The steel-hulled square-rigger sailing ship, the Star of Russia, bought by the Alaska Packers Association on November 1st, 1901, would run aground less than four years later. The ship ran aground on Chirikof Island on July 29th, 1905. There were no lives lost and it was soon refloated and repaired at a cost of $56,000 […]
In March of 1898, Colonel Thomas M Anderson and a battalion of the 14th U.S. Infantry established Camp Dyea approximately six miles north of the newly built boomtown of Dyea. The location for the camp was poorly chosen, having no potable water and poor accessibility. By October, 1898, the camp pulled up stakes and moved […]
It was on July 27th, 1912, that the last roadblock barring Alaska from becoming a territory was overcome when the district of Alaska agreed to accept the U.S. Senate’s amendments to Alaska’s establishment of home rule. This agreement opened the way for the passage of the Second Organic Act establishing the Territory of Alaska and […]
Austin “Cap” Lathrop, long called Alaska’s first millionaire, spent over five decades in Alaska after purchasing a steamboat and moving to Alaska in the mid-1890s. He made his fortune through investments in Alaska. It was on July 26th, 1950 that the aged Lathrop was crushed when, at 84, he fell beneath the wheels of a […]