The Spaces Between: Stories from the Kenai Mountains to the Kenai Fjords

By Doug Capra

A captivating collection of stories about the pioneers that populated Alaska's eastern Kenai Peninsula during its territorial days. Each chapter features the profile of a notable character, some well-known and others who lived quiet yet extraordinary lives in and around the Kenai Mountains-Turnagain Arm National Heritage Area.

• Language: English
• Publisher: BookBaby
• Release date: Nov 26, 2014
• ISBN: 9781495113772

Book preview

Copyright

FOREWORD

DOUG CAPRA’S STORYTELLING VOICE makes you want to draw a little closer to the campfire and settle in because you know that this tale is going to be a good one. A slight East-Coast lilt to his speech accents a voice that resonates with a depth not only of timbre but of understanding beyond just the facts of the account. He makes connections, reflecting on how people may have felt or what they may have thought as events unfolded around them.

The quality of Capra’s voice can be heard throughout this colorful collection of stories about some of the characters in and around the Kenai Mountains and Kenai Fjords of Alaska. History is more than a chronology of dates and facts. History is about the people who lived during the time that history was being made. In these pages you will meet some of those individuals. Their stories are illustrated by historic photographs of the time.

The Spaces Between: Stories from the Kenai Mountains to the Kenai Fjords is the first original title published by the Kenai Mountains-Turn-again Arm National Heritage Area. Alaska, America’s forty-ninth state, now claims one of forty-nine National Heritage Areas across the Nation. The designation of the Kenai Mountains-Turnagain Arm as a National Heritage Area recognizes this geographic corridor as a place that offers a unique historic contribution to the fabric of our country. From the glittering waters of Resurrection Bay to the breathtaking Chugach Mountains along Turnagain Arm, the Kenai Mountain-Turnagain Arm Corridor cradles one of the most interesting regions of Alaska history.

Seward circa 1940.

AUTHOR’S COLLECTION COURTESY OF THE DONALD BARTONI FAMILY.

In many ways, the development of Kenai Mountain-Turnagain Arm reflects the history of Alaska as a whole. An important historic theme throughout the KMTA National Heritage area is transportation. Native peoples first traveled the area by foot trails and used rivers, lakes, and ocean shorelines for travel. The building of the ship, Phoenix, on the shores of Resurrection Bay attests to Russia’s early presence in Alaska. American prospectors later developed a network of trails known as the Iditarod trail system to get to gold mining camps as far north as Nome. Dogs often led the way in hauling freight and people through mountainous terrain. Eventually, rough wagon roads were cut through the wilderness. Seward, known as the Gateway City, provided a deep water port for steam ships to dock. From Seward, America’s first and only government railroad stitched its way across the Kenai Mountains and up the Turnagain Arm of Cook Inlet toward Fairbanks. Finally, the building of modern roads in the National Heritage Area opened the Kenai Peninsula to the rest of the territory.

Most technological developments in the area have taken place over the course of the past century. The history of Alaska is actually quite recent, with many pioneers still able to remember the days before they could drive a vehicle from one end of the National Heritage Area to the other.

Doug Capra interviewed some of these pioneers. The stories in this collection reflect many of those conversations. For example, Pat Williams was a little girl in Seward when President Warren G. Harding visited Alaska in 1923 to commemorate the completion of the Alaska Railroad. Today, at age 104, she still remembers the fondness that citizens of Seward held for their President—and the collective grief of the community when he died mysteriously shortly after leaving Alaska.

So put another log on the fire and settle in. These and other stories capture the excitement and pioneer spirit of the people that come alive in The Spaces Between: Stories from the Kenai Mountains to the Kenai Fjords.

KAYLENE JOHNSON

Author, Trails Across Time: History of an Alaska Mountain Corridor

Program Manager,

Kenai Mountains-Turnagain Arm National Heritage Area

August, 2014

The children and adults of Seward’s Methodist Episcopal Church are seen here picnicking a few miles north of town. It appears as if they were quietly having lunch when a photographer told them to quickly assemble for a photo.

Note the little girl in the front row to the far left.

