners, madames, riverboat captains, postmistresses, roadhouse managers, ministers, bankers, doctors, lawyers, and others. • Alaska Nellie, Peerless Alaska Railroad Hostess - Alaska Nellie was one of the territory’s most colorful and beloved personalities, a larger-than-life adventuress whose exploits would easily fill a number of exciting books, beginning with her own autobiography. • Population, Resources and Industries of Alaska, by Ivan Petroff, 1880 - Petroff’s two-year compilation of information about Alaska was published in 1884 as part of the Tenth Census, giving the U.S. government its first comprehensive survey of the new territory. • Jujiro Wada, the Samurai Musher - There are many strange and unusual stories in the annals of northern travel, but one of the most fascinating concerns an enigmatic Japanese explorer and adventurer named Jujiro Wada who travelled under the northern lights. • USGS Topographer-in-Charge, R. Harvey Sargent - “Topographer-in-charge involved making surveys in the field, preparing them for publication, supervision of special maps in the office, and following them through reproduction.” • U.S. Navy Aerial Surveys 1926-1929 - In the winter of 1928-29, at the request of the U. S. Geological Survey and the Forest service, the U. S. Navy photographed about 12,000 square miles of difficult country with speed, precision, and high technical competence.
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Alaskan History July-Aug, 2021 VOLUME 3, NO. 4 ISBN 9798521377800
Published bimonthly by Northern Light Media
MEMORABLE PHOTOGRAPHS • ABOVE: AT FT. LISCUM, 1917 INTERESTING SCENES FROM AROUND THE NORTH - 6
ALASKAN HISTORY
U.S. Navy Aerial Surveys 1926-1929 In the winter of 1928-29 the Geological Survey joined with the Forest Service in requesting the Navy Department to send another expedition to continue the work in tracts that had not been photographed. The Navy Department, recognizing the need of these bureaus and the excellent training that the work afforded for its own members, assigned the necessary personnel and equipment. This unit photographed about 12,000 square miles of difficult country with speed, precision, and high technical competence, and the resulting films were turned over to the Geological Survey for cartographic use. Article begins on page 40
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Photograph from an article by R. Harvey Sargent, ‘Photographing Alaska from the Air,’ which ran in the March-April, 1930 issue of The Military Engineer
July-August, 2021 DISPATCHING THE U. S. ARMY
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TO THE TERRITORY OF ALASKA From the book, Narratives of Exploration in Alaska: “Wherever he went he found that somewhere or somehow the military branch of the Government had with wise, unerring foresight established posts for his protection and relief.”
THE CLAY STREET CEMETERY
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FAIRBANKS PIONEERS’ FINAL RESTING PLACE In many cases, these graves are the only remaining physical evidence of once-prominent Alaskan miners, madames, riverboat captains, postmistresses, roadhouse managers, ministers, bankers, doctors, lawyers, and others. ALASKA NELLIE
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PEERLESS ALASKA RAILROAD HOSTESS Alaska Nellie was one of the territory’s most colorful and beloved personalities, a larger-than-life adventuress whose exploits would easily fill a number of exciting books, beginning with her own autobiography. POPULATION, INDUSTRIES AND RESOURCES OF ALASKA
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BY IVAN PETROFF, 1880 Petroff’s two-year compilation of information about Alaska was published in 1884 as part of the Tenth Census, giving the U.S. government its first comprehensive survey of the new territory. JUJIRO WADA
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THE SAMURAI MUSHER There are many strange and unusual stories in the annals of northern travel, but one of the most fascinating concerns an enigmatic Japanese explorer and adventurer named Jujiro Wada who travelled under the northern lights. USGS TOPOGRAPHER IN CHARGE
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R. HARVEY SARGENT “Topographer-in-charge involved making surveys in the field, preparing them for publication, supervision of special maps in the office, and following them through reproduction.”
It was a frolic to drift along the shore, stopping every mile or so to make a plane-table station, and pitching our camp on the beach whenever night overtook us. ~R. Harvey Sargent
Cover Notes, In this Issue . . . . . . . 1
Memorable Photographs . . . . . 6 - 7
Table of Contents . . . . . . . . . . . 2 - 3
Articles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .8 to 39
Publisher’s Note . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
Special Feature . . . . . . . . . . . 40 - 47
Magazine Notes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
Resources used in this issue . . . . 48
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Alaskan History
Alaskan History
Publisher’s Note
Magazine July-Aug, 2021
Bookmarking Content
Volume 3, Number 4
As editor of this magazine, I have been fortunate to receive many excellent articles from first-rate historians and writers, but the bulk of what runs in each issue is still the result of my own research and writing, which happens primarily online. I enjoy the work immensely, as every issue’s articles seem to point to even more topics for future research, and I save the links in a library of bookmarks on my computer.
Published by Northern Light Media 1255 So. Ridgecrest Rd. Wasilla, Alaska 99623 (907) 521-5245 www.Alaskan-History.com Email AlaskanHistory@gmail.com Facebook Page https://www.facebook.com/ alaskanhistory/ Facebook Group https://www.facebook.com/groups/ AlaskanHistory/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/HistoryAlaskan Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ akhistorymagazine/
Selecting the topics for each issue is always an interesting foray into my saved bookmarks, a collection which has been many years in the making, updated as I come across new information and resources. I cross-file most of the links three or four times, labeling them with future searches in mind. I am grateful to have an unlimited online supply of digitized books, government reports, newspaper archives, photographs, articles, essays, dissertations, interviews, memoirs, biographies, obituaries…. The resources for this issue, listed on page 48, give an idea of the types of bookmarks I save, supplemented by my library of old Alaskan books—which now fill over a dozen bookcases. Original sources are my hands-down favorite research tools, and having so much of our history in its original format, digitized for easy and widespread access at the click of a few computer keys, just makes me smile. Enjoy this issue!
Helen Helen Hegener, Publisher • Northern Light Media www.northernlightmedia.com • Alaskan History Magazine www.alaskan-history.com • Alaskan History Magazine Newsletter www.substack.com/alaskanhistory
ISBN #9798521377800
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July-August, 2021 News and Notes • Email Newsletter Alaskan History Magazine offers a weekly email newsletter, free to everyone, or for a $5.00/month subscription you’ll receive all of the articles from every issue of the magazine, full access to the back issue archives, weekly updates, and other features. A weekly book excerpt and all of the articles from the first two years of the magazine (2019-2020) are available for anyone to read free at www.substack.com/alaskanhistory
Inspiring Alaskans
• A Storefront for Alaskan History Magazine at the ecommerce site Shopify makes ordering issues easy. https://northern-light-media.myshopify.com • Resources used in researching the articles for each issue are shared on page 48, with links to the websites, PDFs and video and digital media. • The Facebook group: www.facebook.com/groups/AlaskanHistory/ • Social Media Alaskan History Magazine is active on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. For information visit the website at www.alaskan-history.com • Back Issues of Alaskan History Magazine are always available, and every bimonthly issue is 48 pages, full color, and ad-free. A complete set makes a great gift for a friend or your local library or museum! https://northern-lightmedia.myshopify.com/collections/special-offer-back-issues-full-set • Books from Northern Light Media focus on the history of the North: • The Alaska Railroad: 1902-1923 • Alaskan Roadhouses • The 1935 Matanuska Colony Project • Matanuska Colony Barns • Alaskan Sled Dog Tales • The Beautiful Matanuska Valley • The First Iditarod • The All Alaska Sweepstakes • The Yukon Quest Trail Other titles at the website www.northernlightmedia.com
Evan Jones Evan Jones, known as the "Father of Alaska Coal Mining,” was respected as a man and a coal miner for more than fifty years.
Born in Wales in 1880 and orphaned at a young age, Jones took a correspondence course in coal mining from the U.S. Bureau of Mines, and after many years of working became superintendent of the Eska and Chickaloon Mines, east of Palmer. In 1920, with several partners, he opened the Evan Jones C o a l C o m p a n y, w h i c h developed into the largest coal mine in Alaska. He also eventually managed Cap Lathrop's large coal mine near Healy
The spirit of Evan Jones inspires every issue of Alaskan History Magazine! For information visit:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/AlaskanHistory/ https://twitter.com/HelenHegener https://www.instagram.com/akhistorymagazine/
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www.alaskan-history.com or find us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.
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Alaskan History
Memorable Photographs Capturing Alaska’s History on Glass Plates and Film
The first article in this issue focuses on the early Army forts in Alaska; these photographs are from three of those forts:
Right: Cooks of Company E, Ft. Egbert. [Univ. Of Alaska Fairbanks, Farnsworth Family Papers. UAF-1972-175-CO] Below: Men and reindeer, used for hauling supplies, at Ft. Gibbon, at Tanana, the midpoint of the telegraph line between Eagle and Nome. [ASL-P008-21] Page 7, top left: Boy wearing uniform, Fort Liscum, ca. 1917. [Alaska State Library, Gerold E. Luebben Collection. ASL-P276-036] Page 7, top right: Soldiers dressed in protective gear for bayonet practice, Fort Liscum, 1917. Tower in background is part of the firehouse. [Univ. of Alaska Fairbanks, Jim Oyler Collection. UAF-1986-37-27] Page 7, bottom: Dog corral, sleds in foreground, Ft. Gibbon, March 6, 1913. [ASL-P78-05]
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Alaska’s Digital Archives: https://vilda.alaska.edu
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Entrance to Fort Gibbon, at Tanana on the Yukon River. WAMCATS station on the right. No date.
Soldiers at the U. S. Army barracks at Fort Davis, east of Nome, ca. 1900 [Eric A. Hegg photo]
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Above: Fort Liscum, near Valdez. 1913. Right: Fort Gibbon at Tanana, no date.
