Denali A History of the Denali - Mount McKinley, Region, Alaska Historic Resource Study of Denali National Park and Preserve

1. Falcon Joslin, "The Needs of Alaska," reprint of Address Delivered at the Annual Meeting of the American Mining Congress, Chicago, Oct. 17-21, 1921, in reprint file, University of Alaska, Fairbanks, Archives.

2. Ibid., 11-13.

3. Ernest Gruening, The State of Alaska (New York: Random House, 1954), 217-18.

4. Ibid., 201.

5. G.M. Brown, "American Alaska," in Writing Alaska's History, Vol. I (Anchorage: Alaska Historical Commission, 1974), 55.

6. Greuning, State of Alaska, 227-30.

7. G.M. Brown, "American Alaska," 55.

8. Alfred Hulse Brooks, quoted in Evans, From Myth to Reality, 116.

9. Col. J.G. Steese, "Across Alaska by Automobile," American Motorist (March 1923), 12.

10. G.M. Brown, "The Alaska Railroad: Probing the Interior," report for the History and Archeology Branch of the Alaska Division of Parks (Anchorage: October 1975), 31.

11. H.F. Dose, "Report on Trail from Nenana Watershed to End of Steel on Susitna River," Alaska Railroad Record. Vol. II, No. 14 (Feb. 12, 1918), 110-11.

12. C.M. Brown, "Alaska Railroad," 36-37.

13. C.M. Brown, "Alaska Railroad," 38-39; T.W. Secrist, "Alaska Railroad Surveys Through Broad Pass," Engineering News-Record Vol. 86, No. 15 (Apr. 14, 1921), 632.

14. Bernadine L. Prince, The Alaska Railroad in Pictures, 1914-1964 (Anchorage: Ken Wray Print Shop, 1964), 393.

15. Ibid., 449.

16. E.G. Amesbury, "Erection of Hurricane Gulch Arch Bridge in Alaska," Engineering News-Record, Vol. 88, No. 4 (Jan. 26, 1922), 144-46.

17. Quoted in C.M. Brown, "Alaska Railroad," 39.

18. Ibid., 39-42; Alaska Department of Transportation and Public Facilities, "Historical Profile of the Alaska Railroad," contract report of September 1980, available at Alaska State Library, 8-10; anon., "The Alaska Government Railroad," The Pathfinder, Vol. 3, No. 3 (January 1922), 1-6.

19. F.D. Brown letter of 12/8/21 to Col. F. Mears, in Frederick Mears Collection, University of Alaska, Fairbanks, Archives.

20. See ARC Annual Reports (1917, 1921, 1922) and Col. James Steese articles on Alaska roads and trails, including "Across Alaska by Automobile," American Motorist (March 1923), 12-13, 24; "Road Construction Under the Alaska Road Commission," The Highway Magazine (Jan. 1923), 11-12; and "Building Roads to Develop Alaska" The Highway Magazine (Dec. 1924), 13-15.

Steese's letter of June 5, 1924, to Peter Bolinz, et. al., of Cantwell, Alaska, states that the ARC "opened up a winter bob sled road from Cantwell to Valdez Creek" in 1922. Because only one company was operating at Valdez Creek in 1924, the ARC refused a Cantwell petition for further road improvements. The ARC's limited funds had to be saved for roads and trails to commercially viable districts. Letter loaned to writer by Bruce Campbell of Anchorage.

21. Steese letter of 11/14/21 to James Wickersham, Bruce Campbell Collection.

22. Ibid.

23. Hawley Sterling rpt of 11/16/20 to the Board of Road Commissioners for Alaska, 1-9, in Bruce Campbell Collection.

24. Lunsford Oliver (ARC engineer) ltr of 10/31/24 to Chas. Trundy; Steese ltr of 11/14/21 to James Wickersham, both in Bruce Campbell Collection.

