History of Alaskan mercantile enterprises: Alaska Commercial Company, Northern Commercial Company, Russian-American Company, and others
“Old Town” Homer is located on the benchlands of Kachemak Bay’s north shore, southwest of modern Homer’s business district. The Sterling Highway delineates the area’s northern boundary, with Bishop’s Beach to the south, and...
Karl Reinhold Carlson was born in 1922 in British Columbia. His family moved to the United States in the 1930s, and Karl first came to Alaska in 1940 when his family moved to Kodiak,...
The hamlet of Cooper Landing, on the banks of the Kenai River just west of Kenai Lake, is one of the Kenai Peninsula’s recreation meccas. The community traces its history back to the 1896-97...
Charles E. Brown and Thomas William “T.W.” Hawkins both came to Alaska in 1898. Brown entered the territory via the route pioneered by the Hudson’s Bay Company – the McKenzie, Rat and Porcupine rivers,...
In 1914, the U.S. government was finalizing plans for a railroad connecting the Pacific coast of Southcentral Alaska with Fairbanks in Interior Alaska. President Woodrow Wilson had not yet determined whether the Alaska Northern...
Herning/Teeland store as it looked in 2015. Except for the side deck and the front signage, the building looks much the same today as it did when Orville Herning owned it in the early...
Larson & Wendler Grocery as it looked in 1916. Anton (A.J.) Wendler owned a brewery at Valdez in 1915. However, with the temperance movement gaining traction in Alaska, A.J. decided to seek new...
About 14 miles southwest of Wasilla on the western shore of Cook Inlet’s Knik Arm lies the hamlet of Knik. Its history may be most linked with the 1910 Iditarod Gold Rush and the...
Nagley’s Store in the 1970s when it was the B & K (Barrett & Kennedy) Trading Post Horace Nagley (1875-1966) was one of the first merchants to establish a store in the Susitna Basin....
If you have an eye for detail the front door is a give-away. Otherwise, glancing at Eagle’s old Northern Commercial Company (NC Co.) store, shown in the drawing, you might be deceived into thinking...