Dispatching the U. S. Army to the Territory of Alaska In 1900 the United States Government Printing Office produced a book titled “Narratives of Exploration in Alaska,” consisting mainly of the records of several expeditions into Alaska under the direction and control of the military arm of the Government “…the expeditions of Raymond, 1869; Howard, 1875; Petrof, 1880; Schwatka, 1883; Ray, 1884; Abercrombie, 1884; Allen, 1885; Ray, 1897; E. Hazard Wells, 1897; Ray and Richardson, 1898; Abercrombie, 1898; Glenn, 1898, 1899; Richardson, 1899; Abercrombie, 1899; Lieutenant Herron, 1899. In the first chapter, titled ‘Settlement of the Frontier,’ the author notes, “Since the adoption of our Constitution it has been the uniform policy of the Government to foster the development of the country by exploring and opening up trails for emigrants and prospectors, convoying their supplies, aiding in the transmission of their mail, in all things extending a helping hand to them, and in keeping step with the advance of American civilization.” After a briefly recounting early explorers blazing trails, emigrants crossing the prairies, and pioneer families settling the frontier west of the Mississippi, the author notes, “Wherever he went he found that somewhere or somehow the military branch of the Government had with wise, unerring foresight established posts for his protection and relief. The Army of the United States has always been the advance guard of civilization on this continent.” Even with the extensive explorations made by the Army in Alaska, and their involvement in peace-keeping missions across the territory, it was not until the discovery of gold in the
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Haines and Ft. William H. Seward, from Mt. Rippinsky. Tinted postcard, no date.
Klondike triggered a rush of prospectors, miners, and the opportunity-seekers which always accompanied such strikes, for an order to be made marking the beginnings of continuous operations by the U.S. Army in Alaska. In August, 1897, the following telegram was received by Captain P. H. Ray, Eighth Infantry, Seattle, from the War Department in Washington, D.C.: “The President sends you, with Lieutenant Richardson, to the Alaska gold field, to which so many are flocking, to investigate and report, as fully and frequently as you can, the condition of affairs and make such recommendations as you may deem best. Make your first headquarters at Circle City and change location as you may find advantageous. The following points especially to be covered in your report: “Are troops necessary there, and if so, for what purpose; where should they be located, how outfitted, and what facilities for communication with the coast settlements are practicable in winter? “Are the civil authorities affording reasonable protection to life and property? “Are the people disposed to be law-abiding or otherwise? “Where are the people locating, and in what numbers, and what is the probable degree of permanence of the different settlements? “Is there food in the country for the population to winter there? “These and all other subjects—military, civil, and commercial—that will be of use and interest will be covered by your investigations. Keep constantly in mind the importance of having your report accurate and reliable. Observe carefully and accurately. Do not form hasty judgements or make hasty reports. The President has sent you in confidence of your ability and as a means of information to him. You are expected to justify this confidence. “By order of the President: R. A. Alger, Secretary of War”
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The rapid increase of gold-seekers and travellers on the Yukon River resulted in the establishment of a military post at St. Michael, near where the Yukon empties into the Bering Sea, in October, 1897: “By authority of the President, the land known as St. Michael Island, Alaska, with all contiguous land and islands within 100 miles of the location of the flagstaff of the present garrison on that island, is set aside from the public lands of the Territory of Alaska and declared a military reservation.” Six months later, in February, 1898, a similar edict created Fort William H. Seward near Haines: “With the approval of the Acting Secretary of War, a military district to be known as the District of Lynn Canal is hereby established, embracing Lynn Canal, in southeastern Alaska, and all lands adjacent thereto, extending to the international boundary and within 50 miles in other directions.” Other Army forts soon followed, including Fort Egbert at Eagle; Fort Gibbon at Tanana, and Fort Davis at Nome, all in 1899; and Fort Liscum at Valdez, in 1900. There were other camps and posts across Alaska to serve specific areas and purposes, but these six forts were the primary centers of military activity in the territory’s critical early years. ~•~
Fort Davis, near Nome. No date.
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Alaskan History
Clay Street Cemetery is a cemetery located in Fairbanks, Alaska that is on the National Register of Historic Places. It was established in 1903 and contains the remains of many of Fairbanks' founding pioneers, including Mary Pedro, wife of Felix Pedro, the miner who discovered the gold that led to the city's founding.
The Clay Street Cemetery Fairbanks’ Final Resting Place for Alaskan Pioneers The Clay Street Cemetery was established in 1903 as the first cemetery of the new town of Fairbanks, founded two years before. Located on the southeastern edge of the original townsite, the cemetery officially closed in 1938, when the City of Fairbanks established the Birch Hill Cemetery, which was, at the time, far from the actual city limits. Clay Street Cemetery is located at the end of 5th Avenue, bounded on the south by 7th Avenue, on the north by 4th Avenue, and to the east it faces the Steese Expressway, with the Chena River beyond, in the historic section known as ”Eastside." In 1982 the cemetery was listed on the National Park Service’s National Register of Historic Places, which noted: “The significance of the Clay Street Cemetery (first in the new settlement of Fairbanks) lies in the fact that it holds the last remains of many outstanding Alaskans. Through their tireless efforts these pioneers laid the foundation for Alaska’s second largest city. Many of these men and women were not just socially, politically, or economically prominent, they were a cross section of Alaska's late 19th and early 20th Century collective heritage. The pioneers who arrived in the Northland during the great gold strikes—who experienced extreme adversities of weather and the vagaries of frontier mining boom camp life have consecrated this ground. Clay Street Cemetery documents a time, a place, and people who were significant in the vast Interior of Alaska.” More about the people buried there from the National Register of Historic Places: “The Clay Street burials represent a broad spectrum of race, creed, geographic origin, and avocations—much more than might be expected. The people buried at Clay Street were essentially rugged and typical sourdough prospectors, miners, craftsmen and itinerant
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July-August, 2021 frontier traders. They also represent (a surprising number of) men and women who made important contributions to law, religion, medicine, metalurgy, science, commerce, linguistics, government, public service, writing, art, publishing, and journalism. At least 50 of the deceased buried here epitomized the unique frontier expertise of riverboat captains, freighters, stagecoach drivers, and dog-sled mushers -- all of whom adapted to the specialization of this time and place. Of those who made contributions in this rich blend of history and significant events, more than half had been born before the end of the U.S. Civil War when the Nation still sought ‘Manifest Destiny’ in the Western Frontier beyond the Mississippi River. Most of them had arrived in Alaska in the later part of the 19th Century. “A high percentage of the people buried in Clay Street Cemetery were associated with events that represent broad contributions to the patterns of our history. In many cases, these graves are the only remaining physical evidence of once-prominent Alaskan miners, prospectors, madames, riverboat captains, postmistresses, roadhouse managers, ministers, bankers, doctors, lawyers, and others who contributed in some measure to this highly significant evolutionary era. This Fairbanks cemetery, therefore, represents an archival repository of pioneering people -- both substantial as well as commonplace citizens -representative, in large measure, of a most important time and place. It constitutes the only known physical record extant of at least 100 pioneers who participated in some aspect of Alaska's greatest and most fabulous gold rush era.” The National Register goes on to list the names of almost three dozen of the individuals in a cross-section of the graves, with short one- or two-line biographies which give some idea of the great diversity interred there (link below). ~•~ https://npgallery.nps.gov/GetAsset/b3843e48-3a94-47c3-b358-39f8d1bec015
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Alaskan History “There were possibilities of an extensive business at this place for at least three years, as I saw it, and now I would be needing a dog team and dog kennels, a place for harnesses and a small building in which to cook dog food. On the mountain above the lodge I cut logs for the kennels and the cookhouse." ~Nellie Neal Lawing in her autobiography, Alaska Nellie
Alaska Nellie Nellie Neal Lawing Peerless Hostess for the Alaska Railroad Alaska Nellie was one of the territory’s most colorful and beloved personalities, a largerthan-life adventuress whose exploits would easily fill a number of exciting books, beginning with her own autobiography. She was reportedly quite sweet-natured and ladylike, but she was also a hard-working, sharp-shooting, fearlessly independent entrepreneur who carved a place for herself at a time when that was a difficult challenge for anyone, let alone a diminutive woman with oversized dreams. Nellie Trosper Neal, who would become familiar to Alaskans as “Alaska Nellie,” arrived in Seward on July 3, 1915, just as construction of the Alaska Railroad was getting underway. Nellie wrote in her autobiography, Alaska Nellie, that she set out to seek a contract “to run the eating houses on the southern end of the Alaska Railroad,” and she described her effort: “On my first time out on an Alaskan trail, I had walked one hundred fifty miles and as usual was alone. This accomplishment, in itself, might have satisfied some, but I was out here in this great new country to contribute something to others, and I felt this means could best be served by becoming the ‘Fred Harvey’ of the government railroad in Alaska.” Likely due in part to her plucky approach, she was awarded a lucrative government contract to run a roadhouse at mile 44.9, a scenic location which she promptly named Grandview. Nellie was the first woman to be awarded such a contract. Her wage agreement with the Alaska Engineering Commission was to provide food and lodging for the government employees; her skill with a rifle filled out the menu, and her gifted storytelling kept her guests highly entertained. According to the terms of her contract, Nellie could purchase supplies from the government commissary, her freight would be delivered at no
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July-August, 2021 charge, and she would be paid fifty cents per meal and one dollar per night for lodging. The government employees on the railroad paid her with vouchers, which she turned in monthly for payment. Nellie described the accommodations at Grandview in her book, Alaska Nellie: “The house was small but comfortable. A large room with thirteen bunks, used as sleeping quarters for the men, was just above the dining room. A small room above the kitchen served as my quarters. To the rear of the building a stream of clear, cold water flowed down from the mountain and was piped into the kitchen. Nature was surely in a lavish mood when she created the beauty of the surroundings of this place. The timber-clad mountains, the flower-dotted valley, the irresistible charm of the continuous stretches of mountains and valleys was something in which to revel.” One harrowing event Nellie’s life occurred in the dark cold of winter. She generally used her dog team for trapping along the corridor which would later become the Seward Highway, but her team would play an important role in one of the major events in Nellie’s life. She tells the story in her autobiography, setting the stage with a description of a blizzard raging in the mountains, a mail carrier overdue, and the brief daylight passing: “A few hours of daylight was all we had and the Alaskan night settled down by 2 o’clock in the afternoon. The telephone rang and I was advised the mail had left Tunnel at 9 a.m. with a seven-mile journey by dog team to Grandview, the summit, and another five miles to Hunter. What a day to be on the trail! And still no sign of the mail carrier and five hours had passed since he left Tunnel.
