“Rika Wallen”, researcher/Team Leader pounced this morning. “You posted about Judy Ferguson and John Hajdukovich. When are you going to post about Rika Wallen?”
“Today”, I responded. Remember that she’s not just “Researcher”. She’s also “Team Leader”.
Judy Ferguson wrote about Rika as well as about John and her book, Parallel Destinies, is my source for the story of amazing Rika Wallen.
Erika (the name her parents gave her) followed her brother, Carl, to the United States from Sweden, lived for a time on his farm in Minnesota then moved on to San Francisco where she cooked for the fabulously wealthy Hills Brothers Coffee family. An affectionate estate staff shortened her name to Rika, and Rika she would remain.
In 1906 a monster earthquake levelled San Francisco. Rika tried, for eight more years, but the earthquake had destroyed her prospects along with the city. She heard that the Alaska gold camps offered plenty of work and she thought Alaska might be like the home in Sweden that she fondly remembered.
In 1916, 42-year-old Rika booked passage for Valdez.
From Valdez she made her way up to the Kennicott Copper mine; cooked there for the crew until the season ended in October when she headed up the Richardson Highway to Fairbanks. She didn’t make it that far. Alaska winter took cold to a whole new level, and after a miserable four days she vowed to winter at the next roadhouse. Yost’s Roadhouse needed a cook so there Rika stayed—for seven long, dark months.
Finally, spring…
In June she made her way on north to Fairbanks and there she met John Hajdukovich. John had just opened a roadhouse at Big Delta, but he wanted to go prospecting. He needed someone to tend the roadhouse for the winter. Rika had just endured an Alaska winter along the Richardson, so it took John a while to talk her into his proposition. He proved equal to the task. She finally agreed to try one winter.
John went prospecting and Rika took over the roadhouse.
News of her cooking ability quickly spread among the local prospectors and trappers—she shot rabbits and turned them into a thoroughly delectable stew. She hired Butch Stock to cut her winter’s wood and through the winter Butch and other local bachelors brought In Moose that she cooked and served to travelers passing through.
At the end of a year, Rika and John had a problem. John hadn’t found a way to pay her wages. But John had a solution. He didn’t really want to run a roadhouse. And Rika did. So John just gave her the place.
Rika, as much an institution in Big Delta as Mary Hanson, ran her roadhouse there for the rest of her life.
Rika’s roadhouse today is an Alaska State Park.