Iñupiaq men in qayaqs, Noatak, Alaska, circa 1929. Edward S. Curtis Collection, Library of Congress Digital Collections.
Crossing the Chilkoot Pass, circa 1898. Courtesy Candy Waugaman and Klondike Gold Rush National Historical Park.
The Gold Rush boomtown of Nome on the Seward Peninsula, 1900. Courtesy of U.S. Geological Survey Photographic Library.
Alaskana is an annotated listing of recent publications on the North featured in Alaska History, the journal of the Alaska Historical Society.
Compiled by Bruce Merrell, Alaska Bibliographer at the Z. J. Loussac Library in Anchorage.
Cynthea Ainsworth, Katie John and Fred John, Mentasta Remembers (Mentasta Lake, AK: Mentasta Traditional Council, 2002), 95 pp., paper, $24.99 plus postage, ISBN 0-9716032-0-0, P.O. Box 6019, Mentasta Lake, AK 99780. Culture of an Interior Alaskan village, illustrated with historical photographs.
Alaska’s Kenai Peninsula: The Road We’ve Traveled (Hope: Kenai Peninsula Historical Association, 2002), 227 pp., paper, $19.95 plus postage, P.O. Box 41, Hope, AK 99605. “Two books in one: text and photographs from L. H. Allen’s 1946 book Alaska’s Kenai Peninsula and community histories written by contemporary authors.”
Joyce L. Alig, Old Gold Rush to Alaska Diaries of 1898-1900 (Celina, OH: Mercer County Historical Society, 2001), 320 pp., cloth, $35.00 plus postage, ISBN 1-891095-13-7, 130 East Market Street, Box 512, Celina, OH 45822-0512. “A true story of Ohioans and their Alaska gold prospecting in the Yukon, Koyukuk, Tanana & Chena Rivers’ Wilderness from their original, unpublished diaries, letters & photographs.”
Lisa Augustine, The Dragline Kid: A Gold-Miner’s Daughter from Hope, Alaska (Walnut Creek, CA: Hardscratch Press, 2002), 263 pp., paper, $24.00 plus postage, ISBN 0-9678989-3-5, 2358 Banbury Place, Walnut Creek, CA 94598-2347. Illustrated autobiography; the author was born in Hope after her parents moved there in 1937.
John P. Bagoy, Legends & Legacies: Anchorage 1910-1935 (Anchorage: Publications Consultants, 2001), 400 pp., paper, $29.95 plus postage, ISBN 1-888125-91-8, available at Cook Inlet Books, 415 West 5th Avenue, Anchorage, AK 99501. A long-time Anchorage resident describes the “first families” of Alaska’s largest city; illustrated with hundreds of photographs.
Ray Bilodeau, Ray Bilodeau, My Life Story (Waupun, WI: The Author, 2002), 120 pp., paper, request from Catherine FitzGerald-Eaton, 533 E. Jefferson St., Waupun, WI 53963. The author drove the Alcan Highway to Alaska in 1949 and spent decades hunting, fishing, and running small businesses.
Geoffrey T. Bleakley, Contested Ground: An Administrative History of Wrangell-St. Elias National Park and Preserve, Alaska, 1978-2001 (Anchorage: National Park Service, 2002), 391 pp., paper, request from Wrangell-St. Elias National Park and Preserve, P.O. Box 439, Copper Center, AK 99573. Includes much on the area before it became the nation’s largest park.
Franz Boas, Indian Myths & Legends from the North Pacific Coast of America: A Translation of Franz Boas’ 1895 Edition of Indianische Sagen von der Nord-Pacifischen Kuste Amerikas, edited and annotated by Randy Bouchard and Dorothy Kennedy (Vancouver, B.C.: Talonbooks, 2002), 702 pp., cloth, $65.00 plus postage, ISBN 0-88922-458-7, available at Cook Inlet Book Company, 415 West 5th Avenue, Anchorage, AK 99501. Previously untranslated, this is the work of the British Columbia Indian Language Project and includes texts from Tsimshian, Haida and Tlingit cultures.
Sharon Bushell, compiler and editor, We Alaskans: Stories of People Who Helped Build the Great Land (Homer: Road Tunes Media, 2002), 222 pp., paper, $18.95 plus postage, ISBN 0-9721725-0-5, 534 West Cowles, Homer, AK 99603. Memories of Alaskan old-timers, told in their own words and collected from the author’s columns in the Anchorage Daily News.