Alaska Nellie’s Grandview Roadhouse, Alaska Railroad mile 44.9, 1915
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Alaskan History “Five more hours went by and still no one arrived. During the next hour I decided to hitch up the dogs and go in search of the man, for I judged he must be in trouble. “I left at 8 p.m., at the height of the storm, after putting a rabbit-skin robe, shovel, lantern and snowshoes on the sled. As I drove the dogs around the mountain where the howling north wind hit us, it was almost unbearable. The dogs refused to go and turned back to the sled. By putting on my snowshoes and breaking trail ahead of them, I urged them on and on. “As we entered Hell’s Acres, we encountered a large snowdrift covering the trail. After working our way over this, the dogs started on a run. They had scented the mail carrier’s dogs! They couldn’t be far away, but the blinding snow and darkness made it impossible to see but a short distance. After working our way over another drift, we came to the carrier’s dogs lying in the snow. “Henry Collman, the carrier, was near the sled in a stooping position and nearing the point of becoming helpless, with his face, hands and feet frozen. His dogs were nearly exhausted. Hell’s Acres had him in its clutches and nearly claimed his life! I helped him on to my sled, but his dogs were not ready to go, as they were bedded down in the snow. At the approach of my dogs they growled and barked, but I was prepared to end their fight if they had attempted it. I put two of Henry’s dogs to my sled and turned the others loose to follow us. “After arriving at the roadhouse I helped Harry into the house and began rounding up the loose dogs and tying them up. Back in the house, I found Harry in great pain. He was thawing out too rapidly. After filling a washtub with snow, I packed his feet with snow, then applied snow packs to his face and hands, keeping him warm at the same time so the snow would melt fast. “He took hot drinks and I applied kerosene, which has a healing effect on frozen parts. After several hours be became drowsy and fell asleep. At 3 a.m. I hitched two of his dogs in with my team of five and went back for his sled and the mail. The wind ceased and the trail was covered with huge snowdrifts, but I made it through with snowshoes and the help of the noble dogs. “I hitched the dogs to his sled and trailed my sled behind, working on the gee pole. When I returned to the house, my patient was still sleeping. I decide to take the mail through to Hunter, where they were holding the train for it, when I last heard from them. The wires had since gone down and there had been no news since early evening. “The trail to Hunter was mostly down hill and was made without much difficulty, except for a few drifts. As I was driving up to the train, Lloyd Maitland, the conductor, said: ‘Here’s that damn mail carrier now! Say, dog musher, where have you been? What happened to you? We’ve been holding this train here all night!’ “‘Well, what a question to ask at a time like this!’ I said. ‘And besides, who do you think you’re talking to?’ “As I pulled back the hood of my parka, Maitland said: “‘For the love of dog mushers! If it isn’t Nellie Neal! How did you happen to get the mail? We’ve been trying to get you on the ‘phone. I guess the wires are down.’
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The railroad’s high trestle at mile 49. This is the area where Nellie rescued the dog team mail driver.
Over the years Nellie, known for her game hunting skills, built an impressive collection of trophies.
“‘I’m not guessing. I know they’re down,’ I replied. ‘Henry Collman, the carrier, didn’t get to Grandview, so I went after him and found him frozen down in Hell’s Acres. I took him to the roadhouse where he is now, and he was sleeping when I left. He was badly frozen.’ “The mail was put aboard and Mr. Maitland, the conductor on the train, gave me a receipt for the sacks and pouches, which I later learned contained valuable goods. “It was 7 a.m. when I returned home. Henry was still sleeping. After putting the dogs in the kennels and making a fire in the kitchen range, I sat down to rest. “When I attempted to get up, I staggered and nearly fell, but after breakfasting I felt better. I fed my patient and took food to the dogs. Henry’s first thought on waking was about the mail and his dogs. “‘You have nothing to worry about,’ I said to him. ‘Your dogs are in the kennels and the mail is in Seward.’ “‘Well, tell me, how did it get there?’ he asked. “‘If you must know, I took it. Here are the receipts for it that the conductor gave me.’ “Several days later, he and his dogs were taken to Anchorage where he entered the hospital and received treatment for frost bite. He fully recovered and left for his home in the ‘States.’ “Along this same trail where this young man came so near to losing his life, can be seen graves of several trail blazers who lost their lives at this point, where storms do their utmost
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Alaskan History to try the strength of man and beast. In the summer months a more beautiful place is hard to find. Acres of wild flowers cover the mountain slopes and valleys. “Toward the end of the year, at the approach of the holiday season and my third Christmas in Alaska, a small package came through the mail, over the trail by dog team, for me. This contained one of the greatest surprises of my life. It was a necklace of solid gold nuggets! A large nugget formed the pendant in which a diamond was set. In the package was a note containing many names and these words: To Nellie–from oldtimers Who on snowshoes broke down the trail; Who fought the elements to take through the mail. They struggled on without food or rest– To rescue the perishing they did their best. Nellie tells another dog team story in her autobiography, Alaska Nellie: “One cold winter day in December when the daylight was only a matter of minutes and the lamps were burning low, two U.S. marshals, Marshals Cavanaugh and Irwin, together with Jack Haley and Bob Griffiths, arrived at the roadhouse. The heavy wooden boxes they were removing from their sleds had been brought from the Iditarod mining district. They contained $750,000 in gold bullion. ‘Where do you want to put this, Nellie?’ called the men, carrying their precious burden.
Nellie Neal and her pet bear at the Crow Creek mining camp near Girdwood, circa 1918. At the time Nellie ran the railroad roadhouse at Kern Creek, 71 miles north of Seward and five miles southeast of Girdwood.
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Nellie’s autobiography, published in 1948.
Nellie proudly wears her gold nugget necklace.
“‘Right here under the dining room table is as good a place as any,’ I answered. And it was as simple as that. There it stayed until the men carried it back to the sleds, next day. They were able to go to sleep, for it was as safe right there in my dining room as it would have been in the United States Mint. No one would dare to touch it.” Alaska Nellie became known far and wide, and the foreword to a 2010 reprinting of her autobiographical book, Alaska Nellie, by Patricia A. Heim, sums up her legendary status: “Nellie Neal Lawing was one of Alaska’s most charismatic, admired and famous pioneers. She was the first woman ever hired by the U.S. Government in Alaska. She was contracted to feed the hungry crews on the long awaited Alaska railroad connecting Seward to Anchorage. The conditions were harsh and supplies were limited. She delivered many of her meals by dogsled, fighting off moose attacks and hazards of the trail, often during below-zero blizzards. She always brought with her a great tale to tell of her adventures along the trail, how she had wrestled grizzlies, fought off wolves and moose, and caught the worlds largest salmon for their dinner, always in the old sourdough tradition. The workers listened and laughed with every bite. “Nellie was an excellent cook, big game hunter, river guide, trail blazer, gold miner, and a great story teller! It wasn’t long before Nellie became legendary and was known far and wide as the female ‘Davy Crockett’ of Alaska, her wilderness adventures and stories of survival on the trail spread like wildfire. Letters addressed simply ‘Nellie, Alaska’ were always delivered.”
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Letters addressed simply ‘Nellie, Alaska’ were always delivered.
Nellie at Grandview.
