Category: 49 History

Thu, March 20, 2014

1964 Earthquake Online Resources

by Karen Brewster With March 27 being the 50th anniversary of the Great Alaska Earthquake of 1964, check out these websites that have historical material about the quake. There is information of interest to students, teachers, journalists, historians, and the general public. Great Alaska Earthquake of 1964, Historical Research Portal, Archives and Special Collections, Consortium Library, University of Alaska Anchorage https://libguides.consortiumlibrary.org/ASCearthquakecollections With the website, UAA’s library provides a single location for researchers looking for primary source material about the earthquake,... (Read More)

Sat, March 15, 2014

Personal Memories of a Statewide Disaster: Ouzinkie in 1964

by Anjuli Grantham Earl and Merrle Carpenter lived in Ouzinkie in 1963 and 1964. (Kodiak Museum/ Kodiak Historical Society, P-914-38) After living through the undulations of March 27, 1964, Kodiak elder Iver Malutin measures earthquakes based on the amount of water that slops from a full glass. For years, a local basket weaver subconsciously made sure there was an escape route from beaches where her family played. Another elder recalls the infernal heat blaring on the inside of the Navy... (Read More)

Thu, March 06, 2014

Kodiak’s Summer of Exxon, 1989

by Rachel MasonI came back to Kodiak two months before the March 1989 Exxon Valdez Oil Spill to do ethnographic fieldwork for my dissertation on the occupational culture of commercial fishing. I had been going to graduate school in Virginia. When my Kodiak friends, who knew me as a cab driver and before that a cannery worker, heard that I had obtained an NSF grant and another grant to study fishing and drinking in Kodiak, they thought I must have... (Read More)

Sat, March 01, 2014

“Helping Hand” Military Response to Good Friday Earthquake

Editor's note: This month Alaskans will commemorate the 25th anniversary of the Exxon Valdez oil spill and the 50th anniversary of the Good Friday Earthquake. All month long this blog will feature posts on both events by a number of Alaska writers and historians. Check back often. We begin the series with this post by John Cloe about the military's earthquake response.by John Haile CloeThe Alaska Good Friday Earthquake began at 5:36 p.m., March 27, 1964, with a force that measured... (Read More)

Sat, February 22, 2014

Bristol Bay Pioneer Shipwright Charles Herrmann

by J. Pennelope GoforthLike many Alaskan pioneers of the Bristol Bay area, Charles Herrmann came for the salmon, married for love, and stayed to build boats. Today his work lives on in the ships and the ship models he designed for Alaska Packers Association. Charles Hermann on the dock at Koggiung, ca. 1950.Photo courtesy Adelheid HerrmannHerrmann was born in 1893 in the great port city of Kiel, in the Prussian state of Schleswig-Holstein. [1] Located on the south shore of the... (Read More)