Dalton Highway

A Guide's Guide to the DALTON HIGHWAY Northern Alaska Tour Company Written and researched by Robert R. Weeden * Edited by LJ Evans * with special contributions from LJ Evans Jack Reakoff Sarah Manriquez-Trujillo Reference Encyclopedia This section is intended to be an easy and trustworthy source of information for guides needing quick answers to questions that arise during the course of their Dalton Highway adventures. Some entries may seem only distantly apropos to the Dalton Highway/Arctic Alaska theme; however visitor curiosity tends to reflect not only their immediate surroundings but also their prior experiences in the state — as well as any preconceptions they might have brought with them. The overall scope of the project is, for this reason, quite broad. In fact, the previous file became so unwieldy I decided to split the guide into two sections. The first contains information on the human history and culture of Alaska’s Arctic; the second on its natural history. Some entries are duplicated, but only when they contain information important to understanding both human and natural histories – and the specific information in each is different. Thus, this volume contains information of human interactions with snow, and the second an entry detailing the mechanics and bedforms of snow. Both the human and natural landscapes of Alaska’s Arctic are constantly changing, probably now more than ever. This document will, therefore, need constant updating and refreshing. Guides should feel free to make suggestions, point out inadequacies and pass along any additional information. All such contributions will be gratefully received; hopefully, we can together maintain the Guide’s Guide as an important and useful tool for many generations of Dalton Highway guides. On that note: Thank you to all who helped put this together! Special thanks should go to L.J. Evans and Sarah Manriquez-Trujillo for their research and support and to L.J. Evans for going through the whole document with her razor-sharp editor’s eye. Believe me, what you have in front of you is, because of their efforts, far superior to what it would have been. Numbers in brackets at the front of an entry refer to mileposts of the Steese, Elliott or Dalton Highways as explained in the introduction to the highway log. A list of abbreviations used in citations can be found at the end of the references section. Volume I: Human History in Alaska’s Arctic Alaska. This entry contains miscellaneous information of general interest which does not fit conveniently anywhere else. Size: At 365 million acres, Alaska is bigger than the three largest states in the contiguous United States combined and if overlain on top of them would touch South Carolina, Mexico, California and the Canadian border. Its vast size combined with a population of only about 730,000 1 makes it the least densely populated state in the Union. History. The following is a concise list of some of the more important events in Alaska's history. Many of them are discussed in more detail under separate headings. 50,000 – 15,000 before Present (BP). Paleoindians cross over the Bering Land Bridge from Siberia to the Americas. 14,000 – 9,000 BP. Early Athabaskan peoples migrate from Siberia over the Bering Land Bridge. 4,500 BP. Peoples of the Arctic Small Tools Tradition populate the north and west coasts of Alaska, coming over from Siberia in skin boats. By about 1,500 years ago these cultures had taken on many of the characteristics of today's Inuit2. 1741. Vitus Bering claims Alaska for the Tsar of Russia and the era of Russian fur trading begins. 1774. Spanish sailor Juan Josef Perez makes landfall somewhere on the western coast of Prince of Wales Island before returning to Mexico. A year later Juan Francisco de la Bodega y Quadra reaches the vicinity of present-day Sitka and claims it for Spain. In 1791, Alejandro Malaspina (an Italian but in the service of the Spanish navy) sails up the coast as far as Prince William Sound. 1778. Captain James Cook sails as far north as Icy Cape, 400 miles north of the Bering Strait. From 1793 to 1795 George Vancouver charts most of the coast from Cook Inlet south and names most of its important features. 1867. Alaska is purchased from Russia by the United States for $7.2 million. 1884. Alaska becomes a land district of the United States. 1United States Census Bureau figures for 2010 put the population at 710,231. Alaska Department of Labor and Workforce Development (live.laborstats.alaska.gov) estimates the 2017 population to be 737,080. 2 According to one theory of population dispersal into the Americas. There are others. 1896. Gold rush to the Klondike (Yukon Territory, Canada). By this time considerable exploration of the Yukon River and its tributaries has been conducted by hopeful prospectors. 1912. The Second Organic Act makes Alaska a Territory. 1959. Alaska Statehood Act signed into law on Jan. 3, 1959. 1968. Atlantic-Richfield announces the discovery of the Sadlerochit oil field. 1971. Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act sets up 13 regional corporations and awards the Native peoples of Alaska $962.5 million and 44 million acres. 