25. The following summary of Kantishna mining history (1920 through World War II) is based directly and almost exclusively on Historian Rolfe Buzzell's 1989 paper, "Overview of Mining in the Kantishna District, 1903-1968." Buzzell's excellent study for the National Park Service's Mining Compliance program occurred contemporaneously with the present author's Denali National Park and Preserve Historic Resource Study, which allowed a division of labor between us, with Buzzell responsible for the mining history—for which this author is indebted and grateful. WEB

26. Mary Lee Davis, We Are Alaskans (Boston: W.A. Wilde Co., 1931), 183.

27. Ibid., 190.

28. Ibid., 204-05.

29. Ibid., 213.

30. The following account is based on a biography prepared some years ago by Edgar Brooker, Jr., for his family. Mr. Brooker kindly gave permission to use his story and his words for this history. All quotations are from pp. 32-39 of the biography, or from ltrs of Feb. and Mar. 1984, and July 4, 1988, on file in Denali NP&P archive.

31. Ed Brooker ltr of July 4, 1988, to W.E. Brown.

32. Signal Corps telegram of Mar. 29, 1921, in Bruce Campbell Collection.

33. The foregoing account of Healy's history and evolution is heavily based on Beverly Mitchell's college term paper, "An Early History of the Healy Valley" (May 1989), 15pp. Ms. Mitchell and I have shared sources and perceptions of Healy's history, and I deeply appreciate her synthesis of documentary and oral-history data in her paper.

34. J.A. Davis, "Coal Mining in the Nenana Field, Alaska," in Annual Report of the Mine Inspector to the Governor of Alaska (Juneau: Territory of Alaska, 1922), 143-55.

35. Mitchell, "History of Healy Valley," 9-10.

36. Anon., "Nenana, the Hub City of Interior Alaska," The Pathfinder, Vol. 2, No. 5 (April 1921), 1-9.

37. Quoted by Charley Mayse in "Scion of the mountain men," The Alaska Journal, A 1981 Collection (Anchorage: Alaska Northwest Publishing Co., 1981), 71.

38. Edgar Brooker biography, appended anecdotes.

39. Biographical data and the following narrative derived from transcript of Slim Carlson interviews in 1965 by Florence Collins and Diane Thiede, Minchumina residents. Tapes and transcript on file in the Oral History archive, University of Alaska, Fairbanks.

40. William Schneider, Dianne Gudgel-Holmes, and John Dalle-Molle, Land Use in the North Additions of Denali National Park and Preserve: An Historical Perspective, National Park Service Research/Resources Management Report AR-9 (Anchorage: Alaska Regional Office, NPS, 1984), 18.

41. Ibid., 8-37; William Schneider, "On the Back Slough," in Jean S. Aigner et al., Interior Alaska, A Journey Through Time (Anchorage: The Alaska Geographic Society, 1986), 167-94; Ronald T. Stanek, "Historical and Contemporary Trapping in the Western Susitna Basin," Technical Paper No. 134, Alaska Department of Fish and Game, Division of Subsistence, Anchorage, 1987, 63-66; David Charles Plaskett, "The Nenana River Gorge Site: a Late Prehistoric Athapaskan Campsite in Central Alaska," Master's Thesis, University of Alaska, Fairbanks, December 1977, Chapter 8, Ethnohistoric Summary of the Lower-Middle Tanana and Nenana Rivers, 184-201; Dianne Gudgel-Holmes, "Kantishna Oral History Project - Interviews with Native Elders," typescript report for National Park Service, 1988.

42. Episcopal Church, "St. Mark's Mission, Nenana," Alaskan Epiphany, Vol. I, Nos. 1, 2, 3, 1980, 4-5, 8-9, 16-17; Moses Cruikshank, The Life I've Been Living (Fairbanks: University of Alaska, 1986), 18-25, 114-15; Mackenzie, Wolf Smeller, 8; Gary H. Holthaus and Raymond Collins, "Education in the North: Its Effect on Athapascan Culture," 12-page typescript paper, ca. 1971 in Denali NP archive.

43. Dianne Gudgel-Holmes and C.E. Holmes, "Predictive Model of Aboriginal Site Types and Locations for a Catchment Basin along the Denali Park Road within Denali National Park and Preserve," typescript report for National Park Service, Alaska Region, 1989, 28-33.