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- S/O Alaskan History Magazine
- Josephine Crumrine
- Alaskan Roadhouses
- July-August, 2020
- Hudson Stuck’s Sled Bag
- Alaskan Roadhouses
- Alaskan History Magazine News
- Suspension
- Leonhard Seppala House
- Rt. Rev. Peter Trimble Rowe
- The Alabama Claims
- Togo’s Serum Run
- A People at Large
- The Yukon Quest Trail
- Congressional Records & the ARR
- Sled Dog Movies
- A New Books Site
- Interesting Old Photos
- Old Alaskan Postcards
- Mush with PRIDE
- Seward’s Day
- The Ascent of Denali
- Project Jukebox: Mushing
- Across Alaska in 1907-08
- Tribute to a Sled Dog
- Planet Mackey
- Sled Dog Mail
- Iditarod National Historic Trail
- Addison Powell in Valdez
- Dog Gone Addiction
- W. T. Geisman, Photographer
- 1967 Centennial Race
- The Origins of Mushing
- 1911 Iditarod Sweepstakes
- The First Iditarod, 2nd Edition
- All Alaska Sweepstakes
- Sled Dog Tales
- Alaska & The Klondike
- Alaska Railroad 1902-1923
- Joe Redington, Sr.
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Category Archives: Alaska History
Hudson Stuck’s Sled Bag
The Episcopalian minister Hudson Stuck, known as the Archdeacon of the Yukon, published five books about his travels and adventures in Alaska, including Ten Thousand Miles with a Dog Sled, published in 1914.
In that book a photograph appears, and a sled bag can be seen hanging from the handlebars. That sled bag is on permanent display at the University of Alaska Museum of the North in Fairbanks. Continue reading
Alaskan Roadhouses
This 284-page book presents historic photos of dozens of individual roadhouses, along with the colorful histories are first-hand accounts of those who stayed at the roadhouses while traveling the early trails and roads of Alaska, including the Reverend Samuel Hall Young, Frank G. Carpenter, Judge James Wickersham, Leonhard Seppala, Col. Walter L. Goodwin, and Matilda Clark Buller, who opened a roadhouse near Nome in 1901, at the height of the Nome Gold Rush. Continue reading
Posted in Alaska History, Books, News & Information, Roadhouses
Tagged Alaskan Roadhouses, Col. Walter L. Goodwin, Fairbanks-McGrath Trail, Frank G. Carpenter, Helen Hegener, Jim Reardan, Judge James Wickersham, Lake Minchumina, Leonhard Seppala, Lone Star Roadhouse, Matilda Clark Buller, Nome, Sam O. White, Samuel Hall Young, Valdez-to-Fairbanks Trail
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Leonhard Seppala House
The Leonhard Seppala House was named as one of the Ten Most Endangered Historic Properties for 2020 by the Alaska Association for Historic Preservation, Inc., which is dedicated to the preservation of Alaska’s prehistoric and historic resources through education, promotion and advocacy. Preservation of the built environment provides a vital link and visible reminder of the past, emphasizing the continuity and diversity of Alaska. Continue reading
Posted in Alaska History, Gold Rush History, News & Information, Sled Dog History, Sled Dog Races
Tagged Balto, Fritz, Leonhard Seppala, Nome, Seppala House, Togo
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Rt. Rev. Peter Trimble Rowe
The Right Reverend Peter Trimble Rowe D.D. (1856-1942), appointed first Missionary Bishop of the Espicopal Church in Alaska in 1895, crossed the Chilkoot Trail and tended the medical needs of the Klondike gold miners and the Native peoples, eventually founding hospitals, churches, and boarding schools throughout the territory. Continue reading
The Alabama Claims
“The Alabama Claims were a series of demands for damages sought by the government of the United States from the United Kingdom in 1869, for the attacks upon Union merchant ships by Confederate Navy commerce raiders built in British shipyards during the American Civil War. The claims focused chiefly on the most famous of these raiders, the CSS Alabama, which took more than sixty prizes before she was sunk off the French coast in 1864.” Continue reading
Togo’s Serum Run
