(Fort GiVvon Alaska.' - Continued from page '4j
The ‘ Barracks at ?ort"'Ci !'1o i -ere old and ’afforded ’ accommodation
for one Company "o f Infantry and do : achrn.cn ts. Food was 'used' exclusive
ly for fuel, being delivered in four foot lengths and cut up into shor
er lengths by Posy labor. _ Cutting and delivering wood and supplies
kept all hands busy during the short winter days. River boats were
required to stop every few hours enroute to take on wood and here in
the heavy timber around wood camps you saw The famous Alaskan Ido squi t
at his worst. Mosquitoes were bad around the Post but were kept down
by use of crude oil, also by use of mosquito bars and smoking them out
with various methods. Our water supply was taken from a. well near the
bank of the river and pumped into a tank where steam heat kept it fro
freezing during the winter months. Water was delivered to homes by
the. old Water'Wagon system.
Pood, during the winter months, had to be- gotten from tin cans
as very little fresh vegetables etc., could ve kept through the long
winter mqh'ts* Eggs had to "be- gotten in in the fall and kept all win
ter. Sports during* the winter consisted of fowling, basketball , ski -
ing, snowshoeing and dog-mushing, More time was spent in-dcors than,
out. Baseball was played during the summer months up to ten and
eleven o'clock at night, the post, teams making trips to Hen an a and
Fairbanks each year.
FIRST SETTUEM3UTS III ALASKA,
The first permanent settlement of the Russians was established
at Three Saints Bay*, Kodiak Island, in 1783. Thi s settlement was made
by Grigor Ivanovitch Shelikof, who is credited with having opened the
first school in xVlaska at this place in 1785. A second permanent set
tlement was established in 1786 in Cook Inlet at. the mouth of the Kas
ilof River near the present site of Kenai , by Kolomin. Both Shelikof
and Kolomin were at the head of trading companies.
The early settlements in Alaska, however, center around Alex
ander Baranof. At first an independent trader, then agent for the
Shelikof Company and later'the originator, and for nineteen years man
ager, of the Russian American Company,which exercised practically abso
lute dominion over Alaska for 67 years, or from the time of its creation
and charter in 179S to 1866,the year preceeding the transfer of Alaska
to the United States* He introduced the first missionaries into Alas':
and established a colony at Yakutat. It was under his direction that
the first vessel built in north-western America wa’s completed and laun
ched on a successful voyage from Cook Inlet to Kodiak Island. He visiter1
Alexander Archipelago in 1799 and founded Sitka, which was headquar
ters for Russian activities in Alaska for the greater part of the Rus
sian occupation. He was replaced as manager of the Russian American
Company in 1818 under circumstances which showed small appreciation fo *
the services rendered.
Bancroft, in his "History of Alaska",pays this tribute to Barano
"To him was due, more than to all others, the success of the Russian
colonies in America; by him they had been founded and fostered, and bub
for him they would never have been established, or would have had, at
best, a brief and troubled existence. Here, amid these wintry solitudes
he had raised towns and villages, built a fleet of sea-going ships,
and laid a basis of trade with American and asiatic ports. All this he
had accomplished while paying regular dividends to shareholders; and
now in his old age he was cast adrift and called to render an account
as an unfaithful 3<fcewaard0 " (Historical sketch of Alaska - Issued by
the Governor's Office).
In
Library?"
Washington - MWhat'*6 the excitement in the Congressional
"Seems a congressman wandered ion”.
--—Louisville Courier-Journal.