History of paddlewheel steamboats in Alaska
This article is reprinted from the 1-14-2022 edition of the Fairbanks Daily News-Miner. Photo and story by Amanda Bohman A 237-foot wooden steam-powered sternwheeler with five decks that was famous for plying Interior Alaska...
Old freighter’s cabin at Talkeetna in 2005 Gold was discovered at Valdez Creek (near the headwaters of the Susitna River) in 1903. The first pack-horse and winter sled routes that supplied the mining...
White Seal Dock as it looked in Fall 2012 According to the book, Fairbanks, a City Historic Building Survey, few of Fairbanks’ early commercial buildings remain. Most were destroyed by the numerous fires and...
The Pioneer Hotel and riverfront as it looked in the mid-1910s The Pioneer Hotel on First Avenue was one of the landmarks in early Fairbanks. Located on the waterfront a half-block west of the...
Kitty Hensley is a bit of a mystery. No one is quite sure when she came to Fairbanks, when she married, or who exactly her husband was. Some say he was a lawyer from...
When the tug boat Taku Chief began its career in Southeast Alaska in 1938, the age of steamboating on Interior Alaska rivers was dying. Gold mining, which had spurred a few decades of frenetic...
SS Nenana along the Lower Yukon River during the 1940s (originally posted on 9-11-2012 – revised on 4-30-2018) The SS Nenana has been one of the premier attractions at Pioneer Park in Fairbanks....
The S.S. Lavelle Young at Fairbanks in 1904 Two riverboats are represented at Pioneer Park: the S.S. Lavelle Young (first commercial steamboat to navigate the Chena River in 1901), and the S.S. Nenana (last...
