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.

Module VIII: WWII - A Turning point for Alaska

Essential Question:  Describe the legacy of World War II (WWII) for Alaska.  What happened in Alaska after the war that is largely attributable to WWII?  What are Alaskan's living with today that is attributable to WWII?


Landscape:  Alaska's landscape dramatically changed as a result of our heavy involvement in the build-up before, involvement during, and aftermath of World War II.  

Aerial of NOB Ship Repair and vicinity at Adak Alaska. Sept. 6, 1945
historylink101.com

In the 1920's, even before the war started, the U.S. Government planned on including Alaska as part of a strategic defensive build-up that would increase their global importance forever and put them on the map.  This defense  was known as the Panama-Hawaii-Alaska triangle that finally came to fruition when congress passed it through in 1939.  As a result, naval bases we're constructed in Kodiak, Sitka, and Dutch Harbor.


The military also was forced to built air bases on some of the Aleutian islands so that they we're within striking distance of the islands of Attu and Kiska that the Japanese had acquired soon after the Pearl Harbor attack.

sitnews.com

The second World War also sped up the need to add a highway connecting Alaska to Canada and the rest of the United States.  Thus, the Alaska-Canada Military highway, a 1,420 long road, was constructed.  This magnificent accomplishment was completed using both military personnel and civilians and was done in record time (i.e., 9 months)


I really enjoy looking at the old black-and-white pictures of the ancient machinery constructing the Alaska-Canada Military Highway.  It's hard to believe it's only been about 70 years ago.


Population:  The increase in military involvement in the territory brought an influx of people to Alaska from outside to both villages and cities.  In fact, the U.S. Government sent twice the amount of military personnel as there we're civilians in the territory at that time.  Not only we're military personnel sent up to strengthen the western perimeter of the United States, but through the Lend-Lease agreement, Russian pilots and other military personnel we're sent to Fairbanks to aid Russia on the German front.


Some of the people who came here as a result of the war would end up returning to their homes but many would end up staying which is evidenced by the many veterans still living here today.  My grandpa was stationed here as a B2-bomber pilot and had an amazing military career with the now-called Air Force.  I never really thought about it but I wouldn't be in Alaska if it wasn't for him.


Examine:  What was the rationale for the lend-lease ALSIB project?

http://www.everetts-amazon.com/images/ALSIB%20group.jpg
Russian and American pilots pose for photo

The United States originally agreed to the lend-lease agreement known as ALSIB because they saw the opportunity to provide aide to a friendly nation while technically staying neutral.  The original agreement was to provide material support to Great Britain and when Germany attacked the Soviet Union with no notice in June of 1941, the original agreement was extended to Soviet Union to provide similar assistance under what was known as the First Protocol.


The idea of lending a hand to a potential enemy was extremely controversial at the time and, to historians, still is today.  The agreement, although costly at times, was given high-priority at even the highest levels of U.S. Government in hopes it would help defeat Germany in the war.


What an amazing sight it would be to see a member of the Red Army standing guard outside a hangar in the middle of nowhere, Alaska.  It almost seems too unreal to believe and, before reading this module, hadn't ever heard of the lend-lease agreement with the Soviet Union or Great Britain.


Evaluation:  This module provided information that I not only never heard about before but can't believe actually happened in our state.  It's hard to think that such a thing would happen now.  






3 Blogs:

1. Tina provided a simple format that was inviting to read and provided quality pictures.  
2. I really enjoyed the amount of quality information Christy provided in her response to this weeks module.  She tackled a different essential question than I did so it was nice to explore that information a little more.
3. Kelley's blog summarized the information included in the module in a real easy way to understand.  She also included some good pictures.

Module VII: American Period - Society

Essential Question:  To what degree is there distinctiveness in the art, literature, science, recreation, and cultural institutions of Alaska?  In what way do these contribute to, or reflect, a unique Alaska identity?

Tlingit women weaving baskets. Sitka, 1897.
content.washington.lib.edu

Visitors to Alaska found uniqueness in the baskets, blankets, and ivory carvings of the Alaska Native's.  These we're all forms of market art.  Alaska Native art became so popular in the 1920's and 1930's that the U.S. Bureau of Indian Affairs created the Alaska Native Arts and Crafts cooperative to assist Alaska Native's sell their merchandise.  They opened stories in Juneau, Anchorage, and even Seattle.


Example's of recreation related to the Alaska Native people that are  unique to this cultural group include the activities in which they stay prepared for their subsistence life-style.  These activities, on a much more popular and grander scale, have become known as the Native Youth Olympics (NYO) and the World Eskimo Olympics (WEO).  Both Olympics are very similar and include a number of activities, or, events, in which people from around the state gather after competing in regional or district meets to compete against each other to see who is the best.  


The events have evolved over time and are suppose to resemble some form of subsistence hunting (e.g., the Eskimo stick pull represents pulling a seal out of a hole in the ice), a survival technique (e.g., Nauktak, or running and jumping across pack-ice).  I just learned yesterday from a long-time WEO participant that the one-foot high-kick derived from notifying people across large areas of land if a whale hunt was successful or not.  