Leaving Grandview to operate the Kern Creek Roadhouse at mile 71 for a short time, Nellie then moved to the Dead Horse Roadhouse at a railroad construction site known as Camp 245, 22 miles north of Talkeetna. Almost at the halfway point between Seward and Fairbanks, on a level, well-timbered bench on the east bank of the broad Susitna River, Dead Horse Hill was the name first given to the remote camp, as it was said that in 1916 a team of horses was frightened by a bear and fell to their deaths from the top of a steep hill nearby. Dead Horse Hill became the headquarters of the Talkeetna District and an important staging point for supplies and equipment on the northern half of the Alaska Railroad construction project, which included three important bridges: Susitna River, Hurricane Gulch, and the Tanana River at Nenana. Because Dead Horse Hill was such a key location, a large roadhouse was built at the site in 1917 to accommodate the construction workers, officials, and occasional visitors, and management of the new roadhouse was entrusted to the venerable Nellie Neal. Nellie took on running the Dead Horse Roadhouse with all the pluck and dedication she'd shown at Grandview, cooking meals on two large ranges for the dining room which seated 125 hungry workers at a time, and filling 60 lunch-buckets each night for the construction crews to take on their jobs the following day. In her autobiography she wrote, "I dished out as many as 12,000 to 14,000 meals per month, having two cooks, two waitresses and several yard men as help.” In his pictorial history of the unique town which would later take the place of the government construction camp, titled Lavish Silence: A Pictorial Chronicle of Vanished Curry, Alaska, (Petersville, Alaska: Trapper Creek Museum Sluice Box Productions, 2003), author Kenneth Marsh described the roadhouse: "Nellie furnished meals to all employees of the Alaska Engineering Commission, who were building the railroad in the Talkeetna district, for fifty cents a meal. Sixty lunch buckets were filled every night. Sugar and flour was ordered by the ton. Meat came in whole animal carcasses. Her dining room seated one hundred and twenty five people at large, twenty-five
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July-August, 2021 person tables with benches. Nellie’s kitchen had two large ranges with hot water tanks attached. Thirty kerosene lamps lighted the dining room. All laundry was done by hand with washboards and washtubs. When a bath was requested the washtubs were moved from cabin to cabin and became bathtubs.” And of the upstairs accommodations Marsh wrote: “...spring-less wooden bunks, straw mattresses and oil-drum wood-burning stove, all in one large room at the top of a flight of rickety stairs, held together by a warped wooden shell (which, at times, put up an uneven fight against the elements)." With the completion of the railroad came significant changes to the little community, largely in the form of a luxury resort hotel built across the tracks from the roadhouse by the Alaskan Engineering Commission. In 1922 the name of the community was changed to Curry, to honor Congressman Charles F. Curry of California, chairman of the Committee on Territories, who was a strong supporter of the Alaska Railroad. In his book Lavish Silence, Kenneth Marsh included an article from the December 2, 1922 issue of The Pathfinder of Alaska, newsletter of the Pioneers of Alaska, which described the impending demise of the Dead Horse Roadhouse: "The famous old roadhouse located at Mile 248 on the Government Railroad is now singing its Swan Song and will soon cease to function as a hostelry. The camp's name has also been changed to Curry–named in honor of Senator Curry, Alaska's friend. The Alaskan Engineering Commission now has a large railroad hotel nearing completion, which will be modern in every detail. Electricity, steam
The Dead Horse Roadhouse, June, 1922.
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Alaskan History heat, hot and cold water systems are being installed, telephones, baths, laundry, big dining room and other conveniences all under the same roof as the depot, will ensure comfort to all guests. Old timers, however, will always think of the place as Dead Horse and in the same flash of memory will recall the days when Nellie Neal, the proprietor and domineering spirit of the place, reigned supreme." In July, 1923, President Harding, his wife, and Secretary of State Herbert Hoover stayed at Curry on their way to the Golden Spike-driving ceremony at Nenana. The next morning Nellie served heaping plates of sourdough pancakes in her warm kitchen, commenting, "Presidents of the United States like to be comfortable when they eat, just like anyone else!" Nellie retired from railroad service when the Alaskan Engineering Commission closed the Dead Horse Roadhouse at Curry in 1923. But from her days on the Seward end of the rail line, she remembered a lovely little log roadhouse near the beautiful blue-green waters of Kenai Lake, at a stop called Roosevelt. She had long admired the location, and when the roadhouse came up for sale in 1923 she purchased it and turned it into a museum for her multitude of big game trophies. Her collection already filled two railcars when she moved to the roadhouse, and it continued to expand while she lived there; among other prizes, it included three stuffed glacier bears.
Nellie at the Dead Horse Roadhouse, with some of her big game trophies.
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In 1936, documentary maker James A. FitzPatrick produced and narrated a nine-minute travelogue film titled "Land of Alaska Nellie." See Resources on page 48 for the link.
Nellie had been engaged to a friend named Kenneth Holden in 1923, but he was killed in a heavy equipment accident before they could marry. After she retired to the Roosevelt roadhouse on Kenai Lake she received a marriage proposal from Holden's cousin Bill Lawing; the two were married on the stage of Seward’s Liberty Theater on September 8, 1923. Nellie and Bill worked together to convert the Roosevelt roadhouse to a restaurant and museum. According to the 1975 National Register of Historic Places form, during Nellie’s lifetime the site included “about eight buildings, including greenhouse, garage, boathouse, museum, cafe/bar, four cabins, barn, and windmill. Probably the only structure dating before 1923 was the roadhouse, a one-story log building (about 20’ x 48’) with three large rooms: a trophy room, dining room, and kitchen.” When a post office opened at the site in 1924, it was named Lawing in Nellie's honor, and she served as the postmistress for its first nine years of operation. Lawing became a popular tourist stop on the railroad and the highlight of any Alaskan visit. Her guest register of over 15,000 visitors over the next few years read like the Who’s Who of the early twentieth century: two U.S. Presidents, Will Rogers, the Prince of Bulgaria, authors, generals, politicians, celebrities, and many silent-screen movie stars. Nellie served her guests fresh vegetables from her garden and fresh fish from the lake, and the stories of her many adventures in Alaska kept her audiences thrilled, for here was a true Alaskan sourdough, a pioneer, a living legend. Alaska Nellie became known far and wide, and in the foreword to a 2010 reprinting of her autobiography, Alaska Nellie, Patricia A. Heim sums up her legendary status: “Colt pistol on her hip and a baby black bear by her side, Nellie was always ready with one of her
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Nellie and Bill Lawing, at their home at Lawing, on Kenai Lake.
outrageous tales of adventure. ‘I was just minding my own business on Kenai Lake when a huge grizzly showed up, I fired my Colt, but as luck would have it, somehow, it misfired, I then had to kick the heck out of the brute and he ran off, but before he ran off he bit me good, right on the wrist, see here.’ She would then fold back her sleeve to show a scarred arm. Nellie was so popular and loved that she was honored in Anchorage with an ‘Alaska Nellie Day’ on January 21, 1956.” Bill Lawing died of a heart attack in 1936. Heartbroken at losing him, Nellie continued entertaining guests and visitors for another twenty years, cementing her place in Alaska’s history by welcoming the humorist Will Rogers, General Simon Bolivar Buckner, and the actress Alice Calhoun into her home. On May 10, 1956, Nellie died peacefully while sitting in her favorite rocking chair. She was buried next to her beloved husband Bill in the Seward cemetery, under magnificent huge Alaskan spruce trees. Her gravestone bears the image of a pineapple, a symbol of hospitality which began with the sea captains of New England, who sailed among the Caribbean Islands and returned bearing cargos of fruits, spices and rum. According to tradition in the Caribbean, the pineapple symbolized hospitality, and sea captains learned they were welcome if a pineapple was placed by the entrance to a village. At home, the captain would impale a pineapple on a post near his home to signal friends he’d returned safely from the sea, and would receive visits.
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July-August, 2021 Nellie’s happiest days were spent with the love of her life, Bill Lawing, in their log cabin on the shores of beautiful Kenai Lake. She mentions this in the opening paragraph of her autobiography: “Glancing out through an open window of a large log home on the shores of Kenai Lake at Lawing, Alaska, the rippling waves had become glittering jewels in the full moonlight of a summer’s night. Mountains covered with evergreen trees and crowned with snow were reflected in the mirror-like water of Kenai Lake. Was I dreaming, or was the curtain of the past rolling up, so that I might glance back over twenty- four years spent in the great Northland and say, ‘No regrets.'” In an article for Alaska Sportsman, published a year after Nellie's death, Carrie Ida Pierce wrote about a stay at Nellie’s roadhouse at Lawing: "That night I slept in a tiny room, in a huge bed that covered more than half the floor space," wrote Pierce. "On the wall was a lifesize oil painting of Alice Calhoun, an actress of silent movie days. A silk patchwork quilt was folded on the foot of the bed. Each piece of silk brought the memory of some tale. An old desk was crowded in a corner, and on it was the framework of cubbyholes that had been Lawing's post office when it had one, and Nellie was postmistress. Over the desk was a rack filled with loaded guns. It seemed I'd never get to bed. Nellie wanted to tell me the story of each thing in the room. A new and sympathetic listener was just the right person for Nellie to have around.” ~•~
Alaska Nellie on the porch of her wildlife museum at Lawing, on Kenai Lake.