David S. Case and David A. Voluck, Alaska Natives and American Laws, second edition (Fairbanks: University of Alaska Press, 2002), 515 pp., cloth, $60.00 plus $4.50 postage, ISBN 1-889963-07-0 or paper, $29.95 plus $4.50 postage, ISBN 1-889963-08-9, P.O. Box 756240, Fairbanks, AK 99775-6240. A major revision of an Alaskan classic, discussing the history and unique relationship of Alaskan Natives and the federal government.
Larry Clarke, Chitina Past: The Late Forties (Mansfield, OH: BookMaster’s, 2002), 119 pp., paper, $12.95 plus postage, ISBN 0-9722934-0-X, available at Cook Inlet Books, 415 West 5th Avenue, Anchorage, AK 99501. The author remembers his teen years after World War II, with summers spent in the almost-ghost town of Chitina and winters attending high school in Cordova.
Charles Craighead and Bonnie Kreps, Arctic Dance: The Mardy Murie Story (Portland: Graphic Arts Center, 2002), 119 pp., paper, $19.95 plus postage, ISBN 1-55868-686-X, P.O. Box 10306, Portland, OR 97296-0306. Illustrated biography of a lifetime environmentalist, and the first woman to graduate from the University of Alaska. A videorecording by the same title has been produced by the Sierra Club.
Katharine Carson Crittenden, Get Mears!: Frederick Mears, Builder of the Alaska Railroad (Portland, OR: Binford & Mort, 2002), 285 pp., cloth, $35.00 plus postage, ISBN 0-8323-0550-2 or paper, $19.95 plus postage, ISBN 0-8323-0551-0, 5245 NE Elam Parkway, Hillsboro, OR 97124-6455. Life story of an Army engineer in charge of constructing the Alaska Railroad between 1915 and 1923.
Julie Decker, John Hoover: Art and Life (Anchorage: Anchorage Museum of History and Art and University of Washington Press, 2002), 183 pp., cloth, $50.00 plus postage, ISBN 0-295-98177-6 or paper, $35.00 plus postage, ISBN 0-295-98221-7, 121 W. Seventh Avenue, Anchorage, AK 99501. Life and work of the son of a Dutch father and an Aleut-Russian mother, born and raised in Cordova and still producing distinctive wood sculptures in his eighties.
Jeff Dickrell, Center of the Storm: The Bombing of Dutch Harbor and the Experience of Patrol Wing Four in the Aleutians, Summer 1942 (Missoula: Pictorial Histories Publishing, 2001), 126 pp., paper, $12.95 plus postage, ISBN 1-57510-092-4, 713 South Third West, Missoula, MT 59801. History of a PBY amphibious bomber unit during World War II.
Nikolai N. Dikov, The Chini Cemetery (A History of Sea Mammal Hunters in Bering Strait), translated by Richard L. Bland (Anchorage: Shared Beringian Heritage Program, National Park Service, 2002), 163 pp., paper, request from 2525 Gambell Street, Room 107, Anchorage, AK 99503-2892. Description and interpretation of an ancient Eskimo cemetery at the far eastern edge of Chukotka, translated from the 1974 Russian edition.
Annette Alderson Edwards, A Saga of a Cheechako Clan (Kearney, NE: Morris Publishing, 2001), 226 pp., paper, $15.00 postpaid, ISBN 0-9713085-0-0, order from the author, P.O. Box 415, Bryant, AR 72089. Story of a family that drove up the Alcan Highway to Alaska in 1947.
Eklutna Hydroelectric Project, Palmer, Alaska [Juneau?]: Alaska Power Administration, U.S. Department of Energy, [1999?], 10 pp., paper, request from Office of History and Archeology, 550 W. 7th Avenue, Suite 1310, Anchorage, AK 99501-3565. History of the plant, built in the early 1950s.
Judy Ferguson, Parallel Destinies: An Alaskan Odyssey (Big Delta, AK: Glas Publishing Co., 2002), 147 pp., paper, $19.95 plus postage, ISBN 0-9716044-0-1, Box 130, Delta Junction, AK 99737. Illustrated biography of John Hajdukovich and Rika Wallen, pioneers of the Tanana River valley.
Ed Ferrell, Biographies of Alaska-Yukon Pioneers, 1850-1950, Volume 4 (Bowie, MD: Heritage Books, 2000), 350 pp., paper, $31.00 plus postage, ISBN 0-7884-1500-X, 1540E Pointer Ridge Place, Bowie, MD 20716. “A cross section of the men and women who went North during the gold rush era,” drawn from newspaper and magazine articles.
