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Photo courtesy of the Keeler Family Collection In 1951, shortly after they had purchased their new jeep (pictured), the Keeler family (L-R: Larry, April, Marion, Lorna and Lawrence) used it to help another traveler extract his own vehicle from a snowy ditch. The other driver took this photo and later sent a copy of the image to the Keelers.

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Keeler Clan of the Kenai — Part 2

AUTHOR’S NOTE: Lawrence and Lorna Keeler, along with their three children and Lawrence’s older brother Floyd, left Oregon…

Louvie “Vi” Chapman photo courtesy of the Pratt Museum Lawrence Keeler (right) talks at his Anchor Point sawmill with Sherman Chapman in 1950. Keeler was cutting spruce logs for Chapman’s home.

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Keeler Clan of the Kenai — Part 1

AUTHOR’S NOTE: Over a four-year period beginning in 1947, three siblings from Oregon’s large Keeler family settled on…

Rex Edwards experimented with many activities, including fencing, for the students at the school in Seldovia. In the 1973-74 school year, he even attempted to coach football, even though the only “field” available was the beach. Here are the “Seldovia Retreaters” as they appeared in the school’s 1974 yearbook. (Image courtesy of Rex and Beverly Edwards)

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First in the Pool — Part 2

AUTHOR’S NOTE: This is the second part of a two-part story about former teachers Rex and Beverly Edwards…

Besides his P.E. duties, Rex Edwards also coached swimming and wrestling and was involved in numerous other activities. Here, he poses with his wrestlers. (Image courtesy of Rex and Beverly Edwards)

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First in the Pool — Part 1

AUTHOR’S NOTE: A slightly modified version of this two-part story about former teachers Rex and Beverly Edwards and…

Photo courtesy of the Bodnar Family Collection In about 1948, after he and brother Alex had proven up on his homestead and were in the process of proving up on Alex’s, Marcus Bodnar poses here with his cabin along the Kenai River near the site of the bridge, which was just being built at this time.

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The Bodnar Brothers: Early to Arrive, Early to Depart — Part 2

AUTHOR’S NOTE: The brothers Marcus and Alex Bodnar, sons of Ukrainian immigrants, came to the central Kenai Peninsula…

Peter and Pearl Bodnar (front, center) pose for a 1930 Christmas portrait with much of their family, probably in Manitoba, Canada. Pictured are: (back row, L-R) Alex, sister Anna (Bodnar) Bandura, brother Michael holding daughter Pearl next to his wife Jessie, and Marcus. In the front row are: Michael’s eldest daughter Olga, parents Parascevies “Pearl” and Peter Bodnar, and Michael’s middle daughter Marion. (Photo courtesy of the Bodnar Family Collection)

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The Bodnar Brothers: Early to Arrive, Early to Depart — Part 1

It’s summer 1947, the year of the immense Kenai Burn: Marge and Frank Mullen are sitting at the…

Betty Fuller, working with a shovel outside the Cooper Landing Post Office in 1969, was among the first to suggest that her town’s first post office had been named for a postal official. (Photo courtesy of Mona Painter)

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Riddiford: Story of a Name Change — Part 2

AUTHOR’S NOTE: Cooper Landing, on the Kenai Peninsula, was once identified with a postal inspector named Charles Arthur…

Charles Riddiford, far right in the back row, posed for this Spokane Post Office staff photo in 1898 when he was just a clerk. The photo appeared in a 1922 edition of the Spokesman Review, along with a discussion of the post office’s tremendous growth.

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Riddiford: Story of a Name Change — Part 1

AUTHOR’S NOTE: Place names can be ephemeral. And they can fade for myriad reasons. Sometimes offensive names are…

This is the military plaque placed upon the Anchorage grave of Arlon Elwood “Jackson” Ball. (Photo from findagrave.com)

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Human Complexity: The Story of Jackson Ball — Part 4

AUTHOR’S NOTE: Trouble seemed to find Arlon Elwood “Jackson” Ball — from the time he lost his father…

Photo from Ball Family memorial slideshow, 2022 This photo from the early 1960s shows Jackson Ball enjoying the Christmas holidays with his eldest three daughters. His fourth and youngest daughter was born less than a year and a half before Ball’s death in 1968.

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Human Complexity: The Story of Jackson Ball — Part 3

AUTHOR’S NOTE: Misfortune was written across the recent history of the Arlon Elwood “Jackson” Ball family. Ball’s father…

This is an early photo of U.S. Army soldier Arlon Elwood “Jackson” Ball in uniform. The patches, ribbons and medals on this uniform demonstrate that he had not yet served overseas or been involved in any combat. (Photo from Ball Family memorial slideshow, 2022)

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Human Complexity: The Story of Jackson Ball — Part 2

AUTHOR’S NOTE: “Jackson” Ball met a tragic end nearly 20 years after moving to Alaska from the East…

Photo courtesy of the Ball Family Collection After being honorably discharged from the U.S. Army in 1945, Arlon Elwood “Jackson” Ball posed for this photograph, demonstrating his five years of military service through his many ribbons, badges and patches.

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Human Complexity: The Story of Jackson Ball — Part 1

A Premise to Explore

1954 photo by Bob and Ira Spring for Better Homes & Garden magazine The Lancashire sisters(L-R, Lori, Abby and Martha), cleaning up in their younger, more carefree days.

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The Lancashires: Evolving lives on the evolving Kenai — Part 9

In the 1950s, Lori Lancashire and her sisters, Martha and Abby, had glimpsed brief but tantalizing views of…