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Temperate Glime Of Kodiak Island
Has Appeal For Former Fairbanksan
By Miriam J. Angell
This past miserably wet Sunday
afternoon we spent with Dou i
and Eudora Preston, warmed
their friendship, entertained w:'h
stories of Farbanks in the early
days when it was still a frontier
town, and for our interview. Doug’.-:
own story.
The Prestons were living in
Fairbanks in 1956, the:r son and
daughter and grandchildren (now
numbering ten) also lived there
and Doug was in his second term
as mayor of the city. After 35 years
in a hometown they obviously lov
ed and were loved by, with all
their interests, friends and family
centered in this one place, the
natural question is. 'Why leave;
why ccme to Kodiak?’
Doug said. “Well, in 1855 I was
^resident of the League of Alas
kan Cities which held a meeting
n Ketchikan in the first part of
November. During the convention
a fn'end invited us to go boating.
The temperature was about 50
degrees; after we returned I called
Fairbanks and was told it was 37
Douclas €. Preston
fis <a e
below up there. Right then I de
cided we were wasting half oui
lives suffering under such severe
temperatures, and it was time for
a move. We had visited every sea
port in Alaska and felt that Ko
diak was best suited for our needs.
“A year later I saw an ad for
a City Clerk-Treasurer for Kodi
ak and answered immediately. It
was quite a decision to make; you
know how it is, people can go
along for years being so settled
they don’t have the courage io
give up better business opportuni
ties for something not less chal
lenging, but less remunerative.
“Well, I’m glad we made the
decision. Kodiak I have thoroughly
enjoyed; my contacts, my work,
the boating, and the atmosphere
of a town comparable to Fairbanks
before we were simply surround
ed by people.”
Doug Preston found little but
wilderness to surround him when
he came to Alaska in 1922 at the
invitation of an uncle. The wide
open spaces, the aboundance of
game and fish everywhere, and
satisfying work were conditions
very much to his liking after years
of intense day and night schooling.
The son of a Presbyterian minister,
he had been tutored at home until
the age of 11 , due to ill health,
then sent to town school where he
was so far advanced he was the
youngest in the class by two years.
I was expected to study extremely
hard and to excel; I went through
high school in two years (the last
two years of high school there are
equal to the first two years of col
lege in this country.) I was trained
to be a tea planter for Ceylon and
the courses covered a wide field:
business administration, mechani
cal drawing, and practical courses
in carpentry, electricity, and ma
chinery.
"When I came to Alaska the
railroad from Seward to Fairbanks
was not yet completed. One travel
ed as far as Nenana on the rail
road and had to cross the Tenana
River hi an open boat, then con
tinue on a narrow gauge railway
to Fairbanks. The little railroad
continued for about 30 miles to
various gold mines.”
Mr. Preston got a job in the
utilities office of the Northern
Commercial Company which sold
electricity, produced by a wood
burning steam plant, to 450 custom
ers. The company also sold ust a
bout any and everything else, and
bought from trappers, the beaver,
mink, marten and fox furs they
brought in from the bush. But the
principal economy of Fairbanks
was gold.
“Fairbanks was a small town
with a small population, economi
cally in bad shape. The first shot
in the arm was the completion of
the University of Alaska in 1922.
n’hey had one graduate that first
year. The next impetus was the
coming of the U.S. Smelting, Re
fining, and Mining Company in
1924. They came into the district
with a view to large scale gold
dredging operations and started
taking over from individual miners
who wanted to sell out. This
brought a considerable boom to
Fairbanks with a good deal of
large construction along the riv
ers of the area. It kept the town
at a stable economic level until
1939 when Ladd Air Force Base
was started.”
Even with the expanded eco
nomy the character of the town
changed but little until the com
mg of the construction workers
and the military. The freedom of
movement, and ease of recreational
pursuits had great appeal.
“There were countless thous
ands of caribou on the hillsides
near Fairbanks, and ptarmigan,
grouse, and rabbits everywhere.
When Eudora and I were mar
ried in 1928 we lived on Ninth
Avenue and that was as far as the
town extended; when we left the
w>
boundary was 33rd. Avenue. Eu
dora snared rabbits in our back
yard and on my lunch hour I
could shoot two or three grouse
easily.
“Our social life was easy and
intimate in that we knew every
body and everybody knew us. We
were charter members of the
Sourdough Dance Club started in
1928; we danced shcottishes, two
steps, waltzes, and squares. I was
president for five years and called
the squares for many years. There
is a full pag6 picture of the club
in the October 1949 issue of the
National Geographic.
“Telephones? Oh. yes, we had
those; in fact there was even a
line extending for about 30 miles
out to the mining claims on the
creeks. In 1922, ’23, and'24 there
were enormous flocks of ptarmi
gan in the area; they would often
fly into the tripod telephone lines
and knock them down. Of course
service was interrupted and many
of the birds died of broken necks.”
With the extreme temperatures
of interior winters we wondered
if the wells froze. Doug told us
that each home had its own well
and electric pump and that only
the pipes gave them occasional
trouble. The permafrost in the
area runs in streaks and there was
one of those under the Preston
home. It sometimes froze the pipe
until 1937 when a severe earth
quake evidently shifted the perma
frost streak.
“There was very little damage
to buildings; they were all of wood
and flexiable. But downtown the
liquor dealers took a great loss; in
one place I saw, the different co
lors of liquers and cherries from
broken bottles made the most
beautiful pattern across the floor.
After that they strung up wires
across the shelves. Yes, earth
(Continued on Page 11)
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Box 1137 of M»‘" Kodiak, Alaska
a . _. © ra ' r