My 2-year-old grandson Aiden is crazy about dinosaurs. So much so that we decorated his birthday cake last weekend with small brontosaurus, nanosaurus and T-rex replicas. He received an abundance of dinosaur-themed gifts, too, including dino sippy cups, dino books, dino imprinted T-shirts and a multitude of dinosaur toys. I went to bed Sunday night […]
Archbishop of Vancouver Island murdered near Nulato
When Archbishop of Vancouver Island Charles John Seghers journeyed down the Yukon River in November 1886, he had no way of knowing he would never return to civilization. The Catholic priest, who originally came from Belgium, had spent many years doing missionary work in Canada and Alaska. Seghers first came to Alaska in 1873, as […]
Black Wolf Squadron touches down in Nome
Soon after the end of World War I, Brigadier Gen. William “Billy” Mitchell organized a flight of four De Havilland DH-4B aircraft from Mineola, New York, to Nome. The general wanted to show that airplanes could play an integral part in the nation’s defense. The Alaska flying expedition was named the Black Wolf Squadron. The […]
Baseball in the Arctic 1894
As the days get longer and winter begins to wane, the boys of summer are gearing up for another awesome season of baseball – a mainstay in Alaska for generations. Before Anchorage had plotted out its main street on Fourth Avenue in 1915, baseball teams faced off near the mud flats to put bats to […]
Alaska’s archaeological sites explored
Theories about how and when Alaska became inhabited with people ebb and flow like the state’s rivers. Archeologists pretty much agree that Alaska’s mainland was physically and ecologically a part of Asia 10,000 years ago, and that the Bering Strait was a grassy land area that separated the Bering Sea to the south and the […]
Earthquakes and Alaska landscapes
Alaska’s earthquake history has been written on its landscape – its riverbeds, glaciers and mountains – in the centuries before and since man set foot on the Great Land. Most of the early earthquake accounts are fragmentary. There are mentions of two in the Aleutians and the Alaska Peninsula as early as 1786 and 1788, […]
Trappers help economy throughout Alaska History
Trappers helped to build the economy throughout Alaska history. These adventurous souls didn’t search the creek beds and mountains for golden riches. Instead they chose to make their fortunes through trapping furs. From early in the fall to the close of trapping season in April, many trappers traveled miles and miles of trap lines with […]
Petroglyphs found in Alaska history
Not only is Alaska history steeped in fur trading, whale harvesting and gold mining. It also has drawings on rocks that are usually associated with primitive people in exotic far-away lands. Greek for rock carving, petroglyphs are among many enigmas of science. Because their true meanings are elusive, they remain a mysterious link to a […]
Historic Alaskan Names Along The Koyukuk
It seems fitting to devote this May blog to the woolly mammoths that roamed the earth 10,000-15,000 years ago. Scientists in Russia have discovered viable blood and tissue from the ancient creatures in ice along the Arctic Ocean and today are attempting to clone the animals back into existence, according to a recent article in […]