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This is the gravesite of Ben Swesey’s mother, Eliza, in Vermillion, South Dakota. (Photo from findagrave.com)

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Ben Swesey: More to the story — Part 1

More than a hundred years after Ben Swesey and Bill Weaver steered an outboard-powered dory out of Resurrection…

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Community

The experiment: Kenai becomes an agricultural test site — Part 8

Over the past 50 years or more, the City of Kenai has attempted on several occasions to capitalize…

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Community

The experiment: Kenai becomes an agricultural test site — Part 7

AUTHOR’S NOTE: After the agricultural experiment station in Kenai closed May 1, 1908, Alaska station supervisor C.C. Georgeson…

Pictured here with trophies of his trade is P.F. “Frenchy” Vian, a bit of a hustler who lived in Kenai for about 20 years and took advantage of opportunities, fairly or not, when they were presented to him. One of those opportunities involved the defunct agricultural experiment station at Kenai. (Photo courtesy of the Viani Family Collection)

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The experiment: Kenai becomes an agricultural test site — Part 6

AUTHOR’S NOTE: By 1907, the end of the line had nearly arrived for Kenai’s agricultural experiment station, which…

Prof. C.C. Georgeson, circa 1910s, inspects an apple tree on one of his Alaska agricultural experiment stations. (Image from the Rasmuson Library historical archives at the University of Alaska Fairbanks)

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The experiment: Kenai becomes an agricultural test site — Part 5

AUTHOR’S NOTE: A presidential executive order in January 1899 had set aside 320 acres of land near Russian…

Photo from a circa 1906-07 U.S. Department of Agriculture report on Alaska’s agricultural experiment stations Hardy Galloway cattle, from Scotland, were transplanted to the agricultural experiment station at Kenai in 1906. The Kenai Station’s main quarters can be seen in the background.

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The experiment: Kenai becomes an agricultural test site — Part 4

AUTHOR’S NOTE: A presidential executive order in January 1899 had set aside 320 acres of land near Russian…

This U.S. Department of Agriculture photograph, from the 1903 report on Alaskan agricultural experiment stations, shows some of the buildings at the Kenai Station, including the superintendent’s main quarters, at far left.

Community

The experiment: Kenai becomes an agricultural test site — Part 3

AUTHOR’S NOTE: Presidential Executive Order #148, in January 1899, had set aside 320 acres of land near Russian…

This 1903 photograph of mostly Kenai residents shows (back, far left) Hans Peter Nielsen, first superintendent of Kenai’s agricultural experiment station. Nielsen began work at the station in 1899 and resigned at the end of the 1903 season. (Photo from the Alaska State Library historical collection)

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The experiment: Kenai becomes an agricultural test site — Part 2

AUTHOR’S NOTE: Presidential Executive Order #148, in January 1899, had set aside 320 acres of land near Russian…

The historic marker in front of this building at 502A Overland Avenue in Kenai identifies the structure as the former headquarters of the Kenai National Wildlife Refuge and the site of the former Agricultural Experiment Station, 1899-1908. Photo by Clark Fair

Community

The Experiment: Kenai becomes an agricultural test site — Part 1

Individuals deciding to explore Kenai’s historic district might start their journey by turning off the Kenai Spur Highway…

John W. Eddy was already a renowned outdoor adventurer and writer when he penned this book in 1930, 15 years after the mystery of King David Thurman’s disappearance had been solved. Eddy’s version of the story, which often featured wild speculation and deviated widely from the facts, became, for many years, the accepted recounting of events.

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King Thurman: An abbreviated life — Part 6

AUTHOR’S NOTE: The fate of King David Thurman, a Cooper Landing-area resident, had finally been learned in February…

James Forrest Kalles (shown here with his daughters, Margaret and Emma) became the guardian of King David Thurman’s estate in early 1915 after Thurman went missing in 1914 and was presumed dead. (Public photo from ancestry.com)

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King Thurman: An abbreviated life — Part 5

AUTHOR’S NOTE: King David Thurman left his Cooper Landing-area home in late July 1914 for another season of…

Emmett Krefting, age 6-7, at the Wible mining camping in 1907-07, about the time he first met King David Thurman. (Photo from the cover of Krefting’s memoir, Alaska’s Sourdough Kid)

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King Thurman: An abbreviated life — Part 4

AUTHOR’S NOTE: In 1913, King David Thurman, a Cooper Landing-area resident who often seemed one step ahead of…

This is part of the intake data entered when, in 1913, King David Thurman began his 50-day sentence in the Seward Jail for violating Alaska’s game laws. A 1911 attempt to nail Thurman for such a violation had failed.

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King Thurman: An abbreviated life — Part 3

AUTHOR’S NOTE: King David Thurman, a miner and trapper who lived and worked in the Cooper Landing area…