Tagged: Alaska

Hope is only surviving gold camp from Upper Kenai Peninsula gold rush

Downtown Hope in 2014 According to the 1915 U.S.G.S. report, Geology and Mineral Resources of Kenai Peninsula, Alaska, the only recorded instances of Russian gold exploration in Alaska occurred between 1848 and 1851, when...

Cordova’s Red Dragon provided Christian alternative to city’s saloons

  The Red Dragon, a Christian social club run by the Episcopal Church, as it looked in 1909. The drawing is based on a photo in the Walter and Lillian Phillips photograph collection at...

Juneau’s St. Nicholas Orthodox Church began as a ministry to the Tlingit people

  St. Nicholas Orthodox Church as it looks today St. Nicholas Orthodox Church, 326 Fifth St., Juneau, is the oldest continually-used Orthodox church in Southeast Alaska, and the only surviving octagonal Orthodox church in Alaska....

Eklutna’s Orthodox church may be the oldest building in the Anchorage area

Old St. Nicholas church in Eklutna as it looked in the 1980s Eklutna, 25 miles northeast of Anchorage on the east shore of Upper Cook Inlet’s Knik Arm, is a small Dena’ina Athabascan community....

Anchorage’s Wendler Building was one of first commercial buildings completed in the new city

Larson & Wendler Grocery as it looked in 1916.   Anton (A.J.) Wendler owned a brewery at Valdez in 1915. However, with the temperance movement gaining traction in Alaska, A.J. decided to seek new...

Palmer’s United Protestant Church dates from early days of Matanuska Colony

Palmer UPC as it looked in the 1980s. The church is also called the “church of a thousand trees.” The federal government finalized plans in the spring of 1935 to relocate families from Wisconsin,...

Kenai’s Orthodox Church serves local parish for over 120 years

The Church of the Holy Assumption is an Orthodox church in Kenai. In Alison Hoagland’s book, Buildings of Alaska, she describes it as a dramatic and well-proportioned building. Built in 1895, it is one...

October 1st Denali panorama from Denali Viewpoint North Wayside

We drove from Anchorage to Fairbanks yesterday. Gorgeous day–Denali was out in all its splendor. This panorama is from the Denali Viewpoint North Wayside at Mile 162.7 of the Parks Highway.

Whirlwind trip to Kenai Peninsula historic sites – Summer 2017

Several weeks ago Betsy and I drove down to the Kenai Peninsula for the weekend. We hadn’t been there in about 15 years. While we were there Betsy let me check out a bunch...