Community <p>This is the most famous photograph of Steve Melchior, as a copy of it resides in the Anchorage Museum of History and Art. The Melchior family owns a very similar photograph, with a note in pencil from Steve Melchior on the back. The note, written for family members back in Germany in the late 1920s when Melchior was suffering from rheumatism, says, “That is the only way I can get out because my legs won’t walk anymore. I don’t like driving a car, and the dogs take me wherever I want to go. The one in the front is called Bill (in German, Wilhelm), and the one on the left is called Waldman. The black one on the right is called Nick or Nikolaus. Three good, loyal workers, my bodyguard.”</p>

Steve Melchior: Treasured peninsula pioneer with a sketchy past — Part 2

AUTHOR’S NOTE: By at least his early 20s, Steve Melchior had begun to fabricate a past that would take him...

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By Clark Fair • July 3, 2025 2:30 am