WRANGELL-ST. ELIAS A History of the Chisana Mining District, Alaska, 1890-1990

Like all authors, I have accumulated many debts in completing this study. First and foremost, I would like to thank the management of Wrangell-St. Elias National Park and Preserve, who, in this time of declining revenues, delegated precious resources to this project. Special thanks go to Jon Jarvis, Russell Galipeau, Anne Worthington, Margie Steigerwald, Danny Rosenkrans, Mary Beth Cook, Jay Wells, and Jim Hannah for providing encouragement, time, and expertise. Invaluable assistance was also provided by some of the park's seasonal employees, including Steve Lang and Amy Gallaway, who let me participate in several archaeological surveys of the Chisana City townsite; Carol Feldman, who helped me understand and interpret the district's many mining-related landscape revisions; and Jeff Rasic who prepared the study's three accompanying maps. Other contributing Park Service employees included Logan Hovis, Frank Norris, Steve Peterson, Ann Kain, and Thetus Smith, all of the Alaska System Support Office, and Cathy Gilbert, of the Pacific Northwest System Support Office.

Several institutions provided access to key manuscript and photograph collections. These included the National Archives-Alaska Region and the Alaska Resources Library, both in Anchorage; the Rasmuson Library at the University of Alaska Fairbanks; the Alaska State Library and Archives in Juneau; the United States Geological Survey Photographic Library in Denver; the Tacoma (Washington) City Library; the Dawson City (Yukon Territory) Museum; and the Earth Sciences Information Centre, Earth Sciences Sector, Natural Resources Canada, in Ottawa.

No such study could be completed without the help of a few specially knowledgeable individuals. I would like to thank Bell Joe, Stuart Starbuck, Ivan R. Thorall, Ray and Gloria McNutt, Glen Despain, and Georgia Strunk for sharing some of their stories and insights about living and working in the Chisana district; Thomas J. Merson, for providing access to Ruben Lindblom's unpublished narrative of the Chisana stampede; and Mark L. Rippy, for joining me in backpacking several of the district's most important trails.