Delayed M/J Issue

The May-June, 2020 issue of Alaskan History Magazine is currently at the printer, but with delays in production and potential delays in delivery, the issue will possibly not arrive until around the first of June.

The digital edition will be available at issuu by May 10th. If you are a subscriber or have purchased a single issue and would like to access the digital magazine, simply send me an email and I will return the access code to read or download that issue.

The May-June, 2020 issue of Alaskan History Magazine features articles on the Matanuska Colony Project, the 1918 influenza epidemic, an unusual stone storehouse built in 1896 in Hyder, a pioneering packhorse trip to the upper reaches of Kluane Lake, Stephen Birch and the Kennecott Copper Company, and the wide-ranging travels of Archdeacon Hudson Stuck, who ministered via dog team and riverboat across the northern reaches of the Alaska territory.

Production of the July-August issue is underway, and my plan is to have publication and mailing back on schedule to arrive in mailboxes the first week of July.

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Digital Editions

Digital subscriptions to Alaskan History Magazine are available at Issuu, the digital magazine electronic publishing platform which was named one of Time magazine’s 50 Best Websites.

Single issues are $2.50, a digital subscription is $12.00 for one year (6 issues). All digital issues are free to print subscribers (contact for access code).

The first three issues of Alaskan History Magazine are available to read online, download, or share via email, Facebook, Twitter or Pinterest. The first three digital issues are free to view; issues after Sept-Oct, 2019 are available only to print or digital subscribers, and those who purchase the digital or corresponding print issue of the magazine.

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May-June 2020

The May-June, 2020 issue of Alaskan History Magazine features articles on the following topics:

• The 1935 government social experiment known as the Matanuska Colony Project, which brought 200 farm families to Palmer.

• A unique historic look at the 1918 influenza epidemic from the Alaskan legislature, in which Governor Thomas Riggs, Jr. explained the situation.

• The pioneering packhorse trip of the English journalist E. J. Glave and the cowboy trailblazer Jack Dalton, from the coast near Haines to the upper reaches of Kluane Lake.

• Stephen Birch and the Kennecott Copper Company, and the infamous Alaska Syndicate.

• The wide-ranging travels of Archdeacon Hudson Stuck, who ministered via dog team and riverboat across the northern reaches of the Alaska territory.

• The history of an unusual stone storehouse built in 1896 in Hyder, on the border of Alaska and Canada.

Additional regular columns will make this another wonderful and wide-ranging exploration of Alaskan history!

To order the May-June issue, or back issues, or to subscribe, visit this page.

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Yellowstone Kelly

Luther Sage “Yellowstone” Kelly

An Indian Scout in Alaska, by Thomas J. Eley, PhD.

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In the March-April issue of Alaskan History Magazine, historian Thomas J. Eley, PhD., who describes himself as an Itinerant Geographer, shares the story of Luther Sage “Yellowstone” Kelly, an Indian scout who contributed greatly to the explorations of territorial Alaska.

Born in New York on July 27, 1849, Luther Kelly lied about his age, joined the Union Army, and fought in the final days of the Civil War, most notably the occupation of Richmond, Virginia. After the war he headed west, to the Yellowstone River Valley where he hunted, trapped, explored and gained fame for his knowledge of the Yellowstone country. This knowledge got him recruited by the Army as a scout, interpreter, guide, dispatch rider, and to conduct special assignments, earning his nickname, “Yellowstone” Kelly, and he was selected Chief of Scouts by Brig. Gen. Nelson A. Miles.

Kelly’s party crossing Portage Glacier with Lt. H.G. Learnard in the lead followed by Luther Kelly.  [Photo taken in 1898 by Walter Mendenhall, USGS, and courtesy of the USGS, public domain.]

In 1898, General Miles dispatched Expedition Number 3, under the command of Capt. Edwin Glenn (1857-1926), with the mission being to explore and map, as well as to find a transportation corridor for a railroad or wagon paths from ice-free ports (Portage Bay [Whittier] and Seward) to the Yukon and Tanana Rivers (Learnard 1900 and Yanert 1900a and 1900b).  Luther Kelly, then 49, was assigned to this expedition by General Miles as chief scout and tracker. Eley’s article details Kelly’s travels with the other expedition members, including USGS Geologist Walter Mendenhall, from Portage Bay, across the Portage Glacier, over Crow Pass on what would become known as the Kelly Trail, around Knik Arm to Knik.

The following year, 1899, the wealthy railroad magnate Edward Harriman organized an expedition to explore the coast of Alaska, aboard his own private steamship.  Harriman brought with him a group of noted scientists, artists, photographers, naturalists, hunting guides, chefs, family members and taxidermists to explore and document the Alaskan coast. Harriman’s personal goal for the expedition was to hunt Kodiak bear, and his personal guide was Luther Kelly. At the various stops, Kelly got off the ship and assisted the scientists. Arriving at Kodiak, Yellowstone Kelly guided Harriman on his hunt, and he got his bear.  

