Alaska Nellie was an Alaska legend
Nellie Neal Lawing was born in 1873 and grew up on a Missouri farm. According to her 1940 autobiography, “Alaska Nellie,” since childhood she had an adventuresome spirit, and her mother called her “half...
Category: Railroad history
History of Alaskan railroads: Alaska Railroad, Tanana Valley Railroad, White Pass & Yukon Route Railway, Copper River and Northwestern Railway and more
Railroads played important part in the development of Lake Kenai’s eastern shore
Kenai Lake, located 20 miles north of Resurrection Bay on the Kenai Peninsula, has hosted visitors since the early 1900s. During the Cook Inlet gold rush in the mid to late 1890s a winter-only...
Chitina Auto-Railer and the end of the line for Copper River and Northwestern Railway
Mines in the Wrangell Mountains, 65 miles east of Chitina and only a few miles south of McCarthy, were world-class copper producers during the early 1900s. However, by the 1930s the copper reserves were...
Seward’s Ballaine House is reflection of flush days of Alaska Central Railway
John Ballaine was the entrepreneur primarily responsible for initiating construction of the Alaska Central Railway (ACR) across the Kenai Peninsula. He is also credited with founding the town on Seward, the southern terminus of...
‘Eskimo Village’ survives on Lathrop Street in Fairbanks
During and right after World War II there was a rapid influx of people into the Fairbanks area as the U.S. military expanded its presence. With the increased demands on the Alaska Railroad during...
Alaska Railroad’s historic Engine 557 may soon return to the rail
The engine in the drawing is Alaska Railroad No. 557, a Consolidation-type steam locomotive. Consolidation is the U.S. designation for the locomotive’s wheel-configuration – 2-8-0 – with 2 leading wheels, 8 drive wheels, and...
Decaying railway dock in Cordova is a melancholy reminder of bygone days
From the 1911 completion of the Copper River and Northwestern Railway (CR&NW) until the mid 1930s, Cordova’s economy was primarily dependent on the railway and the shipment of copper ore from the mines at...
Cordova’s Alaskan Hotel and Bar gives peek at “Frisco of the North” in 1908
The Spanish explorer Salvadore Fidalgo led a 1790 expedition to the Pacific Northwest and Alaska in an effort to bolster Spanish claims to North America’s west coast. Fidalgo arrived in Prince William Sound at...
Seward’s Brown & Hawkins Store still standing after 117 years
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,...
Mudhole Smith helped build Alaska’s aviation industry
Merle “Smitty” Smith, who is now known by his more colorful nickname, “Mudhole,” became enamored of flying at an early age. According to Lone Janson’s 1981 biography of him, Smitty, who was born and...
