Ryan Jones lectures in Juneau (6/12) and Anchorage (6/16)

Folks in Juneau and Anchorage won’t want to miss upcoming lectures by one of the best historians working in the field of Alaska-Russia-North Pacific studies today. Ryan Tucker Jones of the University of Queensland will present, “Empire of Extinction: Russians and the North Pacific’s Strange Beasts of the Sea, 1741-1867."

JUNEAU:
Thursday, June 12

12:00 p.m.

Alaska State Library Historical Collections

8th floor Atrium, State Office Building

ANCHORAGE:
Monday, June 16
7:00 p.m.
Anchorage Museum

Based on his new book of the same title, Jones’s lecture will explore how the extinction of the sea cow and the near extinction of sea otters and fur seals provoked natural historians to claim, for the first time in European history, that animals could disappear entirely from the face of the earth. In an attempt to reverse ecological destruction, Russians began long-term management of marine mammals and instituted some of the colonial world’s most forward-thinking conservationist policies.

Andrew P. Kashevaroff papers digitized at ASL

From the Alaska State Library comes news of another collection digitized and added to Alaska’s Digital Archives. The Andrew P. Kashevaroff papers (ca. 1923-1935) contain a diary kept for three months in 1923 during a lecture tour in Alaska and correspondence with Professor E.O. Essig (Berkeley), Peter Kostrometinoff, and Archie Shiels. Kashevaroff’s writings cover various Alaska subjects, including Archimandrite Joasaph, Russian American Fur Company activities, and a version of the Tlingit war from manuscripts and personal contact with Indian elders. Most of the writings are typewritten as is the correspondence. A watercolor by Xenia Kashevaroff, his daughter (married to composer John Cage), is included with the Fort Ross materials. Many of the items are undated but were probably written between 1923 and 1935. Certificates relating to Kashevaroff were added in 2001 as Folder 11.

Digitized items from this collection can be viewed at:

http://vilda.alaska.edu/cdm/ref/collection/cdmg21/id/18287

Notice regarding digitization of NARA Alaska records

The closure of NARA’s Anchorage office has received a great deal of attention lately – see this article by Dermot Cole about the transfer of records and the decision to move some to the Alaska State Archives in Juneau.

Regarding the proposed digitization of Alaska records, the National Archives is inviting feedback from the public on which records should be prioritized for this action.

According to NARA,

“After we receive your feedback, NARA will also take into consideration access and use restrictions, preservation issues, series size, and ease of digitization when determining the final prioritization. Your participation will also help NARA better understand the interests and needs of researchers and stakeholders, as well as further participation and transparency in an open government.”

Read the full statement and make your comments here.

Halibut Prospecting in 1911 and 1912 - Part One: Ash Fall and Halibut Feasts

by Anjuli Grantham

In 1911 and 1912, Kodiak businessman W.J. Erskine set out to answer a potentially lucrative question: did the waters around Kodiak have enough halibut to justify the creation of a Kodiak halibut fishery? One dead engineer, one volcanic eruption, a greenhorn crew, and 170,000 pounds of frozen halibut later, Erskine had an answer.

W.J. Erskine, Kodiak entrepreneur
(Kodiak Historical Society, P-368-40) 

Within the Baranov Museum’s collection is Erskine’s remarkable report, outlining the goals, the methods, and the results of two seasons of prospecting for halibut in the vicinity of Kodiak.

Financed by the Alaska Packers Association, two gas powered schooners, the Metha Nelson and the Hunter, tested both whether Kodiak had the abundance of halibut to warrant the creation of the infrastructure to support a fishery, and if San Francisco consumers could be enticed to eat frozen halibut.

This report is significant for many reasons, not least of which is the fact that the Metha Nelson was one of the first boats in the Pacific Northwest to experiment with the onboard freezing of fish. But before looking at this report in terms of fisheries history, let us look at the connection between these fishing experiments and the eruption of Novarupta Volcano at Katmai on the Alaska Peninsula.

That 1912 season started off unlucky. The Hunter arrived in Kodiak on May 6, and immediately departed to Nuka Bay for ice. Before arriving to their Kenai Peninsula destination, however, the engineer died. The engine stopped working. They sailed back to Kodiak, scrambled to find a competent engineer, and returned to chip ice off glaciers.