SEWARD COMMUNITY LIBRARY MUSEUM (SCL1-140)

INTRODUCTION AND ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

LOOK AT THE PHOTOGRAPH TO THE LEFT. It shows the Methodist Episcopal Church Sunday School at a picnic about 1906 in Seward, Alaska. Look closely at the faces—especially the little girl in the front row to the far left. What’s going on there? We have other photos of this group wandering by a nearby creek.

In his essay Reading Photographs, Hans Durrer writes, Photographs are never clear by themselves. In some way or another, they are only the shattered fragments of the broken mirror of reality and, as they show us their images, we are forced to reconstruct their meaning.¹

After studying this photograph, my guess is that after arriving at their picnic spot and wandering the creek for a while, this Sunday school group settled down for lunch. As they were eating, a pesky photographer disturbed their meal by asking them to arise and pose for a group photograph—which they did, but with some reluctance as you can see from some of their facial expressions. Thank goodness for us today that some photographers can be annoying.

I mention this here because it has been photographs like this one, and those in the second chapter ("Mary and Chester") that have compelled me over the years to write these stories. What were people like one hundred or more years ago? Human nature is much the same. On the other hand—from having known people who lived in earlier days and from my research—I think some of us today would be greatly surprised by how social, religious, and racial attitudes have changed. We would find much in common with the people in these old photographs, but some of their core beliefs and attitudes would bother us.

Slogging through material while researching stories like these can be daunting. About thirty-five years ago while in Fairbanks doing some of this research, I came across a story that has helped guide me through the morass of sources writers gather during their investigations.

Gold miners in the Tanana Valley roamed over huge areas, finding a little color here, a little color there. They frequently sank several holes using wood fires to thaw the icy muck and boulders. Evenings often found them in their tents or cabins panning the day’s residue by lamplight. Any gold they found was still impure when they took it to the bank or assay office.

A story is told of a miner who hiked to town to take his poke to the gold cashier’s window at the bank. He dropped the poke on the counter, and the cashier carefully dumped the dust and nuggets on to the pan of the balance scales. After blowing at the gold to rid it of its dust and debris, the cashier complained, There’s quite a bit of dirt still in it.

The miner replied, Hell, you should have seen it when I found it.

Some stories in this book first saw print nearly forty years ago in one form or another. Over the years, they’ve been rewritten and expanded. Many people have helped me locate, collect, and sort through the vast material that constitutes Alaska history. If on occasion I have inadvertently tossed out a few of the nuggets and kept some of the dirt, or made other errors, the fault is entirely mine. And if I have inadvertently omitted any names here or in my list of sources, I offer apologies.

When I first came to Alaska in 1971, the remnant of the pioneer generation still lived. Most of them were women. It has been my privilege to meet and know many of them. You may notice a special interest in women’s history in this book. These pioneer women were very willing to sit down and tell me their stories with a frankness that I at first found shocking, and later as I got older, refreshing. They inspired me to learn more about other women who ventured to the Alaska Territory.

While teaching on the Aleutian Island of Adak, I became fascinated with Aleut culture and history. While wandering the island in my spare time, I photographed World War II ruins and read all I could about the Aleutian campaign. That fall of 1971, the Atomic Energy Commission was on Adak preparing for Project Cannikin, the last of three underground nuclear tests performed on Amchitka Island. In early 1972, the U.S. Coast Guard, during a harrowing chase, captured two Russian fishing vessels heading a large flotilla in American waters. They brought them to Adak and the event went international. I took notes, conducted interviews, and wired a story to a newspaper I had worked for on the East Coast. When it was published and distributed on the wire services, I knew I was participating in Alaska history.

That same year Alaska’s Lieutenant Governor, Henry Aristide Red Boucher, visited Adak. I had dinner with him at the Bachelor Officer Quarters (BOQ) and we talked about preserving the World War II history of the Aleutians. I had just turned twenty-three, and here I was having dinner with Alaska’s Lieutenant Governor—and he was actually listening to me. What kind of a state was this—where a newcomer, a kid born and raised in Massachusetts, who had been here only a few months and couldn’t even call himself an Alaskan—could sit down and have dinner with the Lieutenant Governor? I determined that Alaska was the place for me.

