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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…

Despite the misspelling of “Bordenelli,” this legal advertisement, which appeared in the Cheechako News on Aug. 21, 1964, set the stage for the transfer that allowed Larry’s Club to come into existence.

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The Lancashires: Evolving lives on the evolving Kenai — Part 8

AUTHOR’S NOTE: In late 1948, after six months of homestead living on the central Kenai Peninsula, Rusty Lancashire…

It’s laundry day on the Lancashire homestead. (1954 photo by Bob and Ira Spring for Better Homes & Garden magazine)

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The Lancashires: Evolving lives on the evolving Kenai—Part 7

AUTHOR’S NOTE: A full decade would pass after the Lancashire family’s arrival on the central Kenai Peninsula before…

Rusty Lancashire smiles for the camera in the frame house that in the late 1950s replaced the Lancashires’ original homestead log cabin. (Photo courtesy of the Lancashire Family Collection)

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The Lancashires: Evolving lives on the evolving Kenai — Part 6

In the earliest days of the Sterling Highway and the adjoining Kenai Spur, the roads were lifelines between…

Rusty Lancashire does some baking. (1954 photo by Bob and Ira Spring for Better Homes & Garden magazine)

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The Lancashires: Evolving lives on the evolving Kenai — Part 5

AUTHOR’S NOTE: Most of the people who came to homestead and stayed long term on the central Kenai…

The Lancashire family shares a meal in their original homestead cabin. (1954 photo by Bob and Ira Spring for Better Homes & Garden magazine)

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The Lancashires: Evolving lives on the evolving Kenai — Part 4

AUTHOR’S NOTE: By the first of August 1948, Larry and Rusty Lancashire and their three daughters (Martha, Lori…