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https://www.census.gov/history/pdf/alaska-1880-petrof.pdf
Population, Industries and Resources of Alaska, by Ivan Petroff, 1880 Published early in 1881 as House of Representatives Ex. Doc. No. 40, Forty-sixth Congress, third session
Ivan Petroff was born in Russia in 1842, the son of a Russian army officer. He was orphaned at an early age and sent to military school, travelled to America in 1861, and enlisted in the U.S. army shortly after that. When a troop transport ship left Fort Vancouver, Washington, in June of 1868 without him, he was arrested and imprisoned for desertion, but by a strange twist of fate his skill at linguistic interpretations proved his salvation, and he sailed into Cook Inlet in April, 1869. Ivan Petroff’s life became a patchwork of enlistments, desertions, travels, and jobs here and there, but somewhere in his short life he made a study of languages, for he was described as “one of the most accomplished linguists in the United States, if not the world. He speaks and writes with the utmost fluency all the European languages, besides over a dozen American and Alaskan Indian dialects.” In large part due to this unusual skill and a reputation as an authority on Alaska, Petroff landed a position with the government in June, 1880, to take the census in Alaska. An article
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July-August, 2021 in The Pacific Northwest Quarterly, Vol. 59, No. 1 (Jan., 1968), published by University of Washington, titled “New Light on Ivan Petroff, Historian of Alaska,” by Richard A. Pierce, explains: “Taking a complete and accurate census over such an enormous area within the few months allotted, was an impossible task for one man, but Petroff appears to have done his best. In June, 1880, he was at Unalaska. From there he visited the Shumagin Islands, then sailed north to the Pribilofs and St. Michael. On July 13 he began ascent of the Yukon in a boat towed by a small steamer, taking two Indians and a bidarka for the return trip. Progress was slow against the current, and the weather was bad. Because of the advancing season, he stopped at Nuklukayet (near present-day Tanana) and went back downstream as far as Ikogmuit (the present Russian Mission). From there he went by river and portage to the Kuskokwim River, on which he returned to the Bering Sea. From the mouth of the Kuskokwim, he went south along the shores of Bristol Bay to Naknek. He traversed the Alaska Peninsula to Katmai on the Shelikof Strait. From there he crossed to Kodiak, where he arrived in mid-October after traveling 2,400 miles in an open boat. He then returned to San Francisco for the winter on the steamer Oonalashka.” In the spring of 1881 Petroff picked up his work and continued along the Gulf of Alaska to the Panhandle, or southeastern Alaska. His two-year compilation of information about Alaska was published in 1884 as part of the Tenth Census, giving the U.S. government its first comprehensive survey of the new territory. Petrof's census results are still cited; in this context historian Stephen Haycox wrote, "in the final analysis his work has been considered generally reliable and hugely influential.” On the other hand, according to historian Terrence Cole, Petrof "holds the distinction of probably telling more lies about Alaska that were believed for more years than any other person in history.” Be that as it may, Petroff’s opus remains a credit to the man. He writes in the Letter of Transmittal he sent to the Superintendent of Census in August, 1882: “In obedience to my instructions of April 20, 1880, under which I was directed to ascertain and report as far as possible the number of inhabitants of each geographical division of the Alaskan district, with an account of the occupations, modes of subsistence of the people, their dietary, dress, etc., indicating a proportional consumption of domestic and imported articles; their religious and educational institutions, with all statistical information relative thereto which might be available, together with such matters of economical and social importance as should seem to me to fall within the scope of my labors, I have the honor to report that during the seasons of 1880 and 1881 I made an extended exploration of the greater part of Alaska and a careful enumeration of its people, collecting at the same time facts and statistics bearing upon their past and present condition and the volumes of trade in that region.” For convenience Petroff divided Alaska into six geographical divisions, more or less selfexplanatory: Arctic, Yukon, Kuskokwim, Aleutian, Kadiak, and Southeastern. A few excerpts from his epic Population, Resources and Industry of Alaska (not in their original order): “Alaska is now, and has been since its acquisition by the United States, ‘a thing which it is not,’ a territory in name only, without its organization. It is a customs district, for the collection of customs only, with a collector and three deputies separated by hundreds and even thousands of miles. It has no laws but a few treasury regulations, with no county or
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Alaskan History
Table of Contents. Chapter 1 is online.
Lake Walker, Aliaska Peninsula — Mt. Kakhtolinat
other subdivisions, and, of course, no real capital. The collector of customs and the only representative of police restrictions—a man-of-war with its commander—are located at Sitka, cut off from communication with the bulk of the territory except by way of San Francisco.” “The trade of the Yukon division has been thus far confined altogether to the barter with the natives for furs, seal-oil, and some walrus-ivory along the coast. The importation of goods and provisions in payment of these native productions are quite large, amounting in the year 1880 to 150,000 pounds of flour, 100 chests of tea of 52 pounds each, 150 half-barrels of brown sugar, and 50 half-barrels of white sugar. The consumption of flour alone foots up 25 pounds for each man, woman, and child in the district, and thee demand for this article is increasing annually. The dry goods, hardware, etc., imported, together with this large quantity of provisions, represented in 1880 a value of nearly $20,000.” “It was on the river Kakuu, or Kenai, that the Russian mining engineer Doroshin reported the existence of surface gold in paying quantities. After laboring with a numerous party in the mountains for two seasons, at great expense to the Russian-American Company, he returned with a few ounces of the precious metal, but he could present no inducement to the corporation to proceed any further in this enterprise. Since that time American prospectors have passed years in this region following up the Russian’s tracks, but not one of them has thus far found gold enough to warrant him to work the find. In former years Kenai was also the site of a large brick-yard, the only establishment of the kind in the colony, from which all stations and settlements were supplied with the material for the old-fashioned Russian ovens or heaters.”
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July-August, 2021 “Of the features of the coast between Copper River and Mount Saint Elias but little is known, but it is evidently a narrow table-land between the high mountains and the sea, well timbered, and traversed by numerous shallow streams that take their origins in the glaciers and eternal snows. The natives describe it as an excellent hunting-ground. The island of Kaiak is undoubtedly the point where Bering first approached the North American continent and upon the southern point of which he bestowed the name of cape Saint Elias. It is not permanently inhabited, but hunting parties from the mainland sometimes remain here for many months at a time.” “The narrow strip of coast-line from Mount Saint Elias to Portland canal, a strip that was patched upon the solid body of the Russian possessions on this continent through the ambition of Baranof, or rather the company which he represented, at the beginning of the present century was powerful enough not only to establish but to maintain possession of the narrow belt between the mountains and the sea, but he was never able to extend the Russian possessions into the interior where the outposts of the Hudson Bay Company were already located, and as the successor of the Russians the people of the United States have shut off the British possessions from the sea-coast for a distance of nearly 500 miles.” “Passing from this district (Kadiak), a very remarkable region is entered, which I have called the Yukon and the Kuskokvim divisions. I have during two summers traversed the major portion of it from the north to the south, confirming many new and some mooted points. This region covers the deltoid mouth of a vast river, the Yukon, and the sea-like estuary—the Amazonian mouth of another—the Kuskokvim, with the extraordinary shoals and bars of Bristol bay, where the tides run with surprising volume. The country itself differs strikingly from the two divisions just sketched, consisting, as it does, of irregular mountain spurs planted on vast expanses of low, flat tundra. It is a country which, to our race perhaps, is far more inhospitable than either the Sitka or Kadiak divisions; yet, strange to say, I have found therein the greatest concentrated population of the whole territory. Of course it is not by agricultural, or by mining, or any other industry, save the aboriginal art of fishing and the traffic of the fur-trade, that the people live; and again, when the fur-bearing animals are taken into account, the quality and volume of that trade are far inferior to those of either of the previously-named divisions, and we find the natives existing in the greatest numbers where, according to our measure of compensation, they have the least to gain.” “What the country north of Cook's Inlet is like no civilized man can tell, as in all the years of occupation of the coast by the Caucasian race it has remained a sealed book. The Indians tell us that the rivers lead into lakes and that the lakes are connected by rivers with other lakes again, until finally the waters flow into the basins of the Tennanith and the Yukon; but conflicting with this intermingling of the waters are stories of mountains of immense altitude visible for hundreds of miles. The natives living north of this terra incognita give, however a similar description, which may be accepted until reliable explorers are enabled to penetrate this region.” ~•~ See page 48 for links to more information about Ivan Petroff and his Reports
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The Seattle Post-Intelligencer, Sunday, July 5, 1908: DAWSON, June 1—(Special.)—Jujiro Wada, the great long distance musher of Alaska, holder of the fiftymile indoor racing championship of Alaska, is now on his way from Dawson to the Firth River, near Herschel Island, where he has staked a claim. The trip he is now on is 5,000 miles long. Wada is racing against the steamboats from Dawson to St. Michael. He goes down the river in a small boat to St. Michael, thence to Nome, where he will ship on a whaler to the Firth River. The great musher’s trip to Herschel and Firth River last winter covered 1,600 miles, and was made with no companion save his dogs. On the way down his supplies ran low, and he fed his trousers to his dogs, after oiling them with whale oil. He also sacrificed his socks. He mushed into Dawson with only his underwear to hide his nakedness. Jujiro Wada was born in Southern Japan, but he has been away from home since he was a very small boy. He has shipped to all parts of the world. A few years ago he drifted into the Arctic regions, and has since made it his home. The nut brown hustler weighs 126 pounds, and stands 5 feet 1 inch. On the present trip Wada is taking with him a little food, a grip of clothing, a frying pan, a cup, a tin plate, a knife, his five dogs, and a roll of blankets. He carries letters for government officials at Herschel Island which contain an appointment making Sergt. Fitzgerald, at Herschel, a commissioner for taking affidavits. Wada found that when he would get into Herschel he would be hundreds of miles from a mining recording office, and that there would be no place for recording his assessment work without coming all the way back to Dawson. The appointment of an inspector had to come from Ottawa, and since Wada was leaving immediately, it was decided to obviate this difficulty by letting him make oath at Herschel before the Northwest mounted police there as to the work.