The next year in Seward I met old-timer, John Paulsteiner. He played the zither and I played the guitar. He told me stories about early Alaska while we practiced together. One winter I convinced him to enter the local talent show with me and we played a few tunes together.² He was the one who got me interested in researching more about American artist Rockwell Kent’s visit to Alaska in 1918.

One of my fellow teachers, Dan Seavey, mushed dogs and had lived through the 1964 Good Friday Earthquake. He introduced me to many others who had experienced that disaster. I talked with them and took notes. I later worked with Dan as he prepared for the first and second Iditarod Sled Dog Races. Because I knew this would be an historic event, I helped him record the preparation process and his immediate memories on audiotape so he could write a book about it.³

I met other Alaska pioneers like Hazel Ray—who had entered Resurrection Bay on a steamship before the town of Seward had even been founded, when the Lowell family still lived along the shores. I vividly recall her story about the Pray, Do club in Seward’s early days (See the chapters, "Seward, Alaska: 1904–06 and Seward’s Good-Time Girls). It was important to maintain proper decorum in those days. As the ladies played bridge together, one would ask, Shall I bid? and another would reply, Pray, do." I recall Hazel as being unimpressed with the formality.

Hazel’s daughter, Pat Williams,⁴ was always there to help me and continues to this day—as I write this, she is 104 years old. I still phone her for information and advice, and she’ll occasionally phone me after reading one of my history articles. She is a wealth of historical information and has taught me much about interpreting the past. Her advice is reminiscent of E.L. Doctorow in his novel The Waterworks. As the narrator talks to us in the present recalling the 1870’s he says, You may think you are living in modern times, here and now, but that is the necessary illusion of every age. We did not conduct ourselves as if we were preparatory to your time. There was nothing quaint or colorful about us.⁵

About this time I also met old-time Alaskans like Lee McAnerny who offered much help. Over the years Lee passed on a tremendous amount of material to me, and interviews with her were not just informative but quite frank. There wasn’t much she wouldn’t tell me about, even topics that people don’t usually talk about.

In 1978 Seward celebrated its 75th birthday, and I was ready to start compiling all my research and notes. One of my high school students, Barbara (Simpson) Kraft, helped me with research. Some of those early stories first saw light in the pages of the Seward Phoenix Log. For this I thank former owners, Beverly and Willard Dunham—who continue to be excellent sources for Alaska history. Over the years I have written other historical sketches for that newspaper and owe much to Edgar Blatchford, Chris Casati, Adam Orth, Mike Olson, Chris Smith, Ed Carol and Eric Fry. During the summer of 1993, I wrote a series of articles for a short-lived newspaper (The Seward Observer).⁶ I also owe much to the editors of Seward’s numerous past newspapers—The Seward Gateway, The Seward Polaris, Seward Seaport Record, and the Petticoat Gazette.

William Faulkner wrote: The past is never dead. It’s not even past. There were times I had difficulty separating the past from the present.

One winter in 1979 found me spending the morning in the library basement reading old newspapers from the 1920s. By noon I was hungry, so I drove absentmindedly downtown for lunch. I parked somewhere on Seward’s Main Street, got out, and headed to a local restaurant. But when I awoke from my daze, I realized the restaurant was gone. It had been in that spot in the 1920s. I stood on the sidewalk where its entrance would have been, shaking my head and feeling foolish.

One Saturday morning in the early 1980s, former librarian Margaret Jackie Deck got me out of bed with a phone call: You’ve got to get down here, she said. There’s a woman you need to interview. When I arrived with my tape recorder, Jackie introduced me to a woman whose husband had mushed poet Robert Service into the Yukon Territory for the first time. I still have that interview on tape. A year earlier I had interviewed the children of Seward’s founder, John Ballaine—Sephronia, Florence, and Jerrold. They had many interesting memories of their father and the town’s early days.

