Old churn drill in the new snow – October 2015
We had some wet white slop fall about a month ago, but today we started getting a proper snowfall, a light dusting of dry fluffy snow. I went out to take photos and saw...
Category: Central Interior Alaska
Upcoming French-language edition of John Haines’ book, “The Stars, the Snow, the Fire,” to be illustrated by me, Ray Bonnell
I’m a horrible procrastinator and have been working frantically to complete a special project. I didn’t want to jinx myself by talking about it before it was completed. My part of the project is...
September walk in downtown Ester
I went for an afternoon walk in beautiful downtown Ester yesterday. I was looking for historic buildings but ended up taking photos of almost everything. Here is a sampler. The first six photos were...
Old truck-mounted dragline seen along Elliott Highway outside Fox
This is an old truck-mounted dragline I spotted along the Elliott highway just outside Fox. Haven’t figured out what make it is yet. Do you suppose the truck and dragline turned color along with...
Manley’s historic schoolhouse reflects town’s commitment to education
Manley schoolhouse in mid-2000s Gladys Dart was a young mother with three children when she moved to Manley Hot Springs in 1956. She and her husband, Chuck, had just purchased the Karshner homestead...
Deadwood Creek mining camp near Central survives as family retreat
Deadwood Creek is a 20-mile-long northeasterly flowing stream in the Circle Mining District. It tumbles down out of the mountains before meandering across flats and emptying into Crooked Creek a few miles east of...
Venerable Central Roadhouse almost made it to 21st century
The Central Roadhouse as it looked in the mid 1980s In the summer of 1896, Josiah Spurr, Frank Schrader and Harold Goodrich floated the Yukon River, investigating mining areas for the U.S. Geological...
Emil Usibelli and the early years of Usibelli Coal Mine
Bucyrus 20-B steam shovel at Usibelli Coal Mine in 2014 In 1907, at the age of 14, Emil Usibelli emigrated from Italy to the United States. Settling in Washington state, he worked a variety...
Old Pan American hanger is a piece of Fairbanks’ hidden history
Pan American Airways hanger at Weeks field in the early 1940s The Pan American Airways hangar shown in the drawing is part of Fairbanks’ hidden history. It was once used by Pan Am at...
Old Independent Lumber warehouse representative of Interior Alaska’s lumbering history
Independent Lumber’s Fairbanks warehouse in 1990 As the town of Fairbanks grew between 1901 and the early 1920s it was not built with brick and stone. The city was far from Outside sources, and...