On May 27, the Hunter left for Uganik Bay on the west side of Kodiak Island. There they would fish for bait herring. Unfortunately, their seine was too short, so they headed back to Kodiak, got a larger seine, and sailed again for Uganik. Finally, on June 6, 1912, with enough ice and bait on board, the Hunter was ready to head for the halibut grounds. That very day, the largest volcanic eruption of the 20th century exploded on the Alaska Peninsula, showering ash on Kodiak Island. Erskine writes in the report, “…the Hunter left for the halibut ground east of Marmot Island, but before reaching there, was overtaken by the fall of volcanic dust and put into Izhut Bay, where she remained until June 10th.” Halibut fishing would have to wait.

The Metha Nelson remained moored at the town’s dock, next to the Revenue Cutter Service’s vessel, Manning. Reading accounts from the time of the eruption, one is struck by the fact that people were relatively certain that they were going to die. Landslides of ash swept away houses. The weight of the ash collapsed roofs. The caustic, ash-filled air made breathing impossible. For this reason, after two days of ash fall, the community determined they had to make a run for it. Navigating only by sound and touch, all Kodiak residents made their way to the wharf. The crew of the Metha Nelson unloaded the halibut it had already secured, and Kodiak feasted.

The halibut schooner Hunter shines bright amid Kodiak's
ash-covered landscape in the days following the eruption.
(Kodiak Historical Society, P-357-28)

“[We] managed to feed a crowd of panic stricken people a good hot meal of boiled halibut, boiled potatoes, hard tack and tea. Some of them had not touched food for two days and it seemed they would never stop eating. Tubs full of halibut disappeared like magic,” Erskine wrote to his mother a few days later. Now that they were fed, the whole town crowded aboard the Manning, and headed out to sea, where it was hoped they could breathe and where they were certain they would not be buried in ash. Soon after, the sky began to clear, and they returned to the wasteland that was Kodiak.

Erskine was elected chairman of the Kodiak Relief Committee and commandeered the steamer Redondo. He left immediately to Seward, the location of the nearest wireless station. Kodiak’s had burned to the ground during the eruption. There he dispatched telegraphs to Washington D.C., Washington State senators, and his business and political connections in San Francisco issuing a clear message: send relief funds immediately. His original telegraphs are within the Erskine family’s Katmai scrapbook, also within the Baranov Museum’s collection.

All of Kodiak crowded on the Revenue Cutter
Service's Manning during the Katmai eruption
(Kodiak Historical Society, P-89)

One telegraph was issued to the Alaska Packers Association: “... if you have any messages for Canneries send them to me immediately here and will make every effort to deliver. I have seasons bait frozen and believe can continue Halibut fishing provided fresh water is available. In places drifts of ashes are thirty feet deep and aparantly [sic] fish in streams and lake suffered greatly.”

The Metha Nelson and the Hunter continued fishing for halibut once the air had cleared. Erskine was right – securing bait became very difficult, as the ash fall led to the choking of rivers and streams, impacting herring and salmon migration patterns. Nonetheless, at the end of the season, the crew had caught tons of halibut and one important question had been answered. Did Kodiak have enough halibut to warrant the development of a halibut fishery? Yes. However, there was an even more important question yet to be answered. Could Kodiak develop the infrastructure necessary to supply consumers hundreds of miles away with halibut? Check back later for an answer!

Canned at Karluk

by Anjuli Grantham

I admit it. I lusted over this Alaska Improvement Company can from the moment I read that Kodiak resident Nick Troxell had purchased it online. In fact, I went so far as to save a place for it in the fisheries exhibit that I am putting together, even though I was far from certain that it would become a part of the Baranov Museum's collection.

 

One of the newest objects in
the Baranov Museum's collection,
an old Karluk salmon can.

Now, I am very happy to report that the Baranov Museum has its first historic Kodiak salmon can. It joins a box end from an Alaska Packers Association cannery at Karluk and a handful of other objects related to the early history of salmon fishing and processing in the region to help document and interpret Kodiak's maritime heritage.