I conducted much of my research in Seward’s libraries. In 1972, I recall that the library was in the basement of the old First National Bank building. That’s where I first met Jackie Deck who moved with the library to the south corner of Fifth Avenue and Adams Street. Jackie and I worked together on several projects, including the 1964 Earthquake slide show. Thanks also to later librarians Kathy Nichols and Cheryl Pearson and their staff, Doris Welch and Maureen Callahan. Current librarian Patty Linville and her staff, Rachel James, Katelyn Rullman, Tim Morrow, and Carol Conant have also been of tremendous help.

Mike Stallings, who compiled his massive index to The Seward Gateway for the years 1904–1910, has made life easier for writers of early Alaska territorial history.⁷ Lee Poleske, longtime head of the Resurrection Bay Historical Society (RBHS) and its museum, has been a friend and invaluable help over the years. I’d spend hours with him at the old Seward Museum talking local history.⁸ He’d often send interesting clippings and bits of information my way. Tim Sczawinski, whose passion for local history inspires me, provided the sketch of Seward’s mountain Christmas tree for this book.

Over the years I taught many classes for the Kenai Peninsula College, including at least two on local history. My students conducted extensive research for their projects and I donated those files to our local library. I also helped many local high school students with their history projects for a local scholarship. These projects are also on file.

After I retired from teaching in 1997, I worked as a ranger at Kenai Fjords National Park (KEFJ) and still do on a limited basis. My fellow rangers have been a great help to me, especially the superintendents I worked under, Anne Castellina and Jeff Mow. My other KEFJ supervisors over the years, Amy and Jim Ireland, Sandy Brue, Kristy Sholly, and Laura Sturtz, also gave me needed support. As the reader will notice in my source list, the National Park Service (NPS) conducts extensive historical research and produces extremely valuable publications that, unfortunately, often get filed away and forgotten by the general public. I urge readers, wherever you live, to check for these NPS and other government publications when doing your historical or genealogical research.

I also offer thanks to my friends at the Alaska Historical Society (on whose board of directors I served for six years) especially Alaska State Historians Jo Antonson and Judith Bittner, Chief of Historical Preservation for Alaska at the Department of Natural Resources; and to Museums Alaska; the Seward Memorial United Methodist Church, Sacred Heart Catholic Church, and St. Peter’s Episcopal Church for access to their archives; my colleagues on both the Seward Historical Preservation Commission and the old Seward Community Library Board; the Seward Chamber of Commerce; the City of Seward (especially Linda Murphy, Patsy Jones, Kerry Martin); Virginia, Hugh and Iris Darling; Katie Ringsmuth; Shannon Kovak; Colleen Kelly; Dorothy Urbach; Louella James; Albert Kawabe; Elsie Whitmore and her son Brent and daughter Ann Whitmore-Painter; Mona Painter in Cooper Landing whose knowledge of the Kenai Peninsula is extensive; Barbara Shea; Mary Elizabeth Lee; Skip and Marie Fletcher; Walter and Elsie Blue; Clara Rust in Fairbanks; Jim Barkley; Mike Brittain; Dennis and Susan Swiderski; Ralph and Anne Hatch; Joanne Hoagland; Monty and Florita Richardson; Pat O’Brien; Gwen Cobban; Lloyd Welch; Billy Black-Jack Johnson; Casey McDannel, Jr. and family; Kevin Murphy and family; Bob and Liz Richardson; Bob Richardson, Jr.; Marilyn Pollard; Matt Ainsworth; Sharon Ackerson; Kathy (Lechner) Blackmore; Charles and Mary Lechner; Vance and Amy Hitt; Herman Leir; Dale and Carol Ann Lindsey; Marty and Donna Kowalski; Marc Swanson; Jerry Dixon; in Anchorage: the staffs at the UAA/APU Consortium Library, the Z.J. Loussac Pubic Library, the National Archives Branch and the National Park Service Regional Office; Jerry Cabana; Jason Boerger; Jason Gifford; Dan Marshall; Ruben Gaines; and Rusty Heurlin.

