Final Project - Connecting the Dots

Matanuska-Susitna Valley/Yukon-Koyukuk Area:


1906-1943 Gold Rush:  The Klondike gold rush brought people to Alaska in record amounts.  One of those gold-seekers, Robert Lee Hatcher, found gold and staked the first lode claim in the Willow Creek Valley in September of 1906.

Independence Mine at Hatcher Pass

Two mines, the Alaska Free Gold Mine on Skyscraper Mountain and Independence Mine on Granite Mountain would form into one mine in 1938 called the Alaska-Pacific Consolidated Mining Company (APC).  It's peak year in 1941 produced 34,416 ounces of gold, employed 204 men, dug almost a dozen miles of tunnel, and even supported a community called Boomtown.


1910 Coal Mining:  US Navy supports coal-rich town of Chickaloon to help fuel their ships.  Soon after Chickaloon starts thriving, Navy converts ships to burn the more efficient alternative fuel of oil, and the town is abandoned almost over night.

Chickaloon Coal Mine.  miningartifacts.org

As was the case in many company towns around Alaska, when mining or canning or any other resource-extraction method was halted, the town's population would diminish and the town normally wouldn't survive.

Knik Museum.  alaskavisit.com

1915 Railroad Construction:  The Alaska Railroad begins their construction in 1915 and selects strategic locations along the new route to serve as construction camps.  Wasilla is picked as one of those sites and the old native settlement of Knik (approximately 14 miles down Knik Goose Bay road and 5 miles from where I live) starts to decline when flow of human transport is redirected.  On a side note, if bridge to Anchorage from Point McKenzie ever gets constructed, flow of traffic will increase back to this area.  Maybe Knik will thrive once again!

Valley potatoes.  form.net

1934 Farming Boom:  The depression that hit in 1928 and lasted into the '30's resulted in many farmers throughout the mid-west with losing their farm and all their possessions.  Federal officials saw an opportunity and decided to construct a program that would gather the remnants from many broken communities in an attempt to spark the formation of a new community.  It was a program that had never been attempted before and had many critics.  Despite the criticism, 202 families agreed to the terms of the program and headed north.  By 1940, the Matanuska-Susitna Valley would become a stable agricultural community that still produces some of the finest potatoes and carrots today.


1942 U.S. Enters World War II:  One project dies and another is born.  When U.S. entered the war, many resource-extraction operations across the United States were shut-down if they weren't considered helping the war effort.  This is essentially what happened to the Independence Gold Mine.  But because the mine had trace amounts of sheelite, which is a source of tungsten - a strategic metal, the mine was allowed to operate for approximately one more year when the trace amounts were considered to be too trace.

Galena Airport.  nationalmuseum.af.mil

The U.S. involvement in the war would also benefit some Alaskan communities.  Galena was one of them.  The Alaska-Siberia (ALSIB) route was a lend-lease agreement initially between United States and Great Britain and then later would add the Soviet Union that would move materials manufactured in the lower-48, up through Canada, across the territory of Alaska, and then to the Russian war front.  Galena was one of the locations picked for a refueling stop because of its strategic location on the way to Ladd Air Field.

Pipeline.  alaska-in-pictures.com

1967 Oil Discovery:  The massive Prudhoe Bay oil discovery in 1967 sparked another influx of people to 'The Last Frontier' during the 1970's and is the reason both my parents decided to pick Alaska as their home.  The rationale used for my parents deciding to move from Anchorage, Alaska's largest city, to the Matanuska-Susitna Valley, a consistently growing suburban community, was the same reason's the Mat-Su Valley became one of Alaska's largest suburban communities that started to really grow in the late 1970's.  This includes close proximity to an over-crowding city and reasonable prices on available land.  Other suburban communities that would prosper as a result from oil-field workers moving away from larger, crowded cities would include Eagle River, Auke Bay, North Pole, and Ester.


Cause-Effect Statements:

1. The Klondike gold strike brought droves of people to Alaska in search of gold.  One of those gold-seekers was Robert Lee Hatcher who first discovered gold in the Willow Creek Area.  This early discovery later brought larger company mines in which led to the creation of a small community called Boomtown.
2. Additional over-land transportation routes are sought to move materials more quickly and efficiently across Alaska in the early 1900's.  The railroad begins construction in 1915 and picks construction sites along it's route.  Wasilla is picked as one of these sites and, as a result, smaller communities further away from the new railroad sites such as Knik begin to decline.
3. The United States enters World War II in 1942 and Alaska enters into the Alaska-Sibera (ALSIB) lend-lease agreement which expands the existing runway at Galena and develops the surrounding community with the influx of military personnel needed to run the program.