BEACONS OF CIVILIZATION: THE ROADHOUSES OF THE RICHARDSON HIGHWAY A Thesis Presented to the Faculty of the Graduate School of Cornell University in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Master of Arts by Cassandra Rose Woster May 2016 © 2016 Cassandra Rose Woster ABSTRACT This work examines the roadhouses of the Richardson Highway, a collection of 30 to 40 establishments placed along the 400-mile stretch of road connecting Valdez, Alaska in the south with Fairbanks, Alaska in the Interior. These roadhouses were byproduct of the gold rush era in Alaska, with the Richardson Highway being surveyed and routed over a course of several years beginning in 1898. The roadhouses of Alaska grew along transportation routes, and served as rest stations for travelers, freight, and mail lines. The roadhouses also served as community centers for prospectors and adventurers living in remote reaches of Alaska. Roadhouses ranged from simple tents and one-room cabins to large, multi-storied timber framed and/or stone structures. The Richardson Highway was chosen as the transportation route for investigation, as the roadhouses along this route are easily accessible and threatened by on-going road construction and settlement projects. Research for the roadhouses involved investigation of previous studies, news articles, and information obtained from area residents. Fieldwork was undertaken in the summer of 2012 to locate as many roadhouses as possible. A total of fourteen roadhouses and roadhouse sites were located, with several not accessible during the given time constraints for fieldwork. Histories were written for each of the located roadhouses and roadhouse sites, and as much information gathered on the remaining roadhouses as possible. A preservation plan was created which takes into account the variety of ownership and the distances separating the roadhouses. As the roadhouses of the Richardson Highway are held in both government and private ownership, the preservation of the remaining structures will involve the combined efforts of governmental, private, and nonprofit stewardship. iii BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH Casey Woster is a candidate for a Masters of Arts degree at Cornell University in the field of Historic Preservation Planning. She also holds a Bachelor’s of the Arts in Art History from Montana State University. The inspiration for this work came about as a result of an internship with the National Park Service in Anchorage, Alaska in 2012. Casey is a life-long Alaska resident, and is dedicated to furthering the field of historic preservation within Alaska. iv DEDICATION For my brother Dusty, who knew every roadhouse on every stretch of highway he ever worked. Without his inside knowledge, passion, and good-natured pressuring, this work may never have been accomplished. So this is for you, little brother. You will always be loved and forever missed. Dusty Woster, in the Chugach Mountains above Thompson Pass, March 2015. Photo courtesy of Scott Woster. v ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS A special thanks to the staff of the State Historic Preservation Officer and the National Park Service Alaska Region in Anchorage, Alaska for their support of this project; Irene Mead at Big Delta State Historic Park for her valuable first-hand accounts of owning and operating roadhouses; and Tim, Scott, and Dustin Woster for their information on road construction practices, especially as regards the Richardson Highway. Finally, thank you to Tim and Jill Woster for patiently spending entire weekends searching the Richardson Highway for roadhouses based on text, maps, and photos more than thirty years in age. vi TABLE OF CONTENTS LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS ....................................................................................................... viii INTRODUCTION .......................................................................................................................... 1 Methods ...................................................................................................................................... 7 Chapter Summaries ................................................................................................................... 10 CHAPTER ONE: ALASKA HISTORY OVERVIEW ............................................................... 12 Alaska Prehistory ...................................................................................................................... 12 Russian Alaska .......................................................................................................................... 16 Post-American Purchase ........................................................................................................... 24 Early Alaskan Exploration ........................................................................................................ 29 CHAPTER TWO: AMERICAN DEVELOPMENT OF ALASKA ............................................ 34 Gold Rush Alaska ..................................................................................................................... 34 Early Alaska Transportation ..................................................................................................... 47 CHAPTER THREE: HISTORY OF THE RICHARDSON HIGHWAY ................................... 56 CHAPTER FOUR: ALASKAN ROADHOUSES ...................................................................... 81 RICHARDSON HIGHWAY CASE STUDIES ........................................................................... 90 Tiekel/Tiekhell Roadhouse, Vaughn’s Roadhouse ................................................................... 91 Tonsina Roadhouse ................................................................................................................... 94 Copper Center Lodge, Hotel Holman, Blix’s Roadhouse, Copper Center Lodge .................. 102 Gakona Roadhouse, Doyle’s Ranch ....................................................................................... 107 Poplar Grove Roadhouse ........................................................................................................ 111 Meier’s Roadhouse ................................................................................................................. 115 Paxson Roadhouse .................................................................................................................. 118 Yost’s Roadhouse ................................................................................................................... 124 Rapids Roadhouse, Black Rapids Lodge, Lodge at Black Rapids ......................................... 129 Sullivan’s Roadhouse ............................................................................................................. 136 Rika’s Roadhouse, McCarty’s Roadhouse, Big Delta Roadhouse ......................................... 140 CHAPTER FIVE: PRESERVATION PLAN ............................................................................ 146 Why preserve the roadhouses? ............................................................................................... 146 Challenges to Preservation work within Alaska ..................................................................... 147 Roadhouses – definition and context for preservation purposes ............................................ 149 Previous efforts at preservation of the roadhouses ................................................................. 150 Multiple Property Nomination for the roadhouses under appropriate context ....................... 153 Inclusion in other preservation efforts – Richardson Highway .............................................. 157 Creation of Roadhouse Land Bank ......................................................................................... 164 Physical Documentation, Preservation Work, and Reuse Options ......................................... 165 Tourism and Promotional Plan – Public Presentation and Site interpretation ........................ 167 CONCLUSION ........................................................................................................................... 171 APPENDIX A: INVENORY OF RICHARDSON HIGHWAY ROADHOUSES .................... 173 Additional Roadhouses ........................................................................................................... 244 vii BIBLIOGRAPHY ....................................................................................................................... 250 viii LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS Figure 1. Map of Alaska Native Language groups and territories. (http://www.ankn.uaf.edu/NPE/Summit/McDowell/reviewhistory.html) ............................ 13 Figure 2. Map showing the Kamchatka Expeditions undertaken by Vitus Bering in the mid-18th century. (http://www.explorenorth.com/library/maps/n-beringmap1.htm) ......................... 17 Figure 3. Map of Russian Alaska, as ceded to the US in 1867. (http://alaskaweb.org/maps/map- 1867alaska.jpg) ..................................................................................................................... 23 Figure 4. Map showing U.S. exploration routes in Alaska through 1998. (http://www.raremaps.com/gallery/enlarge/32126) .............................................................. 29 Figure 5. The three main routes into the Klondike. (http://alaskatrekker.com/places- go/skagway-alaska/klondike-gold-rush/) .............................................................................. 37 Figure 6. All-American route into the Klondike, with options from