The story of canning salmon at Karluk ranks as one of the more important stories in the history of Kodiak, if not Alaska. Fisheries biologists around the world know and study the story of Karluk's fishery. The prodigious historic salmon runs boggle the mind and have inspired generations of research. In fact, one can trace the history of salmon biology to the Karluk River. It so happens that a team of fisheries biologists are in the final stages of creating a book that focuses on the history of science at Karluk. A History of Sockeye Salmon Research, Karluk River System, Alaska, 1880-2010 will be published this year.

Of course, it wasn't just scientists who were interested in Karluk's red salmon runs. Thousands of fishermen and cannery workers joined hundreds of Karluk villagers on the Karluk Spit, beginning in the 1880s. The first cannery to open on Kodiak Island opened on the Karluk Spit in 1882. The Karluk Packing Co. was financed by the Alaska Commercial Company and founded by two former AC employees, Oliver Smith and Charles Hirsch. These gentlemen salted salmon on the Karluk Spit prior to opening what was one of the earliest canneries in Alaska. Yet, word quickly got out about the massive salmon runs within the Karluk River. This is not hyperbole – it wasn't rare to catch 40,000 sockeye in a single beach seine set at Karluk in the 1880s and 1890s.

 

Karluk fishermen repair a beach seine.
(Kodiak Historical Society, P-325-1-a)

The salmon can within the Baranov Museum's collection dates from somewhere between 1889 and 1911. It was in 1889 that the Alaska Improvement Company began canning at Karluk. They built a cannery on the south side of the Karluk River, across from the Karluk Spit. Long after canning operations were transferred to the village of Larsen Bay, the beach was referred to as "the Improvement side." In 1898, the Alaska Improvement Company joined the Alaska Packers Association (APA). That was the end of the Alaska Improvement Company, but not of its labels. For brand affiliation, the APA continued to can under the Canoe brand. Further research is required to determine when the APA added its own insignia to the can. However, in 1911 all canning operations were moved to Larsen Bay. As a result, that was the last year that cans were made and filled on the Karluk Spit. Nonetheless, much of the salmon canned at Larsen Bay still was beach seined from the Karluk Spit.

To discover more about the journey of this salmon can, including information on the historic landscape from which it came, the Chinese cannery workers who packed it, the crude tools that formed it, and the fishermen that caught the sockeye within it, please listen to the radio program "Canned at Karluk." Included within the program are interviews with AHS Board President Katie Ringsmuth, fisheries biologist Richard Bortoff, and archaeologist Patrick Saltonstall.

The Karluk Spit. (NARA/ Kodiak Historical Society, P-356-22)

Reminder – Deadline approaching for AHS travel awards

The deadline is approaching for applications for student and emerging professional travel awards for the AHS annual meeting in Seward, October 1-4, 2014.

Applications must be received by this Saturday, May 10.

One award will be presented to a post-secondary student who is researching some aspect of Alaska history, the other to an emerging professional in the field. Each award consists of reimbursement for documented travel expenses up to $750 and a conference registration package.

In order to be eligible for an award:

Applicants must be a member of the Alaska Historical Society at the time of applying.

Student applicants must be graduate students or upper-division undergraduates in fall 2014 with a course of study related to Alaska history.

Emerging professional applicants must be employed in Alaska historical or cultural work and have been so employed for less than five years.

Awardees are required to attend the meeting in its entirety and make a presentation at the meeting.

Application process: Each applicant must submit 1) letter with a statement of eligibility and an explanation of how attending the meeting will enhance academic or professional development, 2) title and abstract of proposed presentation, and 3) CV or résumé. Applications will be judged on the applicant’s achievement in Alaska history relative to current status and the likely benefit of the meeting for the applicant.

The application deadline is May 10. Electronic submission is preferred. Applications should be submitted electronically to Professor Michael Hawfield, AHS Awards Committee at: mchawfield@kpc.alaska.edu, or via regular mail to: AHS Awards, PO Box 100299, Anchorage, AK 99510.

Information about the meeting is available at: http://www.alaskahistoricalsociety.org/

From Tents to Towers: A Century of Maps of Alaska’s Largest City

“The language of maps is integral to our lives. We have achieved something if we have put ourselves (our town) on the map.”