Laurae Fortner-Welch, Big Lake, Alaska Beginnings (Big Lake: Big Lake Library Advocates, 2002), 174 pp., paper, $19.95 plus postage, ISBN 0-9721139-0-8, P.O. Box 520024, Big Lake, AK 99652. History of homesteading and recreation in a Susitna Valley community.
Stephen Haycox, Alaska: An American Colony (Seattle: University of Washington Press, 2002), 372 pp., cloth, $29.95 plus postage, ISBN 0-295-09249-7, Box 50096, Seattle, WA 98145-5096. An examination of how Alaska’s destiny has been shaped by “outside” politics and economics.
Stephen Haycox, Frigid Embrace: Politics, Economics and Environment in Alaska (Corvallis: Oregon State University Press, 2002), 180 pp., paper, $21.95 plus postage, ISBN 0-87071-536-4, 101 Waldo Hall, Corvallis, OR 97331-6407. The author discusses the question, “how have Alaskan settlers’ ideas about their environment affected and directed their approaches to indigenous people and the region’s natural resource wealth?”
Kristy Hollinger, The Early Electrification of Anchorage (Ft. Collins, CO: Center for Environmental Management of Military Lands, Colorado State University, 2002), 58 pp., spiral-bound, request from Natural Resource Branch, U.S. Army Alaska, Fort Richardson, AK 99505-6500. History of the original hydroelectric plant at Eklutna, which operated from 1929 to 1955.
Kristy Hollinger, Homesteads on Fort Richardson, Alaska (Ft. Collins, CO: Center for Environmental Management of Military Lands, Colorado State University, 2002), 105 pp., spiral-bound, request from Natural Resource Branch, U.S. Army Alaska, Fort Richardson, AK 99505-6500. A study of early settlers and their homesteads in the area now occupied by Fort Richardson in Anchorage.
Katherine Johnson, Buried Dreams: The Rise and Fall of a Clam Cannery on the Katmai Coast (Anchorage: Lake Clark Katmai Studies Center, National Park Service, 2002), 124 pp., paper, request from Lake Clark Katmai Studies Center, 4230 University Drive, Suite 311, Anchorage, AK 99508. Illustrated history of southcentral Alaska’s Kukak Cannery and its workers.
Lee Jordan, Starlight Memories: A Collection of his Favorite Columns Reflecting More Than a Half-Century of Alaskancy (Chugiak: Samson Press, 2002), 286 pp., paper, $24.95 plus postage, ISBN 0-9721166-0-5, 20610 Jayhawk Drive, Chugiak, AK 99567. Newspaper columns from the Chugiak-Eagle River Star.
Dean W. Kohlhoff, Amchitka and the Bomb: Nuclear Testing in Alaska (Seattle: University of Washington Press, 2002), 166 pp., cloth, $25.00 plus postage, ISBN 0-295-98255-1, P. O. Box 50096, Seattle, WA 98145-5096. A study of political and environmental events relating to three underground nuclear tests held on an Aleutian Island in the 1960s-70s.
David P. Light, Brothers in Harmony: The Haines Alaska Native Brotherhood Founders (Anchorage: The Author, 2002), 43 pp., paper, $15.00 plus postage, 3444 E. 17th Avenue, Anchorage, AK 99508. Illustrated history of this southeast Alaskan organization, with short biographies of thirty-two founding members.
Ellen Louise Kittredge Lopp, Ice Window: Letters from a Bering Strait Village, 1892-1902, edited and annotated by Kathleen Lopp Smith and Verbeck Smith (Fairbanks: University of Alaska Press, 2002), 392 pp., cloth, $45.00 plus $5.00 postage, ISBN 1-889963-20-8 or paper, $19.95 plus $5.00 postage, ISBN 1-889963-21-6, P. O. Box 756240-UAF, Fairbanks, AK 99775. A young schoolteacher’s letters from an isolated village in northwest Alaska, edited by her granddaughter.
Kenneth L. Marsh, A River Between Us: The Upper Susitna River Valley, A Historical Story Collection (Trapper Creek, AK: Trapper Creek Museum Sluice Box Productions, 2002), 267 pp., paper, $19.95 plus postage, ISBN 0-9718302-0-7, P.O. Box 13011, Trapper Creek, AK 99683. A century’s worth of illustrated anecdotes about this southcentral Alaskan region.
Lisa Mighetto, Hard Drive to the Klondike: Promoting Seattle During the Gold Rush (Seattle: University of Washington Press, 2002), 154 pp., paper, $19.95 plus postage, ISBN 0-295-98227-6, P.O. Box 50096, Seattle, WA 98145-5096. Illustrated story of how Seattle expanded into a major city because of its role supplying the mining boom far to the north.