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Jujiro Wada “. . . one of Alaska’s best long distance sled dog drivers." ~John Underwood, in Alaska, An Empire in the Making, 1913
The Samurai Musher There are many strange and unusual stories in the annals of northern travel, but one of the most fascinating concerns an enigmatic Japanese explorer and adventurer named Jujiro Wada. Born in Japan in the 1870s, the second son of a lower-class samurai warrior, he traveled to the U.S. in 1890 and worked as a cabin boy for the Pacific Steam Whaling Company, and at Barrow for the renowned Charlie Brower, manager of the Cape Smythe Whaling and Trading Company, which was probably where he learned how to handle a sled dog team and to speak native Alaskan languages. Jujiro Wada was with E.T. Barnette when the businessman unexpectedly landed at what is now the site of Fairbanks. Hearing about the recent gold strikes in the nearby hills, and seeking to draw customers for his new trading post, Barnette dispatched Wada up the Yukon River with one of Barnette’s own dogteams, taking the first news of the strikes to the miners at Dawson City. Wada drove Barnette’s team into Dawson City on Dec. 28, 1902, and upon interviewing him the Yukon Sun printed a front-page story with the bold headline, “Rich Strike Made in the Tanana.” Several hundred miners quickly left Dawson City for Fairbanks, but most were disappointed to find the best sites were already staked. As the story goes, an angry mob gathered at Barnette’s store and threatened violence against both Barnette and Wada, however, in a Dawson Daily News article in September, 1907, Wada explained what actually
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Alaskan History happened: “The story that I was about to be hanged for causing a thought-to-be-fake stampede was not correct. The fact is that the miners held a meeting to decide as to the price of flour then being offered by one of the trading companies. They thought the price exorbitant. It was rumored that the miners had a rope on my neck, and were about to hoist me. Now that is not true. The other part of the story, that I showed a copy of the (Seattle) Post-Intelligencer saying that several years before I had rescued a party of shipwrecked whalers in the Arctic in dead of winter is true. I did show that paper to let some of the boys know I had been up North, but it was not in a plea to save my neck.” For many years Jujiro Wada traveled widely across northern Alaska, the Yukon Territory, and beyond, leading an adventurous life and leaving his mark on the history of the north country. His exploits were the stuff of legend, as he traveled by dog team, hunting, trapping, prospecting, running marathons, and entertaining people wherever he went with his colorful stories. On one of his epic dog mushing trips he travelled from the headwaters of the Chandalar River, to the Arctic Ocean, along the shore of the ocean to the Mackenzie River, up that river and across the divide to the Porcupine River, he and his dogs living on game hunted along the way for a year. Another of Wada’s contributions to Alaskan history was helping to pioneer the Iditarod Trail after several gold strikes were made in the Iditarod area, although in most accounts of Wada’s travels the trip appears as something of a footnote to his other adventures. In a summary of Yuji Tani’s 1995 book, The Samurai Dog-Musher Under the Northern Lights, Fumi Torigai, who was documenting Wada’s travels for submission to the Historic Sites and Monuments Board of Parks Canada, wrote: “In December of 1909, at the request of the town, Wada established a route from Seward to the newly discovered gold mine of Iditarod. Acting as the leader of a fleet of dogsled teams, Wada had a relatively uneventful trip to Iditarod. However, on the return trip to Seward, he and his three companions had to go through prolonged minus 60 F weather. Several dogs, including his lead-dog, became too weak to survive the extreme cold and had to be put to sleep. The hardships of Wada and his companions and the ensuing rush of prospectors into the Iditarod area were widely reported in many Alaskan papers.” In early 1912, Wada was in the Kuskokwim area, looking for traces of a Japanese man known locally as Allen, who had disappeared there. On March 11, 1912, Wada was in Iditarod. In July 1912, he and his partner, John Baird, made a gold strike on the Tulasak River. Wada took about $12,000 in gold with him when he went to Seattle to report the findings to his backers, who included the Guggenheim brothers and Edward McIlhenny of Tabasco sauce fame. An article in the Dawson Daily News, July 8, 1912, titled “Wada Tells of the Country to the West,” detailed some of his exploits: “Jujiro Wada, the mushing Jap who brought the first news of the Fairbanks strike to Dawson, and has made numerous other trips in the North, recently blew into Fairbanks again with a new story about the placer country of Western Alaska; the Times says: “Wada has found time to cover considerable stretches of Northland, besides spending almost a year in the States. “One of Wada's Alaskan stunts since leaving Fairbanks was the blazing of the overland trail to the Iditarod from Seward. He was hired to do this by the town of Seward and returning, reported that the route was feasible and that the Iditarod would make a good small camp. The road commission has since
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Illustration from the Yukon Sun, December 28, 1902
followed Wada's route. The next year found Wada down in the States, where almost the first person he met was a now wealthy ex-senator from Texas, whom Wada had known twenty years before up near Point Barrow, just after the Texan had graduated from college. The two held the big talkfest and then they took in the East together, not forgetting the Great White Way at New York. After almost a year in the States under the direction of his old Point Barrow friend, Wada hied himself North once more, backed by the man from Texas whom he now represents and whom he is to meet at New Orleans when he gets outside on his present trip. “The first point visited last year after leaving San Francisco was Good News Bay, near the mouth of the Kuskokwim. Wada remained there until last November, when he heard of the Aniak river strike, when he moved up river and investigated that country. Still later he stampeded back down river to the Tulasak river and got in on the ground along Bear Creek. “Returning to the Iditarod from the Tulasak, Wada took Jack Baird, formerly of Fairbanks, with him and, moving a prospecting drill, the two crossed over to the Kuskokwim in the spring and proceeded to test some of the ground on Bear Creek. The indications were very favourable, hence
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Above left: Jujiro Wada with his friend, Captain H.H. Norwood of the whaling ship Balaena, 1903. Top right: The Balaena. Bottom right: Jujiro Wada in Dawson City, age 23, 1908 (from Seattle P-I article)
Wada's trip out to New Orleans to lay his findings before his backer. To judge by the bottle of coarse gold that Wada carries with him, taken from Bear Creek, some of the nuggets being worth $10, it is evident that the prospectors secured more than indications. “From the tests made by Baird and Wada the little brown musher is well satisfied that Bear Creek will soon be famous as a dredging camp, for there is plenty of gold on bedrock. In fact, the Kuskokwim Commercial company will be one of the outfits that will put a dredge on Bear Creek this summer. Wada does not know who their backers are.” Wada resumed prospecting in the Yukon during 1917-1918, and in 1919, he went to the Northwest Territories. Then, on September 6, 1920, he entered New York State via Niagara Falls. He listed his last residence as Herschel Island, Northwest Territories, and his employer as E. F. Lufkin. From 1920 to 1923, Wada trapped foxes in the Upper Porcupine River country. He prospected for gold around Herschel Island and for oil around Fort Norman (now Norman Wells). In April, 1923, Wada left Canada, arriving at Ketchikan aboard the SS Princess Mary in May. He listed himself as a citizen of Canada, but having no passport, he was not allowed entry to Alaska.
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July-August, 2021 His subsequent whereabouts were not documented, but according to reported sightings he travelled widely. In 1930, he was in Chicago, Illinois. In May, 1934, he was in Seattle, having recently arrived from San Francisco. During January 1936, he was in Green River, Wyoming. During the winter of 1936-1937, he was in Redding, California. After a lifetime of mushing over the faroff trails of the north, Jujiro Wada died at the San Diego County hospital on March 5, 1937. A large bronze monument to the farwandering traveler was established in 2007 in a park in Matsuyama City, Japan, celebrating the high points of his adventurous life. Also in 2007, the Yukon Quest International Sled Dog Race between Fairbanks, Alaska and Whitehorse, Yukon Territory was dedicated to his name. In 2016 the Jujiro Wada Memorial, a lifesize bronze sculpture commemorating the musher who helped pioneer the original Iditarod trail, commissioned by the Seward Iditarod Trail Blazers, was dedicated at an international gathering in Seward. ~•~
Jujiro Wada, undated
Jujiro Wada Memorial Association The Samurai who Chased the Aurora
A tribute to the inprepid musher who helped blaze the Iditarod Trail and shape the history of Alaska
https://global.wadajujiro.com
The Life of Jujiro Wada
This article is a summary of the book “The Samurai Dog-Musher Under the Northern Lights” (1995), written by Yuji Tani.
https://wadajujiro.com/wp-content/uploads/ shortened.pdf
Matsuyama City, Japan, 2007
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Alaskan History “Topographer-in-charge involved making surveys in the field, preparing them for publication, supervision of special maps in the office, and following them through reproductiion. There was just enough responsibility to savor the task, but not a sufficient amount to make it too strenuous. There was just enough extra work involved to provide zest.” ~R. Harvey Sargent, in Mapping the Frontier
Left: Topographic map of Port Valdez, 1915. Right: Surveying took R. Harvey Sargent around the world, from Maine to the American West to China and north to the unmapped wilderness of Alaska. “Mapping the Frontier: A Memoir of Discovery from Coastal Maine to the Alaskan Rim,” with a foreword by R. Harvey Sargent’s grandson, Robert M. Sargent, was published by Down East Books in 2015.
USGS Topographer in Charge R. Harvey Sargent Rufus Harvey Sargent, born in Sedgwick, Maine, in 1875, was the son and grandson of ship captains; at the age of twelve he sailed with his father's schooner to Mexico, helping along the way, tracking the ship and learning the rudiments of navigation. He made other sea voyages with his father, but by the age of nineteen his interests were turning elsewhere. An uncle in Washington, D.C., Dr. Frank Baker, a highly respected physician and one of the founders of the National Geographic Society, offered him a job as a survey crew member at Washington’s National Zoological Park, a part of the Smithsonian Institution. After working at the National Zoo for a few years Harvey wanted something more exciting, and the idea of working for the United States Geological Survey, mapping uncharted territories, seemed to fit the bill. He joined the USGS in 1898 as a traverseman, working in the Black Hills and the Rocky Mountains before being appointed an assistant topographer in 1900. It was a timely opportunity, as explained in Sargent's autobiographical book, Mapping the Frontier: A Memoir of Discovery, Coastal Maine to the Alaskan Rim (Down East Books, 2015): "During the years when Sargent began his career with the USGS, the value of its topographic mapping division was just being acknowledged. Harvey Sargent was the right man in the
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July-August, 2021 right place in 1898, eager and ready to take on the new and thrilling task of joining the United States Geological Society and learning all he could learn. The National Zoo, thanks to Uncle Frank, had been the first step.” During his lifetime R. Harvey Sargent would become well known and widely respected as an explorer, mapmaker, author, educator, and lecturer. In 1903-04, Harvey Sargent joined a mission to China and with his colleagues drew the first topographic surveys of the Empire, establishing surveying stations on the Great Wall of China and making geological discoveries along the way. The excellent, accurate maps produced by Harvey Sargent were the first of their kind, winning the expedition a gold medal from the Geographical Society of France. A century later, drawing on his mapmaking grandfather’s photographs and other sources, Bob Sargent organized a traveling exhibit, China: Exploring the Interior (1903-4), providing a glimpse of rural China two years after the Boxer Rebellion (Resources, page 48). In 1904 R. Harvey Sargent was posted to Tombstone, Arizona Territory, to map the region. In January, 1906 he married Helen Bailey in Salt Lake City, Utah, and in the early summer of 1906 he traveled to Alaska the first time, an event he described as “almost as momentous as getting married!” Sargent was posted to the Matanuska-Talkeetna region, and his first adventuresome journey was up the Matanuska River from Old Knik, up the Chickaloon River into the Talkeetna Mountains, and down the Talkeetna River, then returning to Old Knik, a distance he noted as approximately 800 miles. From Knik he took his surveying party to Point
Both photographs: R. Harvey Sargent (left) and Bailey WIllis, surveying in China, 1903.
