Wed, May 01, 2013
Orin Seybert of Anchorage sent along this photo - taken Wednesday afternoon from his living room window - of the USS ANCHORAGE arriving for its commissioning this Saturday.Below we are re-posting a January column by Pennelope Goforth about the ANCHORAGE and other Navy vessels in Alaska waters.First USN Ship in Alaskan Waters on Humanitarian MissionBy Pennelope GoforthThe U.S. Navy has long and wide wake in the state’s history and is about to make history again with the commissioning of its...
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Thu, April 25, 2013
By: Wallace Fields (Note: This article is reprinted from the Kodiak Maritime Museum's Spring 2013 newsletter.) When Alaska was purchased by the United States in 1867, the salmon canning industry was just beginning. Salmon canneries were operating on the Sacramento and Columbia Rivers, and it wasn't long before canneries were being built further north in Puget Sound, Canada, and along the coast of Alaska. Kodiak Island's first cannery was built in 1882 on the Karluk Spit. By the end of...
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Tue, April 23, 2013
By Anjuli GranthamDuring the early twentieth century, the most visible signs of human settlement in most of coastal Alaska were dozens of isolated canneries. These industrial processing facilities were mini-towns in their own right, with their own stores, metal shops, and carpenters, in addition to port facilities and housing. Alaskan canneries were the most ethnically diverse enclaves in the territory, with Asians, Natives, Latinos, and Europeans rubbing shoulders as they sauntered down the docks. After all, it was the riches...
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Wed, April 17, 2013
Lee Ramer and his dog team and Gillam’s Swallow biplane inthe saddle of Bremner pass in the early 1930s. Bertha RamerCollection, McCarthy-Kennicott Historical Museum,McCarthy, Alaska.By Katie RingsmuthThe Wrangell Mountain Skyboys are represented by pilots whose names are recalled today by even the youngest Alaskans: Harold Gillam, Merritt D. “Kirk” Kirkpatrick, Merle “Mudhole” Smith, and Bob Reeve, “the Glacier Pilot.” Their competitive rivalries brought reliable air service to eastern Alaska, and eventually formed the primarily stops along a regularly scheduled flight route called,...
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Mon, April 15, 2013
By: Ross CoenWhen it came to Alaska fisheries, Anthony Dimond and W. C. Arnold didn’t see eye-to-eye very often. As the territory’s congressional delegate from 1933 to 1945, Dimond advocated local fisheries management, a hiring preference for Alaska residents, and the abolition of fish traps. As lawyer and lobbyist for the Seattle-based packing industry, Arnold opposed all of those things. On at least one point, however, the two men were in full agreement. In July 1937 at least ten and...
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