Sentinel Island Lighthouse has been a beacon for boaters since 1902

Sentinel Island, located along Southeast Alaska’s Inside Passage, was the location of one of the first U.S. lighthouses built in Alaska. (Towards the end of the Russian-American Company occupation of Alaska it had a...

Marge Gull painting of Donnelly’s Roadhouse

This painting shows Donnelly’s Roadhouse, which was one of the key roadhouses along the Valdez-Fairbanks Trail. It was located at the junction of the Delta cut-off winter trail and the summer trail (which eventually...

APU’s student center was the site of momentous meeting for the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act

The Student Union Complex on the campus of Alaska Pacific University (formerly Alaska Methodist University), is one of the most impressive buildings in Anchorage. The primary architect for the three-building unit, constructed in 1966,...

Deadwood Cemetery burials tell the history of Central area in Interior Alaska

Turning on to Circle Hot Springs Road at Central and driving about 3/4 mile, you come to Cemetery Road just before crossing Graveyard Creek. About 1/2 mile along Cemetery Road lies a small burial...

Russian Bishop’s House in Sitka is one of Alaska’s oldest buildings

The building in the drawing, located at the corner of Lincoln and Monastery streets in Sitka, is referred to as the “Russian Bishop’s House.” It was once the ecclesiastical headquarters for the Russian Orthodox...

Gull Eyot at Freestone Ponds in Portage Glacier Valley – 6-2-2021

We drove down to the Kenai Peninsula this past week, and spent the first night at Williwaw Campground in the Portage Glacier Valley. The campground is in Chugach National Forest.  At about 6 AM...

Alaska Railroad’s little Davenport steam engine traveled widely across North America

The little engine in the drawing is a Davenport 18-ton 0-4-0 ST steam locomotive. (The engine nomenclature refers to 0 leading wheels, 4 drive wheels, and 0 trailing wheels; with the ST indicating that...

Art at the scrap pile – old railroad iron at the Friends of the Tanana Valley Railroad museum

I’m a member of the Friends of Tanana Valley Railroad, which restored an old Porter locomotive and operates a museum at Pioneer Park in Fairbanks. A couple of days ago I checked out the...

Marge Gull painting of Gordon’s Roadhouse

This painting shows Gordon’s Roadhouse, which was about 261 miles from Valdez and 110 miles from Fairbanks). Like Sullivan’s Roadhouse, Gordon’s Roadhouse was located along the Delta Winter Cutoff, a 55-mile stretch of trail...