Balto and his team waited anxiously with driver Gunnar Kaasen to carry the desperately needed serum over the second to last leg of the relay to Nome while Leonhard Seppala, the heroic Toga, and his team arrived on the northern coast of Norton Sound just ahead of the ice breaking up behind them. Seppala handed …
Tag Archives: Alaska
Sled Dogs Rescued Nome
Dogs, sled dogs, offered the only possible rescue for the dying people of Nome, Alaska. In the winter of 1925, Dr Welch, Nome’s only doctor, fought a diphtheria epidemic that threatened to wipe out everyone in Nome and the surrounding area. Through January he lost a few more patients every day. Without diphtheria antitoxin he …
Inwood to Skagway
Inwood, Iowa to Skagway, Alaska—Doctor Peter Dahl moved his family to an utterly different, utterly unique world. Wife Vera liked Iowa just fine, but “whither thou goest…” The move struck eleven-year-old Lew, ten-year-old Robert, and even three year old Roger as pure excitement. Buffalo Soldiers in Skagway In his memoir, After the Gold Rush, …
Kiska in August
Kiska came next. Led by Castner’s Cutthroats the American 7th, in one of the bloodiest and most miserable battles of WWII, drove Japanese defenders on Attu to suicide and reclaimed the island for the United States. That left the Japanese enemy in possession of Kiska—or so American commanders thought. Castner’s Cutthroats and Attu In response …
Castner’s Cutthroats
Castner’s Cutthroats, a platoon of unique soldiers commanded by Colonel Lawrence V. Castner, launched into Subarctic history shortly after the Japanese occupied Kiska and Attu in June 1942. Few Americans Worried about the Aleutians Relentless cold, impenetrable fog and endless hurricane force winds called “williwaws” threatened the Japanese survival far more than the Americans. The …
Few Americans Worried about the Aleutians
Few people in The United States or Canada knew the Japanese posed a threat to America through the Aleutians—until, on June 21, 1942 the Navy issued a press release. “The enemy has occupied the undefended islands of Attu and Kiska…” Americans scurried for their globes and Atlases and few suddenly became many. Task Force 2 …
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Seismic Threat
Seismic activity poses one more threat to those who choose to endure cold, mud, mosquitoes and live in the Subarctic. We know Mother nature is a player there, not always a friendly one. She has created a breathtaking part of the world, but she makes those who live there pay to experience it. She fights …
Free Land
Free land has drawn people from the lower 48 to Alaska throughout the twentieth century. Free land or no, most of those people turned around and headed back home after the first winter. The ones who stayed became Alaskans. Alaskans A few months ago, one of those Alaskans, Shirley Balinski, commented on one of my …
Alaskans
Alaskans came—and stayed. Most people came and then left. Legendary Alaskan, Mary Hanson Furs then gold then oil brought waves of people from the outside. Most left as soon as they could to enjoy memories of Alaska’s remote, breathtaking beauty in the comfort of somewhere else. Only a very few Alaskans stayed to make their …
Oil Under Prudhoe Bay
Oil, pooled deep under Prudhoe Bay, offered the greatest Alaska treasure of all. Men had come to Alaska for furs and fish and for Gold. In 1968 men came for oil, and they found one of the top 20 oil fields ever discovered anywhere in the world. More on recent Alaska history Problem. Prudhoe …