Wallace M. Olson, Through Spanish Eyes: The Spanish Voyages to Alaska, 1774-1792 (Auke Bay, AK: Heritage Research, 2002), 586 pp., paper, $60.00 plus postage, ISBN 0-9659-009-1-6, P. O. Box 210961, Auke Bay, AK 99821. English translations of thirty-one journals kept by officers on seven expeditions to Alaska and the Queen Charlotte Islands. Includes charts with the track of each voyage and a lengthy appendix containing other supporting material.
Andrew Patrick, The Most Striking of Objects: The Totem Poles of Sitka National Historical Park (Anchorage: National Park Service, 2002), 194 pp., paper, request from Alaska Support Office, National Park Service, 2525 Gambell Street, Anchorage, AK 99503. Illustrated guide to an assemblage of Native art that has enriched this southeast Alaska town for almost a century.
Kathy Price, Homesteads on Fort Wainwright, Alaska (Ft. Collins, CO: Center for Environmental Management of Military Lands, Colorado State University, 2002), 72 pp., spiral-bound, request from Natural Resource Branch, U.S. Army Alaska, Fort Richardson, AK 99505-6500. History of land ownership on a military base near Fairbanks from 1904 through 1961.
Anna Reid, The Shaman’s Coat: A Native History of Siberia (New York: Walker and Company, 2002), 226 pp., cloth, $25.00 plus postage, ISBN 0-8027-1399-8, 435 Hudson Street, New York, NY 10014. Story of the indigenous peoples of Siberia, including the residents of Chukotka.
Penny Rennick, editor, From Kodiak to Unalaska, Volume 29, Number 4 of Alaska Geographic (Anchorage: Alaska Geographic Society, 2002), 96 pp., paper, $23.95 plus $3.00 postage, ISBN 1-56661-059-1, P.O. Box 93370, Anchorage, AK 99509-3370. Pre-history, history, and geography of Alaska’s southwest coast.
Penny Rennick, editor, Territory of Alaska, Volume 29, Number 3 of Alaska Geographic (Anchorage: Alaska Geographic Society, 2002), 96 pp., paper, $23.95 plus $3.00 postage, ISBN 1-56661-060-5, P.O. Box 93370, Anchorage, AK 99509-3370. Illustrated history, from purchase to statehood.
David Roberts, Escape from Lucania: An Epic Story of Survival (New York: Simon & Schuster, 2002), 206 pp., cloth, $23.00 plus postage, ISBN 0-7432-2432-9, Rockefeller Center, 1230 Avenue of the Americas, New York, NY 10020. Story of the 1937 first ascent of the highest unclimbed peak in North America, followed by a harrowing month-long hike out of the wilderness. Illustrated with photographs by one of the mountaineers, Brad Washburn.
Jim Ruotsala, Alaskan Wings: “The Golden Years”, 1935-1946 (Juneau: Seadrome Press, 2002), 185 pp., paper, $34.95 plus postage, ISBN 0-9658830-2-7, 2723 John Street, Juneau, AK 99801. Highlighted by dozens of historical photographs of airplanes and pilots; this is volume two in the author’s “Aviation in Southeast Alaska” series.
Steven J. Russell, Kalakala: Magnificent Vision Recaptured (Seattle: Puget Sound Press, 2002), 208 pp., cloth, $39.95 plus postage, ISBN 1-930809-00-X, 6523 California Avenue SW, PMB 292, Seattle, WA 98136. History of a 1935 Puget Sound ferry that presumably ended her career as a landlocked shrimp processor in Kodiak, but was refloated and returned to Seattle for restoration in 1998.
Roberta Sheldon, The Mystery of the Cache Creek Murders (Anchorage: Talkeetna Editions and Publication Consultants, 2001), 336 pp., paper, $17.95 plus postage, ISBN 1-888125-82-9, P.O. Box 221974, Anchorage, AK 99522-1974. In 1939, four brutal murders occurred at three separate locations on a single day in a remote gold-mining region near Talkeetna.
Jill Shepherd, editor, The Last Frontier: Incredible Tales of Survival, Exploration, and Adventure from Alaska Magazine (Guilford, CT: Lyons Press, 2002), 320 pp., cloth, $24.95 plus postage, ISBN 1-58574-585-5, Guilford, CT 06437. “Fifty-nine stories representing sixty-seven years of the best writing in Alaska.”