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You can read Dr. Eley’s entire article, with historic photos, in the March-April issue of Alaskan History Magazine.

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The Boundary Dispute

Excerpts from the article in the March-April, 2020 issue of Alaskan History Magazine:

When the United States purchased Alaska from the Russian Empire in 1867, one of the best real estate deals in history was sealed, but the U.S. government also inherited a few headaches, not the least of which was a contentious disagreement over the geographic boundaries between the southeastern part of the territory of Alaska and the province of British Columbia, which had recently joined the newly formed Canadian Confederation, whose foreign affairs were still under British authority. 

In 1871 the Canadian government requested a survey to determine the exact location of the border, but the United States rejected the idea as too costly because the border area was very remote and sparsely settled, and there was no economic or strategic interest in conducting a survey there. That was challenged with the Cassiar gold rush in 1862 and the Klondike gold strike in 1897 intensified the pressure to survey the border. 

The Canadian and American representatives favored their respective governments’ territorial claims, and the Canadians, outraged by what they considered a betrayal by their colonial government, refused to sign the final decision, but the question had been put to binding arbitration, the decision took effect, and the resolution was issued on October 20, 1903. You can read the entire article, and many others, in the March-April issue.

For more information:

• Statement of Facts Regarding the Alaska Boundary Question, Compiled for the Govt. of British Columbia (1902) 

• The Alaska Boundary Line T. C. Mendenhall (1900) 

• Alaska-Canada Boundary Dispute by Murray Lundberg, at ExploreNorth 

• The Alaska Boundary Dispute: A Critical Reappraisal, by Norman Penlington (1972)

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Alaskan History Magazine is an independently produced magazine dedicated to portraying the colorful and important past of the Last Frontier as an interesting and exciting journey of exploration. The style is conversational, yet confident and informative, thoroughly researched to bring the true stories of the people, places and events which shaped Alaskan history to a wide readership. Subscribe, order all the back issues, or just order a single issue click this link.

 

“My Dear Mother”: Dr. James T. White

“My Dear Mother”: Dr. James Taylor White

Edited by Gary C. Stein, from the March-April, 2020 issue of Alaskan History Magazine: 

In February 1894 Treasury Secretary John G. Carlisle authorized Captain Michael A. Healy to employ Seattle physician James Taylor White as surgeon for the upcoming Arctic cruise of the U.S. Revenue Cutter Bear. This was White’s third cruise to Alaska for the department’s Revenue-Cutter Service, a predecessor of the U.S. Coast Guard. In 1894 White participated in missionary Sheldon Jackson’s three-year-old project transporting domesticated Siberian reindeer to Alaska to prevent supposed starvation among Alaska’s Native population.

Iconic shot of the USRC Bear

White was an astute observer. Not only a physician, he was an avid naturalist and amateur ethnographer. Everything he saw interested him. While his 1894 diary thoroughly describes people and places he encountered, there is a briefer source offering another perspective of that summer on the Bear. His personal correspondence is in the Alaska and Polar Regions Collection and Archives at the University of Alaska Fairbanks. He wrote extensively to his mother, Ione Taylor White, throughout his 1894 cruise describing not only what he saw but his personal opinions as well, some of which material never entered his diary.

White boarded the Bear at San Francisco in mid-April. At the end of that month the cutter sailed to Seattle for coal and then stood north for Sitka, arriving at Alaska’s capital on May 11. By early June the Bear had cruised along Prince William Sound to Kodiak Island.

Kodiak circa 1900

My dear Mother:

We left St. Paul [harbor], Kadiak Island yesterday. … After having been in smooth water so long it rather upsets one to be suddenly plunging into a rough sea. Strange to say it affects me very little and I have noticed, as well as others, that it has little or no effect on my appetite. 

The trip has been delightful and peaceable. On the whole we have a nice set of officers and no trouble has been experienced, though it is rather too early to talk much. If all is as well when we get through the Arctic part of the trip as now I will be thankful, for that is when it tries one to the utmost. Mrs. H— [Mary Jane Healy, the Captain’s wife] is very pleasant to all and I think influences the Capt. more than he or anyone else imagines.

The Bear in Dutch Harbor, 1897-98

Dutch Harbor Alaska. June 11^th ‘94

My dear Mother:

Dutch Harbor is the headquarters of the new trading company [North American Transportation and Trading Company], and as it is their interests we are to look after we stay here. It is only a couple of miles from Unalaska, so we spend most of our time there. I went over yesterday to attend some of the school children, and I am going in today to patch up a broken head.

