Many adventurous souls headed north during the 1890s after prospectors first discovered coarse placer gold in the Yukon River basin on Fortymile River. But a widowed German immigrant who traveled that arduous route was in search of something much more precious: her son. Anna DeGraf, who lost her husband in a gold-mining accident in the […]
Howard Rock’s light lives on
One of Alaska’s most respected men died this week in 1976. Howard Rock, editor of the Tundra Times newspaper, united Alaska’s Native people and helped lead them into the new world when crude oil and land claims dominated the news. In 1911, near the village of Tikigaq, Rock’s shaman grandmother predicted he would become a […]
Seward’s Folly becomes U.S. Treasure
On April 9, 1867, by a margin of just one vote, the U.S. Senate voted to ratify the treaty to purchase Alaska from Russia. The purchase of the northern frontier was ridiculed by the press at the time and called “Seward’s folly,” “Seward’s icebox” and President Andrew Johnson’s “polar bear garden.” But its main architect, […]
Iditarod Trail Race Conceived 50 Years Ago
Alaska’s 2014 Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race unofficially begins on Saturday, March 1, with a ceremonial start in downtown Anchorage. And after weeks of worry that a lack of snow could jeopardize the famous race, about 70 mushers will take off from Willow and begin the dash to Nome in earnest on March 2. The […]
Love and Marriage – Gold Rush Style
As Cupid flits about flinging arrows into unsuspecting lovers this week, I thought it would be fun to take a look back in Alaska’s history and see what love-struck couples did when their stars crossed and they wanted to marry. Well, it turns out that miners during the Klondike Gold Rush sometimes had to improvise […]
‘The Cheechakos’ – Alaska’s first homegrown movie
Movies about Alaska, mostly based on books by Jack London and Rex Beach, thrilled audiences during the early 1900s. But all motion pictures were filmed outside of Alaska. So when a group of Oregon promoters planning a travelogue and feature film about the territory toured Alaska’s towns in 1922, several Anchorage residents decided to go […]
First Anchorage mayor faced weighty issues
With all the recent talk about the nation’s leading lawmakers, and politics in general, I started thinking about the early movers and shakers in Alaska history. They had huge problems to deal with, too. For instance, Anchorage’s first mayor, elected on Nov. 29, 1920, bore the responsibility of governing a railroad town after five years […]
Flame of the Yukon dazzled miners with her moves
After brief stints in Skagway and Whitehorse, one Kansas girl swirled her way into Gold Rush history when she stepped on stage at the Palace Grand in Dawson City in 1900. Kathleen Eloisa Rockwell, better known as “Klondike Kate,” delighted audiences of miners with her song-and-dance routines. She wore an elaborate dress covered in red […]
Alaskan Fortune – Immigrant puts the right foot forward
One of Anchorage’s finest department stores can trace its roots to the gold rush days of the Klondike when a young Swede hunkered down with pick and ax and chipped out a small fortune. John W. Nordstrom arrived in New York City from his native Sweden in 1887. With $5 in his pocket, and not […]
Prospector turns Alaska history into gold
One prospector who headed north at the turn-of-the-last century later successfully turned Alaska history into gold. As a young man, famous American novelist Rex Beach struck out from Illinois in 1897 in search of his fortune in the gold-filled Klondike. Along with others who had some money and time, he chose to travel the all-water […]
Alaska’s First Streetcar
A three-hour stopover in Skagway in July 1923 by President Warren G. Harding turned into a booming business for one Alaskan sourdough. Martin Itjen, an immigrant who came north from Florida in 1898 to join the stampede in search of riches in the Klondike, took the President on an excursion in a painted coal truck. […]
Will Rogers dies in plane crash, August 1935
Much-loved humorist and columnist Will Rogers, left, and his friend and pilot, Wiley Post, left California in August 1935 on their ill-fated trip north to explore a new route to Europe over Alaska and Siberia. Post had a hybrid airplane custom made for the grand adventure. It was the last trip the two would ever […]