Ed Shields, Salt of the Sea: The Pacific Coast Cod Fishery and the Last Days of Sail (Lopez Island, WA: Pacific Heritage Press, 2001), 238 pp., cloth, $39.95 plus postage, 476 Old Homestead Road, Lopez Island, WA 98261. Richly illustrated with historic photos, this is the story of sail-powered codfish schooners that came north to the Bering Sea. The author was skipper of the C. A. Thayer and made the last voyage in 1950.
William E. Simeone and James Kari, Traditional Knowledge and Fishing Practices of the Ahtna of Copper River, Alaska (Juneau: Alaska Department of Fish and Game, Division of Subsistence, 2002), 189 pp., spiral-bound, request from Alaska Department of Fish and Game, P.O. Box 25526, Juneau, AK 99802-5526. Includes maps, place names and bilingual interviews.
Diane Solie Smith, The Legend of Lillian Alling: The Woman Who Walked to Russia (Atlin, B.C.: Atlin Historical Society, 1997), 18 pp., paper, $5.95 plus postage, ISBN 0-9680193-1-5, P.O. Box 111, Atlin, B.C. V0W 1A0. Part history, part legend, this is the story of an immigrant woman who arrived in New York City in 1927 and decided to return to Russia via Canada and Alaska.
J. L. Smith, The First Kamchatka Expedition of Vitus Bering, 1725-1730 (Anchorage: White Stone Press, 2002), 131 pp., cloth, $15.00 postpaid, ISBN 0962672777, 2314 Marian Bay Circle, Anchorage, AK 99515. The exploration narrative is followed by an appendix containing translations of twenty-four documents.
J. L. Smith, Russia’s Search for America, 1716-1732 (Anchorage: White Stone Press, 2002), 183 pp., cloth, $15.00 postpaid, ISBN 0962672769, 2314 Marian Bay Circle, Anchorage, AK 99515. Translations of documents relating to early Russian explorations into the Bering Sea, illustrated with photographs and map reproductions.
India M. Spartz, Eight Stars of Gold: The Story of Alaska’s Flag (Juneau: Alaska State Museums, 2001), 22 pp., paper, request from Alaska State Museum, 395 Whittier Street, Juneau, AK 99801. Exhibit catalog about the state flag and song of Alaska.
Dennis Sperl, In the Wake of an Alaskan Mailboat: Life and Times Along a Sea-going Mail Route (Petersburg: The Author, 2001), 304 pp., paper, $24.95 plus postage, ISBN 0-9716235-0-3, P.O. Box 921, Petersburg, AK 99833. Anecdotal history of carrying the mail by boat in southeast Alaska, particularly aboard the Yakobi.
Bryan B. and Frances N. Sterling, Forgotten Eagle: Wiley Post, America’s Heroic Aviation Pioneer (New York: Carroll & Graf, 2001), 371 pp., cloth, $27.00 plus postage, ISBN 0-7867-0894-8, 161 William Street, New York, NY 10038. Biography of an aviator who died in an airplane crash near Barrow in 1935, along with humorist Will Rogers.
Tarahne Tea Cookbook (Atlin, B.C.: Atlin Historical Society, 1997), 70 pp., comb-bound, $9.95 plus postage, ISBN 0-9680193-2-3, P.O. Box 111, Atlin, B.C. V0W 1A0. Scattered between recipes is the illustrated story of the M.V. Tarahne, built in 1917 to carry tourists and now beached on the shore of Atlin Lake. A formal 1920s-style tea party is held aboard the vessel annually to raise funds for her ongoing restoration.
Dirk Tordoff, Mercy Pilot: The Joe Crosson Story (Kenmore, WA: Epicenter Press, 2002), 254 pp., paper, $17.95 plus postage, ISBN 0-9708493-7-0, P.O. Box 82368, Kenmore, WA 98028. Biography of an Alaskan aviator who began his career in Fairbanks in 1926.
Velma Wallis, Raising Ourselves: A Gwich’in Coming of Age Story from the Yukon River (Kenmore, WA: Epicenter Press, 2002), 212 pp., cloth, $19.95 plus postage, ISBN 0-9708493-0-3, P.O. Box 82368, Kenmore, WA 98028. An Athabaskan Native’s memories of growing up in Fort Yukon, Alaska.
Graham Wilson, editor, The Last Great Gold Rush: A Klondike Reader (Whitehorse: Wolf Creek Books, 2002), 223 pp., paper, $14.95 plus postage, ISBN 0-9687091-2-5, Box 31275, Whitehorse, Yukon Y1A 5P7. An anthology of classic texts, including fiction, poetry, and non-fiction.