~Simon Garfield, On the Map

By Katherine Ringsmuth

In January 2014, my team and I received an Anchorage Centennial Community grant from the Alaska Humanities Forum and the Anchorage Centennial Commission to produce Tents to Towers: A Century of Maps of Alaska’s Largest City. The final project, targeted for completion in 2015, will tell the story of how Anchorage emerged from a railroad camp to Alaska’s urban center over the course of ten decades. The project intersects geography, art, and history by depicting the city’s development and expansion through historical maps and photographs. The team includes project director Katherine Ringsmuth, editor and senior historian Terrence Cole, GIS expert Barbra Bundy, layout designer Francis Broderick, and student researcher, Abdoulie Lowe.

Anchorage street map, circa 1940

Currently, the ongoing collection of digital maps includes approximately 300 maps of Anchorage and the Upper Cook Inlet area. The maps span a broad spectrum of Anchorage history, representing themes such as exploration, military expeditions, railroad construction, community growth, homesteads, canneries, trails and trade, aviation, military sprawl, earthquake and volcano impacts, recreation and the area’s cultural footprint. Maps show an evolution of place names, some of the first archeological sites, townsite withdrawal from the Chugach National Forest, the Iditarod trail, gold and coal claims, ski trail and area development, and Nike missile sites. The digital collection also includes vintage maps, Sanborn insurance maps, town plats, historic maritime charts, maps made to attract tourists, and even three-dimensional objects such as a vintage banner, a table cloth and even a pair of ear rings.

Historically, these maps were designed for practical purposes—used to inform individuals as to where they were going. But viewed today, these maps were also used as paths to the future, documenting the big dreams held by past residents. Whether they were pragmatists or visionaries, the people who built our city and produced these maps represent a society steeped in transformative change. The maps, themselves, provide insight about Anchorage identity, what residents valued at a given moment in time, and where Anchorage was positioned in the map of the mind’s eye.

"Carte de la Riviere de Cook"

The academic, government, and private archives that have contributed to the project so far include: Loussac Library, Anchorage City Hall, JBER History Office, Bureau of Land Management, Alaska Resources Library and Information Services, Alaska and Polar Regions Collections & Archives at University of Alaska Fairbanks, University of Alaska Anchorage Archives and Special Collections, Anchorage Museum, U.S. Geological Survey, National Park Service, The National Archives at Anchorage, Anchorage Visitors Bureau, and Heritage Library and Museum at Wells Fargo. Private individuals have also donated their unique maps for use.

The final product hopes to accomplish the following objectives:

1) Demonstrate that Anchorage began as a 20th century American town that aspired be a modern, planned city primed for commerce. That the frontier boom economy was actually sparked by WWII and continued in the form of big oil, and to be mindful that Anchorage was built not in wilderness, but rather on a cultural landscape in which elements still exists today.

2) Challenge older notions of how people populated the Cook Inlet region, particularly Alaska Native migrants.

3) Serve as an opportunity to both study and celebrate Anchorage’s cultural diversity and to connect Cook Inlet to a global history, far older than the city itself.

4) To utilize the produced maps as an educational tool beyond the pages of a book.

Finally, the aim of From Tents to Towers is to provide historic contexts or themes that both constitute a timeline and interpret events that shaped Anchorage’s growth and development over the last century. The final products will showcase the story of the Cook Inlet landscape, a place visually dominated by mountains and mudflats and shaped by tides and earthquakes, and a cultural landscape, where today 100 languages are spoken. In the end, the final product will endeavor to show how the multifaceted relationship between Cook Inlet residents and their differing relationship with the natural landscape has directly shaped the 100 year history of this region.

 

Tourism promotional map, 1980s

The final product is not just meant to be informative, for the historically significant maps illustrate the artistry and expertise of past and contemporary cartographers and capture the imagination of Anchorage residents. The final product—which includes an exhibit for the Anchorage centennial, a series of posters meant for public and academic use, and potentially an illustrated atlas—will hopefully spark public discussion, civic interest, and new historic research.

If you have an interesting map of the Anchorage bowl or Upper Cook Inlet region and would like to participate in this project, please contact Katherine Ringsmuth at KatmaiKate@aol.com for more information.