Over the years, I’ve written extensively about American artist Rockwell Kent and his two visits to Alaska, especially his 1918–1919 stay on Fox Island in Resurrection Bay. Complete acknowledgments for this research would require many pages. I’ve extended sources for the two chapters in this book about Kent so as to recognize some of that help. Kent’s third wife, Sally, provided me with many insights into her husband’s life as did Kent’s son Rocky, whom I met before he died, and his other son, Gordon. Kent’s grandson Chris Kent, an artist himself, has been another great resource, as have been others of Kent’s grandchildren whom I have met on their visits to Fox Island. Other thanks go to John Gorton, George and Gladys Spector, Robert Rightmire, Jake MilgramWien, Will Ross, Scott Ferris, Frederick Lewis, Eliot Stanley, Don Roberts, Richard West, and David Traxel; and to the staff of the Rockwell Kent Gallery (part of SUNY-Plattsburgh), who produced The Kent Collector—Evelyn Heins, Marguerite Eisinger, Edward R. Brohel, and Cecilia Esposito. Over the years, Kenai Fjords Tours, owners of a lodge on Fox Island, have provided me with courtesy transportation to and from the island. The Bob and Betty Hunt family, who own the land upon which the fox farm and Kent cabin were located, always offered me assistance. I spent many hours having tea with them at their cabin during my Fox Island visits.

Much of my writing takes place over coffee at the Resurrection Art Coffee House and Art Gallery or at the Sea Bean Cafe. For this I thank owners, Mike and Raylene O’Connor and Matt and Meredith Hershock—and their great baristas.

I offer special thanks to Monica Luther, Amy Ireland, and Linnea Hollingsworth—who performed as Alaska Nellie over the years in my one-woman show, Into Alaska a Woman Came. Their effort required hours of memorization and rehearsal. The show was performed in several locations: The Resurrect Art Coffee House, Hotel Edgewater, Windsong Lodge, for Kenai Fjords Tours on Fox Island, and aboard the Star of the Northwest for Major Marine Tours.

I owe a great deal to my wife’s aunt and uncle, Steve and Shirley Duda in Anchorage, true Alaskan pioneers. Shirley first came to Alaska in the 1920’s with her parents who were cooks at the whaling station in Akutan in the Aleutian Islands. She later returned with them in the 1930’s and met Steve. Their stories of life in the territory have inspired me.

Jay Stauter, who wrote a series of articles about Seward history during the 1950’s in the Seward Seaport Record, took me under his wing before he died and supplied me with much material and information—including a draft of his unpublished book about Seward history. These sources I placed on file at the Seward Library-Museum.

Mary Barry deserves a special note. Her multivolume history of Seward and her History of Mining on the Kenai Peninsula are essential sources for Alaska history. She has a unique perspective of Alaska history since she has lived a good part of it herself and has known many of its prominent characters. Although I always go to primary sources when available, I have used Mary’s book as a guide. I owe her a great deal—as do the people of Alaska, especially Seward.

My old friend, Bill Porter, Jr. (since 3rd grade) who drove with me on my first trip to Alaska in 1971, has inspired my writing endeavors since we were children.

The Kenai Mountain-Turnagain Arm National Historic Area provided a grant to publish this book. I’m grateful to all the board members, and especially Program Manager Kaylene Johnson, a noted writer and historian herself, for guiding me step-by-step in the production of this book and for writing its preface.

I owe a special thanks and gratitude to Vanta Shafer who died while this book was in production. She was a Seward City Council member for many years, and a former mayor. Vanta owned Cover-to-Cover Books, and two years ago, when she began publishing the Seward Journal, she hired me to write a weekly Alaska history column. This gave me the opportunity not only to find and produce new material but also to rewrite and expand older published stories. Her husband, Bob, continues the newspaper and I continue with my column. There are many stories yet to write.

My family has lived my writer’s life with me. Every vacation has had some element of research to it. My children, Nathan and Emily, have been a great help over the years. But it’s my wife, Cindy, who has helped with research, finding and scanning photographs, reading and editing text, accounting for expenses, and all the other jobs that can distract and divert a writer from his work.

DOUG CAPRA

Seward, Alaska

March 2014

1917 Alaska Steamship Company routes

The Spaces Between

Stories from the Kenai Mountains to the Kenai Fjords

Dr. John Baughman, Seward’s physician and an assayer, walks down Main Street around 1905. Sleems