In ‘Klondike Stampede,’ the madness of the Gold Rush, told by one who lived it
Book review: "The Klondike Stampede” was originally published in 1900. For anyone drawn to pioneer-era history, it’s a must.
alaska history
The thin line between Canada and Alaska
The boundary between Alaska and Canada is 1,538 miles long. That line is obvious in some places, and invisible in others.
‘The last classic polar explorer’: Spotlighting the life of a pioneering scientist in northeast Alaska
In the early 1900s, Ernest Leffingwell lived for nine summers and six winters in a cabin on Flaxman Island, a wedge of sand off Alaska’s northern coast.
Home hundreds of years old unearthed as Quinhagak readies cultural center
The remote village in a cash-poor region is running a research repository for ancient artifacts dating to the time before contact with Russians and other outsiders.
My 50-year ride in the 49th state
Recounting a few memories and quips to celebrate the fact that fellow Alaskans never quite got around to throwing me out of the state.
Colony barn restoration rescues vestiges of vanishing Matanuska farm history
Two hundred northern Midwest families founded the Matanuska Colony in Palmer in 1935. But today, as farms give way to subdivisions, some surviving Colony barns are getting new life.
Before whining, Alaska hunters should recall this tough hombre
Think it's rugged hunting these days, with your side-by-side, cellphone and other technological improvements? Consider how explorers had it around the turn of the century.
Alaskan who knew more than 200 languages could find the right word
The man who did more than anyone to introduce the world's most successful invented language to English-speaking people lived in Fairbanks for 40 years.
Alaska’s most bizarre bank job
It is not clear if the bank cashier told the state policeman, "Point your gun at me," "Please point your gun at me," or, "Would you mind pointing your gun at me?"
Underground Alaska and one of the most dangerous jobs in the world
Thousands of laborers — many of them foreign born — went underground for one of the most difficult and dangerous jobs in the world: mining.
Insightful new look at ‘Seward’s Folly’
An outstanding history lesson, “Seward’s Folly” reminds us that America doesn’t exist in a bubble and that even what we have done on our own continent has global ramifications.
Crew salvages tractor from last U.S. homestead in Alaska
A retired Nebraska doctor donated $70,000 to save a piece of homestead history in Alaska -- an Allis Chalmers tractor from a site along the Stony River.
Elizabeth Peratrovich to be commemorated on $1 coin
The Alaska civil rights leader who was crucial to the passage of the Alaska Anti-Discrimination Act in 1945 will join Sacagawea on a $1 U.S. coin, to be issued in 2020
The glacier search for servicemen lost in a 1952 plane crash continues. But time is running out.
Every June, the Air Force returns to Colony Glacier in the Chugach Mountains to recover what remains from a fatal plane crash in 1952. There’s no way to know how much of the wreckage has already tumbled into the lake at its terminus.
When an off-course U-2 spy plane out of Alaska nearly triggered war
In 1962, Capt. Charles Maultsby piloted a U-2 spy plane from Eielson Air Force Base to the North Pole and mistakenly drifted into Soviet air space at the height of the Cuban missile crisis.
Oldest chairlift, and part of history, being dismantled at Alyeska Resort
Chair 1 was a workhorse known for giving skiers long, cold rides up the mountain.
Pilots to fly historic military planes to Dutch Harbor for 75th anniversary of bombing
On Saturday, people gathered at the Wings of Freedom hangar in Anchorage for a send-off party.
With help of infrared photography, institute hopes to repair timeworn Tlingit drum
Professional help is on the way for a rare, repatriated instrument.
The cave-in that closed Alaska's biggest gold mine
A century ago, the Treadwell Mine crushed 26 million tons of rock, producing $70 million worth of gold. Then disaster struck.
Alaska's rough-hewn pioneer judges, lawyers
During Alaska's early days as a state, lawyers wrote their own rules, and their style in the courtroom was often more important than the substance of their argument.