Site Logo

Clark Fair

A version of the John Bess Howe rescue tale appeared in this July 1928 issue of True Story Magazine. Unfortunately, according to Howe, many parts of the True Story story were untrue.

Community

Winter rescue: Saving the teacher’s life — Part 4

AUTHOR’S NOTE: On Nov. 20, 1927, Ninilchik schoolteacher John Bess Howe accidentally shot herself in the abdomen while…

John Bess Howe was transferred to Virginia Mason Hospital in Seattle in late 1927. This photograph of her and her concerned mother appeared in the Seattle Daily Times on New Year’s Day 1928.

Features

Winter rescue: Saving the teacher’s life — Part 3

AUTHOR’S NOTE: On Nov. 20, 1927, Ninilchik schoolteacher John Bess Howe accidentally shot herself in the abdomen while…

Photo courtesy of the Anchorage Aviation Museum Russel Merrill sits in the open cockpit of his Anchorage Air Transport plane, seen here on skis. The protected cabin for passengers sits in front of him.

Features

Winter rescue: Saving the teacher’s life— Part 2

AUTHOR’S NOTE: On Nov. 20, 1927, Ninilchik schoolteacher John Bess Howe accidentally shot herself in the abdomen while…

This is Walter Kotoff’s 1941 passport photo. Courtesy of the Lu Liston Collection, Anchorage Museum at Rasmuson Center.

Features

Winter rescue: Saving the teacher’s life — Part 1

AUTHOR’S NOTE: Many of the “facts” in this century-old story have been buried beneath a stratum of misinformation,…

Photo from the Kenai United Methodist Church archives The Kenai Methodist Church in 1962.

Features

Our Sunday best: Early churches of the central Kenai Peninsula — Part 3

AUTHOR’S NOTE: An earlier version of this story first appeared in May 2013 in the Redoubt Reporter. The…

Photo from the Kenai Peninsula College photo archive Soldotna’s Catholic Church (Our Lady of Perpetual Help), circa 1962.

Features

Our Sunday best: Early churches of the central Kenai Peninsula — Part 2

AUTHOR’S NOTE: An earlier version of this story first appeared in May 2013 in the Redoubt Reporter. The…

Father Juvenaly, Kenai’s first Russian Orthodox priest, led the establishment of Christianity on the Kenai Peninsula. (Wikipedia image extracted from a larger church icon)

Features

Our Sunday best: Early churches of the central Kenai Peninsula — Part 1

AUTHOR’S NOTE: An earlier version of this story first appeared in May 2013 in the Redoubt Reporter. The…

By the early 1910s, crossing the Killey River was part of a regular route into moose- and Dall sheep-hunting country, via Skilak Lake. This photo, featuring a hunting guide crossing the river in a collapsible boat, was taken in 1912 and included in Morris L. Parrish’s 1913 hunting memoir.

Features

The Killey mystery — Part 2

The name “Killey River”—spelled exactly as it is today—first appeared in print, as far as I can tell,…

This section from a 1904 U.S. Geological Survey map is likely the earliest to use the modern spelling of the Killey River.

Features

The Killey mystery — Part 1

Think of this article as a crowdsourcing exercise.

Ralph Soberg, who spent decades working for the Alaska Road Commission, published Bridging Alaska in 1991. In his book, he describes many of the accomplishments of Hawley Winchell Sterling.

Features

Life-changing moments in the Hawley Sterling story — Part 4

AUTHOR’S NOTE: On Oct. 4, 1918, a young mother named Margaret Sterling left her Nenana home to ride…

Joseph Sterling, the only child of highway-building pioneer Hawley Sterling, visited Alaska with his wife, Pat, in the summer of 2000 and was interviewed by Homer News reporter Carey Restino, who took this image in Homer.

Features

Life-changing moments in the Hawley Sterling story — Part 3

AUTHOR’S NOTE: On Oct. 4, 1918, a young mother named Margaret Sterling left her Nenana home to ride…

The “Y” junction in Soldotna was a little less obvious in its early days. Here, Alaska Road Commission engineer Louie Hendricks poses next to a directional sign indicating which way to turn for either Kenai or Moose Pass. (Photo courtesy Al Hershberger)

Features

Life-changing moments in the Hawley Sterling story — Part 2

AUTHOR’S NOTE: On Oct. 4, 1918, a young mother named Margaret Sterling left her Nenana home to ride…

Hawley Winchell Sterling, in his Class of 1912 senior portrait at the University of Denver. He was about 23 years at this time and had already spent a summer or two in Alaska, honing his skills in surveying and engineering.

Features

Life-changing moments in the Hawley Sterling story — Part 1

Single moments alter lives. A man leaves for work five minutes late and fails to avoid a serious…