As the worldwide fight against the coronavirus goes on we are reminded almost daily that pandemics and epidemics have happened before, and we have struggled through them with far fewer resources and much less medical and scientific knowledge than we have now. That is a very real comfort, and lends a bit of perspective to what we are facing. One such epidemic was a deadly diphtheria outbreak which raged across Alaska almost 100 years ago. Continue reading
Posted in Alaska History, News & Information, Sled Dog History
Tagged Bering Sea, Bluff Roadhouse, Dexter Roadhouse, diphtheria, Dr. Curtis Welch, Elizabeth Ricker, Golovin, Governor Bone, Iditarod Trail, Isaac's Point, Kaltag, Leonhard Seppala, Manley Roadhouse, Minto Roadhouse, Nenana, Nome, Nulato, Olson Roadhouse, Port Safety Roadhouse, Scott Bone, Seppala, Serum Run, Shaktoolik, Siberian huskies, Solomon Roadhouse, The Cruelest Miles, Togo, Tolovana Roadhouse, Unalakleet, Unlakleet
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A People at Large
That more or less indefinite region north of the Yukon known as the Chandalar Country owes its name to one given by the early French-Canadian traders of the Hudson’s Bay Company to the singular native tribes that ranged there. Because these came from none knew where, recognizing no boundaries and taking to themselves no local designations, they were called gens de large––people at large. With peculiar fitness the name applies to all Alaskans, for in more ways than one we are a people at large. Continue reading
Posted in Alaska History, Books, News & Information
Tagged Anchorage, Chandalar, Chitina, Copper-Tints, Cordova, Eustace P. Ziegler, Fairbanks, Gulkana, Hudson's Bay Company, Iditarod, Interior, Juneau, Katherine Wilson, Ketchikan, Kodiak, Koyukuk, Kuskokwim, Nome, Nushagak, Paxson’s Roadhouse, Porcupine, Sitka, St. Michaels, Strelna or Kennekott, Tanana, The Trail
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The Yukon Quest Trail
The 2020 Yukon Quest International Sled Dog Race begins in Fairbanks at 11:00 am on February 1, and runs to Whitehorse, Yukon Territory; the Yukon Quest 300 starts at 3:00 pm the same day and runs to Circle, on the Yukon River. There are many exciting books about the race, and many written by the mushers who have run the race, but one book focuses on the trail between Fairbanks and Whitehorse, highlighting the incredible route followed by those mushers who accept the very real challenge of the Yukon Quest. Continue reading
Posted in Alaska History, Book Reviews, Books, News & Information, Sled Dog Races, Yukon Quest
Tagged Alaska, Dawson City, Eric Vercammen, Fairbanks, Helen Hegener, Lance Mackey, mushing, mushing history, Northern Light Media, Robert Service, Scott Chesney, sled dog race, sled dog racing, sled dogs, The Spell of the Yukon, Whitehorse, Yukon Quest
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Congressional Records & the ARR
There are a wealth of historic resources at the website for my book on the Alaska Railroad construction from 1902 to 1923. Most of the resources I used in researching the history and writing the book are there. Continue reading
Sled Dog Movies
Last year, 2018, was noted by the Chinese calendar’s zodiac as being the Year of the Dog, but this year, 2019, seems to be the Year of the Sled Dog, as film after film featuring heroic sled dogs is released to movie theaters and home streaming services. There are two movies about the great Serum Run to Nome during the 1925 diphtheria epidemic, one focusing on the champion musher Leonhard Seppala, and the other on his favorite lead dog, Togo. One is an independent production, the other is from the powerhouse film company Disney Studios, but both are absorbing stories, beautifully filmed. Another champion musher, the sprint racing legend George Attla, is the subject of a new PBS documentary, and one of the greatest dog stories of all time is brought to life by a great film legend, Harrison Ford. Pass the popcorn! Continue reading
Posted in Alaska History, DVD & Video, Movies, News & Information, Sled Dog History, Sled Dog Races, Videos
Tagged Attla, Brian Presley, Disney, George Attla, Harrison Ford, Huslia, Joe Bifelt, Leonhard Seppala, Nenana, Nome, Serum Run, Siberian huskies, sled dogs, The Call of the Wild, The Great Alaskan Race, Togo
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