NYO participant doing the Eskimo stick pull.  (He won)
frontiersmen.com

I've been an NYO coach for three years now at Burchell High School in Wasilla which has given me a unique perspective on how the games have originated and an appreciation for the Alaska Native people.  Here is an article from the Frontiersmen that talks about the Valley's district meet that was held last weekend.


The state competition will be held April 27th-29th at the Dena'ina Convention Center in Anchorage.  It's open to the public and I encourage anyone in the area to stop by.  It's truly amazing to watch these athlete's compete.  Click here for more information.



Examine Question:  What are the reasons for Alaska Population trends?


Soon after Alaska became a territory in 1867, droves of people migrated north from the lower-48 for three main reasons.  They were either sent by the government in an attempt to help establish the new "Indian Country," or they came on their own accord, hoping to prosper from the large deposits of reported natural resources or turn a profit from trading and selling.


Among the government entities who sent people this way were the Army to command the newly constructed posts, the Navy, who we're sent to support the Army and then eventually take over jurisdiction in 1879, and the Treasury Department, who sent people to collect taxes and prevent smuggling.


The Klondike gold rush of the late 1800's brought roughly 30,000 people to the territory hoping to strike it rich.  Smaller discoveries of gold and other natural resources that happened in areas such as Juneau, Douglas, Hope and Sunrise, and Circle City, also contributed to the increase of Alaska's population in the late 1800's and early 1900's.  


Other event's in the early 1900's that encouraged the population to grow we're the completion of the first significant road system, telegraph, and railroad.  The railroad chose Anchorage as it's southern campsite which is why Anchorage originally was "put on the map."   

labor.alaska.gov

The twentieth century had mostly a slow and consistent increase in the number of people calling Alaska home with the exception of the oil-boom in the 1970's (large spike), and a poor economy in the mid 1980's which was close to being a depression that I remember as a kid.


Evaluate:
This module had some interesting topics of discussion and I was glad to be able to start 'connecting the dots' between events in Alaska's history which the introductory said we should start being able to do.  I enjoyed the potpourri section and was happy to be able to blog about the Native Youth Olympics.

Module VI: Transportation and Communication

Essential Question:  What are the issues facing Alaskan's today related to transportation and communication?

Alaska's size in relation to the lower-48.  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alaska   

The high cost of petroleum used in most methods of transportation coupled with an area close to 600,000 sq. miles (click here for more information on Alaska's size) make Alaska an extremely expensive and slow place to progress transportation and communication.


Climate conditions, proximity from the more populated lower-48, and terrain, also factor in today's transportation and communication situation.  Having many communities located on Island's off the coast of the main land also make it extremely expensive to update/improve transportation and communication.

repeater tower.  kadiak.org

Today's obstacles facing the advancement of the communication systems in Alaska are not too much different from what the we're when the first communication systems we're set up.  The main reason why transportation and communication don't progress as they do in many of the lower-48 states has to do with two things.  The first is Alaska's vast area and the second is the small amounts of people that are spread out all over it.  When many of the small communities have approximately 100-200 year-round inhabitants, it's hard for the state to justify financing a road or even a runway to get in and out and a tower to provide communication.




Examine Question:  What were the factors that prompted the growth of ocean and river transportation in Alaska?

riverboatdiscovery.com

Ocean and river transportation was used by the Alaskan Natives prior to Russian and American migration to Alaska and increased with the gold strikes in both the Klondike and Nome.  A number of riverboat companies started working the rivers almost over night to keep up with the amount of prospectors trying to strike it rich and were often extensions of companies that were already established in the lower-48.


The large number of riverboats running up and down the rivers brought jobs to people originally from the area and to unfortunate prospectors that couldn't find gold.  Alaska Natives we're often hired to help riverboat captains navigate the treacherous waters and others we're hired to help feed the wood hungry boats to keep them moving up and down the rivers.  Many others we're employed along shore at camps set up as wood refueling stations for the riverboats.

wood station at Nulato, AK.  sitnews.net

Nulato, where a famous massacre happened in 1851, was one of the locations these wood camps we're set up.  


Not only did the gold discoveries in Alaska prompt growth of ocean and river transportation, but so did the need for food and supplies to get moved to people who were spread out around the state.  The Yukon, a stern-wheeler operated by the Alaska Commercial Company, had it's maiden voyage up the Yukon River on July 4th, 1869.  It carried a government survey party and supplies, and also pushed two boats 1,000 miles to Fort Yukon.


The Governments Role:


The purchase of Alaska in 1867 also prompted the U.S. government to sent personnel to the new territory since it had been labeled as "Indian Country."  Often times when the government occupied new areas that already had inhabitants, it would get hostile.  To make sure this was not the case, they made sure there was a military presence.  That's why the 30+ boats that left San Francisco starting in July 1869 included government personnel.  The Army had posts built in Sitka, Kodiak, and Kenai to name a few.


3 Blog Reviews:

1. Lane had some interesting comments on the same essential question that I examined.  
2. Whitney, having lived in rural communities, had some good insight on the question regarding the development of communication and transportation.
3. Crystal provided an interesting look at this weeks modules' questions by answering the questions from the perspective of a registered nurse.

Evaluate:


This module provided excellent information on the early infrastructure for transportation and communication.  It also included many interesting pictures.  I especially like the ones of all the old stern-wheeler's and vehicles.