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 […]
After three days of fighting a raging wildfire that swept down the hillside threatening to burn the town, the residents of Skagway finally breathed a collective sigh of relief when the fire was finally put into check. While many community members could finally step back from their firefighting efforts, 200 people were left on the […]
On July 21st, 1917, a salmon tender pulled into Seward with news of deaths in the major storms that had encompassed Cook Inlet. The crew on the tender reported that five fishermen were lost and two Kenai fish traps had been washed away as the storms lashed the coastline there. Fish traps dotted the seascape […]