Just when we leave here for the Arctic I don’t know but presume it will be about the 16^th inst. We have received no mail so far and if the mail steamer is not on time, we will not receive any until next September. Not knowing how things are there I can but hope and wish that all of you are well and that my letters when received will speak of good and happy times.

Today is beautiful, bright and warm. We are taking on coal and everything is dirty and upset. To be continued in my next—-

I remain, well and contented, your affectionate Son

James.

For More Information:

• Gary C. Stein “‘A Desperate and Dangerous Man’: Captain Michael A. Healy’s Arctic Cruise of 1900.” The Alaska Journal, 15 (Spring 1985): 39-45. 

• Gary C. Stein “‘The Old Man is Good and Drunk Now’: Captain Michael A. Healy and the Cruise of 1889.” Alaska History, 24 (Spring 2009): 16-43.

• Gary C. Stein “‘Their Feast of Death’: The Wreck of the Whaler James Allen.” Coriolis, 7 (No. 2, 2017): 21-48.

• Smithsonian Institution, National Museum of Natural History, Dept. of Botany Collections.

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Alaskan History Magazine is an independently produced magazine dedicated to portraying the colorful and important past of the Last Frontier as an interesting and exciting journey of exploration. The style is conversational, yet confident and informative, thoroughly researched to bring the true stories of the people, places and events which shaped Alaskan history to a wide readership.

Published bimonthly by Northern Light Media. Full color, no advertising. Subscribe, order all the back issues, or just order a single issue at this link.

The Early Settlement of Valdez

From the March-April issue of Alaskan History Magazine:

The Pathfinder is the official publication of the Pioneers of Alaska, a fraternal group which traces its history to the Yukon Order of Pioneers, organized at Fortymile in 1898. The following article on the early settlement of Valdez is from The Pathfinder, February, 1920. The issue is available to read or download at Google Books.

On the 22nd day of September, 1897, the schooner Laninfa sailed from San Francisco with 33 passengers aboard enroute to the mouth of the Copper River in Alaska. They had been told that they could navigate this river with small power boats and were fully equipped to make a trip up that turbulent stream. On their arrival at Orca they learned that it was impossible for them to ascend the Copper River with any kind of boat, so about 20 of the men in the party chartered a cannery craft and came on up to Valdez Bay having been told that men had gone to the Copper River by that route thus landing above the glaciers and rapids of that river. The cannery boat carrying 22 men came into Valdez Bay on the 10th day of November, 1897 and landed its passengers at the place now known as Swanport, just below where Fort Liscum now is built. This was the first settlement on the shores of Valdez Bay.

Schooner Moonlight in Valdez Bay, March, 1898. Neal Benedict [ASL Neal D. Benedict Collection P201-009]

Sometime in December, about a month after the landing of the Swanport party, the schooner Bering Sea hove into port with a large number of passengers bound for the Klondike by way of the Copper River.  In February, 1898, the steamer Valencia arrived in the Bay with 600 passengers, and crafts of all kinds then came thick and fast until there were over 4,000 men climbing over the glacier bound for the Copper River enroute to the Klondike. In 1898 Capt. Abercrombie arrived in Valdez Bay for the purpose of opening a road from the Bay to the Interior. 

In the winter of 1898 a group of gold seekers traveled to Alaska aboard the schooner Moonlight, bound for Valdez and the Copper River country beyond its great glacier. Among these prospectors were Charles Margeson, who would write a book of their adventures (Experiences of Gold Hunters in Alaska, 1899), and Neal D. Benedict, who took many photographs. 

Arriving in Valdez Bay in March, 1898, Margeson was dismayed to find not the wharf they’d expected, but a large shelf of ice extending a long ways out into the bay. He described their landing and unloading, and what they found when going ashore: 

“About a mile from where the schooner was anchored was a piece of timber containing two or three hundred acres, and running down through this was a clear stream of pure water. In the edge of this timber, and near this little stream, were about one hundred tents, clustered together, and others were being set up. This unique camp—for it was about that—presented a scene of unusual activity. Some were tramping down the snow, preparing a place to put up their tents; some were cutting tent poles, and others were cutting firewood, while others were getting their dog teams ready for hauling their goods up to the foot of the glacier, which was five miles away.”

Learn more about early Valdez

• Valdez Museum & Historical Archives  

• Experiences of Gold Hunters in Alaska, Charles Margeson 

• History of the Valdez Trail National Park Service 

• History of Valdez 

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Single back issues of Alaskan History Magazine, which carries no advertising in its 48 page 8.5” x 11” full-color format, are available for $10.00 each postpaid (U.S. only). Subscriptions (6 issues) are $48.00 per year (postpaid). For more information click here.