1980. Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act sets aside 105 million acres as National Parks, Reserves, Monuments and Wild and Scenic Rivers. State Bird: Willow ptarmigan State Fish: King Salmon State Flower: Forget-me-not Alaska Commercial Company. In 1776 a Russian capitalist named Gregor Shelikof started a company whose object was the harvest of furs in the newly discovered Russian America. In an effort to enlist the aid of the Russian government, which had a very laissez-faire attitude toward Alaska and which did not seem particularly concerned about the interest other European powers were showing in the area, Shelikof started a Russian colony at Three Saints Bay, Kodiak Island in 1784 [Chevigny 1979]. In 1799, his heir, Nikolai Rezanof, obtained a charter from Emperor Paul I for a 20-year monopoly on trade in Alaska, and the Russian American Company was born. This charter was renewed in 1821 and again in 1841. On Oct. 11, 1867, shortly after the purchase of Alaska by the United States, all of the assets of the Russian American Company were acquired by Hutchinson, Kohl and Company for $350,000 in gold. As a bonus for having dealt fairly with the Russians, they also got some 60,000 seal skins harvested in the Pribilof Islands at the bargain price of a dollar a skin. A year later, Hutchinson and Kohl filed articles of incorporation for the Alaska Commercial Company. Though the original impetus behind forming the A.C. Company was to get a foot in the door to the lucrative Pribilof Islands seal trade, the company soon branched out into the business of trading and canning salmon, which allowed it to thrive even when sealing declined. In 1871, the Alaska Commercial Company signed a contract with the Russian government to hunt seal on several islands on the eastern side of the Bering Sea. Part of this contract required them to take over the duties of supplying the islanders with flour, beans and other staples. When this proved profitable in and of itself, the A.C. Company began pursuing the mercantile trade in other areas as well. When prospectors in Alaska started finding gold along the Yukon the company began supplying them with food, clothing and other goods [Kitchener 1954]. The Alaska Commercial Company was incredibly successful for many years. In 1880, they paid out dividends of 100% to their shareholders [Davis 1992]. By 1900, the company had 91 trading stations and posts scattered from Siberia to the Canadian Yukon. One reason for this success was a willingness to deal with the people and circumstances of the north with genuine humanity. In 1886, at a time when it looked as though there would be shortages of food along the Yukon, Lewis Gerstle, acting as president of the company, wrote in a memo which accompanied a shipment of extra supplies: It must not be understood, however, that the shipment referred to is made for the purpose of realizing profits beyond the regular schedule of prices heretofore established. Our object is to simply avoid any possible suffering which the large increase in population insufficiently provided with articles of food, might occasion. 3 Competition increased as it became apparent that there was profit to be had in the north. In 1889 the North American Commercial Company was awarded the sealing contract in the Pribilof Islands. By 1901 there were so many companies running goods up and down the Yukon that none of them was turning a profit. To reduce duplicated overhead, the A.C. Company merged with the International Mercantile Marine Company and Alaska Goldfields, Ltd. to form two new corporations: the Northern Navigation Company, and the Northern Commercial Company – the N.C. Company so well known to Alaskans [Kitchener 1954]. Alaska Federation of Natives. The Alaska Federation of Natives is the oldest statewide Native organization in Alaska. It was founded in 1966 in response to the state land selection process following the Alaska Statehood Act [Naske 1987]. AFN is a Native advocacy and support organization which focuses political attention and power on issues of importance to Native peoples and rural communities. According to their own website, the AFN's objectives are to: Advocate for Alaska Native people, their governments and organizations with respect to federal, state and local laws; Foster and encourage preservation of Alaska Native cultures; 3 In Flag over the North by L. D. Kitchener. P.44. Promote understanding of the economic needs of Alaska Natives and encourage development consistent with those needs; Protect, retain and enhance all lands owned by Alaska Natives and their organizations; and Promote and advocate programs and systems which instill pride and confidence in individual Alaska Natives.4 The AFN sponsors a number of programs such as the Alaska Native/Rural Education Consortium whose purpose is to "provide support for the integration of Alaska Native knowledge and ways of knowing into the education system of Alaska"5 [ANKN 2000] and an annual convention which is heavily attended by Native leaders from around the state [AFN 2014].

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