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Rufus Harvey Sargent at USGS headquarters in Washington, D.C., 1934 [USGS photo]
Possession in a small gas boat and began a traverse of the shoreline along the east shore of Cook Inlet to the mouth of the Kasilof River: “Our means of transportation was a very poor old rowboat, and a smaller boat of dory type. It was a frolic to drift along the shore, stopping every mile or so to make a plane-table station, and pitching our camp on the beach whenever night overtook us.” Within two years R. Harvey Sargent was put in charge of mapping for the Geological Survey’s Alaskan branch, and he held the job for almost three decades. As topographer-incharge, Sargent oversaw all levels of production, ensuring the quality and accuracy of the maps produced under his purview. His many accomplishments include discovery of the Aniakchak Crater (the world’s largest extinct volcano, now the Aniakchak National Monument); discovery of one of the largest icefields on U.S. territory (the Sargent Icefield); a survey of the Yukon River Valley, from Ruby south to Iditarod, in 1909; a horseback trip over the Fairbanks-to-Valdez Trail, gathering data, in 1910; and in 1911, an assignment to map the area between Kachemak Bay and Turnagain Arm, with four men and eleven packhorses, which he described as “a season filled with thrills from the start!” In 1912 Sargent was sent to map a potential railroad route from Iliamna Bay to Iditarod, crossing the mountainous Lake Clark country and the Kuskokwim River, second largest in
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Left: R. Harvey Sargent on the bow of the Grizzly Bear in Glacier Bay in 1936. [USGS photo]. RIght: Chenega Glacier and the Sargent Icefield, in the northeast corner of the Kenai Peninsula, named in 1952 by the USGS for R. Harvey Sargent, who did extensive exploration and mapping on the Kenai Peninsula in 1911.
Alaska, and noting, “I was right happy to be given the task. This was country through which no white man had traveled, as far as we knew. It was to be no boy’s play, we realized from the beginning. I took twenty-two packhorses. Everybody walked.” “During the summers of 1926 to 1929, Sargent was on loan from the Survey to the Departments of Interior and Agriculture, under whose aegis he participated in the groundbreaking Naval Alaskan Survey Expeditions that mapped Alaska from the air, the first aerial surveys made by the United States government.” In 1937, Harvey Sargent was appointed Chief of the Inspection and Editing Section of the Topographical Branch of the USGS in Washington, where he worked until his retirement in 1947. In that position, he kept pace with the rapidly developing new science of photogrammetry, as applied to map making, and inaugurated many changes in the practices of cartography and in the processes of map reproduction. Over the years, Sargent lectured extensively about his exploration, discoveries, and adventures—in China, Alaska, and the western United States. In March, 1947, R. Harvey Sargent received the Distinguished Service Award from the Department of the Interior. He died in December, 1951, in Washington, D.C. A short biographical sketch in the USGS History of the Topographic Branch notes: “In every sense a geographer, Mr. Sargent sought to pass on to others his knowledge of foreign lands through lectures and written articles, and he brought to all of his work and activity a zeal, enthusiasm, and ability that marks him as true explorer and pioneer. His love of nature and keen sense have added a human touch that makes his accomplishments stand out with all who knew him.” ~•~
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The photographers and their cameras (left), and Taku Glacier (right), 1926 [both photos by U.S. Navy]
U.S. Navy Aerial Surveys 1926-1929 Mineral Resources of Alaska was an annual compilation of the distribution, character, origin, and extent of the territory’s ore deposits, recording the kinds and quantity of minerals produced; mining developments and production of significance to the prospector, miner, or businessman; and in general as thorough a report on the Last Frontier’s mineral resources as could be produced at the time. In the twenty-fourth such report, produced by The Geographic Survey for 1927, on page 74, under the heading ‘Projects In Progress During Season of 1927, the following was reported: “One of the most important pieces of work that was started in the winter of 1926-27 and will be continued for several years is the compilation and working up into maps of the aerial pictures taken by the Navy Department, at the request of the Geological Survey, of a large part of southeastern Alaska. This work has been largely under the technical direction of R. H. Sargent, with the cooperation of F. H. Moffit in special phases of the work.” Due to funding problems the aerial surveys were suspended in 1928, but the 1929 Mineral Resources of Alaska report included this update: “Topographic supervision of aerial photographic work in southeastern Alaska was a continuation of a project started in 1926, when the Navy Department, at the request of the Geological Survey, photographed from the air about 10,000 square miles of southeastern Alaska, so that the resulting pictures might be used for preparing maps of the region. This work was so successful and of such inestimable
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July-August, 2021 “During the summers of 1926 to 1929, Sargent was on loan from the Survey to the Departments of Interior and Agriculture, under whose aegis he participated in the groundbreaking Naval Alaskan Survey Expeditions that mapped Alaska from the air, the first aerial surveys the United States government undertook.” —from Mapping the Frontier: A Memoir of Discovery from Coastal Maine to the Alaskan Rim, by R. Harvey Sargent value, not only to the Geological Survey but also to other Government bureaus, notably the Forest Service, that in the winter of 1928-29 the Geological Survey joined with the Forest Service in requesting the Navy Department to send another expedition to continue the work in tracts that had not been photographed. The Navy Department, recognizing the need of these bureaus and the excellent training that the work afforded for its own members, assigned the necessary personnel and equipment under command of Lieut. Commander A.W. Radford. This unit photographed about 12,000 square miles of difficult country with speed, precision, and high technical competence, and the resulting films were turned over to the Geological Survey for cartographic use. In the course of this work many services were rendered to other Government bureaus concerned with Alaskan development The successful accomplishment of this difficult piece of work without accident demonstrates the great value of the airplane as a means of transportation in a country that is almost untraversable by any other means, and shows the economy that can be effected in many phases of the Geological
Photograph of some of the officers and crew of the Alaska Aerial Survey Detachment at Juneau, August 10, 1929; visible behind the men is one of the Loening OL-8 amphibian planes, used in photo-mapping flights over S.E. Alaska.
