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: Transportation history
History of transportation development in Alaska – roads and trails, airports, river transport, aviation, & 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...
Merrill Field serves Anchorage aviators for over 90 years
In 1915 the southern edge of Anchorage was Ninth Avenue – with only undeveloped land beyond. In about 1917, vegetation was trimmed back along a one-block wide by 16-block long strip of land south...
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...
The Rev. Bert Bingle’s 600 mile-long Alaska Highway parish
Bert Bingle was a Presbyterian minister who came to Cordova in 1928 to serve the people along the Copper River and Northwestern Railroad, and then moved to Palmer in 1935 to start a church...
Bridges were among last items completed on Alaska Highway
The dedication of the Alaska Highway on Nov. 20, 1942, received great publicity. However, stories often paid scant attention to the actual condition of the road when it first began accepting through traffic. The...
The Haines Cut-off: From Native trail to modern highway
The Chilkat Pass corridor, crossing the Coast Mountains in Southeast Alaska, connects Lynn Canal with the Kluane Lake area of the Yukon Territory. The 1977 environmental impact statement for the Shakwak Project, a joint...
The Fageol Safety Bus and the Denali Park Road
Buses have ferried Denali National Park and Preserve (originally Mt. McKinley National Park) visitors into the park for more than 80 years. The Fageol Safety Bus shown in the drawing (the most modern bus...
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...
