Prior to construction of the Alaska Railroad through the Matanuska Valley, there was little development in the area that would one day be Palmer. One of the first white men in the valley was...
Sutton, about 15 miles northeast of Palmer on the Glenn Highway, owes its existence to coal mining. Geologist G.C. Martin explored the area for the U.S.G.S in 1905 and reported an estimated 61 square...
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...
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...
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...
The U.S. Congress passed The Alaska Railroad Act in March 1914, authorizing construction of a federally-owned railway from an ice-free port on Alaska’s southern coast to Fairbanks in the territory’s Interior. President Woodrow Wilson...
The 1896 Cook Inlet Gold Rush attracted hundreds of gold-seekers to Upper Cook Inlet. A few of those prospectors followed Willow Creek, a tributary of the Susitna River, into the Talkeetna Mountains. According to...
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...
Holy Family Cathedral in 2014 In early 1915, anticipating construction of the Alaska Railroad, hundreds of job seekers hastily erected a boomtown along Ship Creek in Upper Cook Inlet. Many in the camp...
Potter Section House as it looked in winter 2018-2019 Potter Section House is at Mile 115.3, Seward Highway, near the mouth of Turnagain Arm and just south of Potter Marsh. Sitting adjacent to...