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Alaskan History Survey's work by this modern method of attack. In order that the naval officers might have knowledge of the requirements, a skilled topographic engineer of the Alaskan branch, R. H. Sargent, was attached to the expedition and served throughout its field work.” In Mineral Resources of Alaska, 1926, an article by R. S. Sargent and Fred H. Moffitt described the history underlying the expedition: “Making maps from airplane photographs is a relatively new undertaking which did not become practicable until the great advances in airplane construction and operation arising from the necessities of the World War took place. Airplane photographs and maps made from them were of inestimable value to the conduct of war by both sides, and since the war they have become increasingly important for the peacetime enterprises of all countries. In the United States private interests have devoted much though and spent large sums of money in the development of methods for adapting airplane photographs to map making. Different departments and bureaus of the Federal Government also have no only been engaged in investigations of the same kind but have during the last few years photographed for map making considerable areas in different parts of the United States. The work has received special attention from the engineers of the United States Army, who have had a leading part in the development of the method used in the surveys here to be described.” A few paragraphs later, “Many reasons were involved in the choice of southeastern Alaska as the area in which to begin the work. First of all, its numerous waterways make it easily accessible to the boats of the Navy, which were to provide accommodations for the
The Government Dock at Juneau. The amphibious planes were parked on the dock and the U.S.S. Gannett (next to dock) and the restructured barge (beside the Gannett) were moored alongside. [U.S. Navy]
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Aerial photo of Juneau, the expedition base while in the area was the long dock on the left. [U.S. Navy]
men and care for the planes of the expedition. This in itself was almost a deciding reason, because any other plan would have involved a much greater expenditure of money. Again, this part of Alaska includes the most extensive and valuable of its forests, extensive mining and fishing interests, and a considerable proportion of the population. Furthermore, the work of the Coast and Geodetic Survey in southeastern Alaska furnishes much control for assembling the data contained in the pictures, and the need of maps in this region is immediate and great.” Sargent and Moffit went on to share specifics of organizing the project. “The tender Gannet … was detailed from the Bureau of Operations and was well equipped for the work, as her regular duty was service as tender for the airplane carrier Langley. A barge 140 feet long and 40 feet wide, housed over and provided with a bulkhead forward sufficiently strong to withstand any seas she might meet, furnished additional room, especially that required for the photographic operations of the expedition. “The barge was equipped and manned as a separate unit and could function properly in the absence of the Gannet. All the photographic operations were performed on her, and for this purpose three rooms were provided as photographic laboratories. The rest of her space was taken up with a kitchen, dining room, office for the clerical force, rooms for the commanding officer, other offices, hospital, the petty officers' and enlisted men's quarters, engine repair shop, store room, and barber shop. On the after end was a loft for carrier
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Planes passing over Twin Glaciers Lake at the Head of Taku Inlet [U.S. Navy]
pigeons. An electric lighting system was installed to furnish light when the Gannet was separated from the barge.” The central role held by R. Harvey Sargent was explained: “R. H. Sargent was designated representative of the Geological Survey to accompany the expedition. Mr. Sargent was to act in an advisory capacity only and was directed also to cooperate so far as practicable with the other Government bureaus and with civilians who had an interest in the work. The choice of the specific areas to be flown rested with him and also the preparation of the flight charts, which gave the spacing and direc- tion of the flights. He later inspected the developed film to make certain that sufficient overlap of pictures was being provided and that no areas were left uncovered by the pictures. Finally he received the film and transmitted it to the Geological Survey in Washington.” Introductions to other key personnel, detailed descriptions of the camera equipment, and an appreciation for the cooperation of various government and civil entities, as well as private companies and individuals involved, led into an explanation of the field operations of the expedition: “The first requirements for surveying an extensive area by airplane photography are a systematic plan for taking the photographs and the choice of an appropriate height for flying. The height of flying depends in part on the relief of the country to be photographed and the height of the clouds, if any are present, but is limited by the ability of the plane to reach and fly economically at the desired altitude. The altitude adopted for the work in southeastern Alaska was 10,000 feet, although the detail of the photographs would have been amply sufficient and a greater area could have been covered with the same number of pictures if it had been practicable to fly at a higher altitude. This
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July-August, 2021 altitude gave the resulting photographs a scale of approximately 1:20,000, which is much greater than the publication scale of the maps that are to be made from them.” Toward the end of their article Sargent and Moffit summed up the work: “The season's field work when completed was represented only by developed rolls of film from which prints were to be made in the office. Each of these rolls consisted of several pieces, the film having been cut to facilitate the developing. Each roll contained on the average about 180 sets of three negatives, or a total of 540 negatives to the roll. The total number of negatives from which prints were to be made was approximately 17,280. The area covered by these negatives is about 10,000 square miles and includes a large part of southeastern Alaska specifically the islands of Revillagigedo, Annette, Gravina, and Duke, Cleveland Peninsula and Chickamin River, the islands of Wrangell, Woronkofski, Etolin, Zarembo, Long, Dall. Sikkwan, Prince of Wales, Tuxekan, Heceta, Kosciusko, Mitkof, Kupreanof, Kuiu, and Admiralty, and Lindenberg Peninsula. The choice of areas to be flown was based primarily upon their economic importance to the work of the Geological Survey and other bureaus interested, principally the Forest Service.” In the March-April, 1930 issue of The Military Engineer, published by the Society of American Military Engineers, an article appeared, ‘Photographing Alaska from the Air,’ again by R. H. Sargent, Topographic Engineer, United States Geological Survey, with an update on the expedition’s progress: “It was my pleasure to describe in The Military Engineer, May-June, 1928, the work of the Aerial Survey Expedition of the Navy
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Alaskan History Department, which was sent to Alaska in 1928 for the purpose of making aerial photographs of the 10,000 square miles of the southeastern part of the Territory. “During the past three years, these photographs have been utilized and studied by the Geological Survey in making base maps and by the Forest Service in studying the problems relating to the forests and the potential water power of the region. During this time their real worth has been realized by officials of both services and the data which these photographs yield are invaluable in the execution of the work of these bureaus.” After a nod to the 112 man crew, noting “…the Navy may be justifiably proud of them,” Sargent explained more details of the expedition: “The equipment consisted of the airplane tender Gannet and a converted 110-foot ammunition barge, both of which had been attached to the 1926 expedition, and four Loening amphibian planes. The Gannet furnished motor power and light for the barge, towing it to Alaska and back and moving it from place to place while in Alaskan waters. Water which was consumed in large quantities because of the photographic work in the dark rooms usually came from the local water supply of the towns at which we based. This year, the great value of the 54-foot boom of the Gannet was realized, for it was extensively used in hoisting the planes from the water to the docks where they were kept, and back to the water again.” “Four Loening amphibian planes of the latest model, OL-8A, were used. These planes bore the names of the four Southeastern Alaskan cities at which the expedition planned to base; Juneau, Ketchikan, Petersburg and Sitka. These names, and the insignia of the expedition which was painted on the planes attracted much attention. The insignia was a large black circle within which the predominant figure was a seal standing erect upon its tail with its flippers extended as if in the act of flying. On one side was a flaming red midnight sun and on the other was an active volcano belching forth a stream of crimson lava. It was known as ‘The Flying Seal.’ “In the cooperative scheme, the Navy furnished the personnel, equipment, and all expenses usually incurred in the functioning of such a unit. The civil bureaus vitally interested in supplying the funds necessary for securing the photographs, which included films, paper, and chemicals; gas an oil for the planes while on photographic flights; the expenses of the crews when away from the ship; and other incidental expenses. It was a most worthy act on the part of the officials of the Navy Department to be willing to enter into such an enterprise to assist other departments. It demonstrated again what can and should be done in circumstances where one federal agency can be of assistance to other agencies without impairing its own efficiency. “ Later in the article Sargent shares this about photographing the many glaciers the expedition flew over: “It was my purpose to have the fronts of all large glaciers in the region photographed, both by the mapping and the oblique cameras, so as to record the position of the fronts of the glaciers in 1929. The oblique photographs, taken from the side of the plane, are marvels of grandeur and beauty, and the mapping photographs present wonderful views of the glaciers from directly overhead. These vertical photographs reveal the phenomenon of glacier flow in a manner never before recorded in the United States, so far as
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The Grand Pacific Glacier from the Head of Tarr Inlet, Glacier Bay [U.S. Navy]
I know. It is believed that there is a wealth of valuable scientific information for the glaciologist in these pictures.” In their 1926 article for Mineral Resources of Alaska, Sargent and Moffitt explained, “The aerophotographic surveys in southeastern Alaska were in a certain degree experimental. Their purpose was to apply a new method of surveying, which has certain marked advantages over the older methods, as well as some disadvantages, and which was being used with success in parts of the United States and elsewhere, to a region where surveying by any method meets with many difficulties. The photographs were not expected to furnish all the data for a completed map but to give quickly certain features, such as crest lines, stream courses, distribution of forests, and culture, with a detail and accuracy that could be obtained by the usual surveying methods only by the expenditure of much time and money. It was recognized that the pictures would not have in themselves all the control required for combining them into a map. The photographic work was preliminary to further field work in which the material compiled from the pictures will supply a base map which the topographer will take into the field and on which he will sketch the topography according to the usual methods.” ~•~
To see a photograph album of the Alaskan Aerial Survey at the
San Diego Air and Space Museum Archives, visit https://tinyurl.com/AASalbum
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Sources & Resources The links and references below reflect the specific sources used in researching the articles which appear in this issue, and include reference books, videos, websites and other media. Lengthy URLs have been shortened. Dispatching the Army to Alaska • Alaska’s Forts http://alaskaweb.org/military/akforts.html • US Army Corp of Engineers in Alaska https://www.poa.usace.army.mil/About/History/ • Fort Egbert history https://tinyurl.com/FtEgbert • Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Army_Alaska
Clay Street Cemetery • NHRP https://npgallery.nps.gov/GetAsset/b3843e48-3a94-47c3-b358-39f8d1bec015 • Find a Grave https://www.findagrave.com/cemetery/81817/clay-street-cemetery • Billion Graves database https://billiongraves.com/grave/JA-Northway/19572778 • Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clay_Street_Cemetery
Alaska Nellie: Peerless Alaska Railroad Hostess • Alaska Nellie website https://alaskanellie.wordpress.com • NHRP nomination https://npgallery.nps.gov/NRHP/GetAsset/NRHP/75002159_text • KMTA Corridor article https://kmtacorridor.org/alaska-nellie/ • 1940 Video Documentary https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JvU5DyHmPlE
Population, Resources & Industries of Alaska, Ivan Petroff • Chapter 1 of Petroff’s Report https://www.census.gov/history/pdf/alaska-1880-petrof.pdf • JSTOR article on Petroff https://www.jstor.org/stable/40488458 • Katmai NPS article on Petroff https://tinyurl.com/NPSPetroff • Wikipedia biography https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ivan_Petrof
Jujiro Wada: The Mushing Samurai • Jujiro Wada Memorial Association https://global.wadajujiro.com • Jujiro Wada Statue in Seward https://tinyurl.com/WadaStatue • KMTA Corridor article https://kmtacorridor.org/jujiro_wada/ • Wikipedia biography https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jujiro_Wada
Topographer in Charge: R. Harvey Sargent • Mapping the Frontier https://tinyurl.com/MappingtheFrontier • The Ellsworth American article https://tinyurl.com/RHarveySargent • Bailey Willis article https://tinyurl.com/BaileyWillis • China 1903-04 http://chinaexhibit.me/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/ChinaCatWeb.pdf
U.S. Navy Aerial Surveys 1926-1929 • Aerial Survey photo album https://tinyurl.com/AASalbum • 1926 Min. Resources of AK article https://pubs.usgs.gov/bul/0797e/report.pdf • 1930 The Military Engineer article https://tinyurl.com/1930article • Article in Alaska Daily News, 2014 https://tinyurl.com/ADN1926aerials
General Resources • Alaska & Polar Regions Collections & Archives http://library.uaf.edu/apr • Alaska’s Digital Archives https://vilda.alaska.edu • Statewide Library Electronic Doorway [SLED]: https://lam.alaska.gov/sled/history • Google Books https://books.google.com • Gutenberg.org https://books.gutenberg.org • Library of Congress https://www.loc.gov
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