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A smallpox epidemic devastated much of the Dena’ina population from 1836 to1840. 18 As did an influenza epidemic in 1918. 19 Tuberculosis also contributed tomany deaths well into the twentieth century. The main area of recent occupation isthe village of Eklutna, known for its historic St. Nicholas Church dating from 1897. 20Few Dena’ina were found in Anchorage by the time homesteaders entered the FortRichardson area. There were some fish camps on the mouth of Ship Creek andcabins near Bootleggers Cove before the Anchorage population boomed with railroadconstruction. 21Homesteading was open to Alaska natives under the Alaska Native Allotment Actof 1906. This act allowed individual natives to apply for up to 160 acres of land ifthey could demonstrate sole use. It is important to remember that homesteadingwas a program at odds with traditional native lifestyles. The two main requirementsof homesteading are establishing a permanent residence and cultivating theland. The Dena’ina needed to be mobile and have open access to a wide rangingterritory in order to effectively exploit their resource base. They were hunters andgatherers, not farmers. Sole use, of course, is not sensitive to the traditional extendedfamily cooperation that is practiced in native communities. The programwas not much of a success in Alaska.18Fall, Patterns of Upper Inlet Tanina Leadership, 1741-1918, p. 75.19Ibid., p. 100.20Yarborough, “ ‘A Village Which Sprang Up Before My Very Eyes’ An Historical Account of the Founding of Eklutna,” p. 120.21Michael Carberry and Donna Lane, Patterns of the Past: An Inventory of Anchorage’s Historic Resources (Municipality of Anchorage:Community Planning Department, 1986) p. 177.10<strong>Homesteads</strong> on Fort RichardsonAlaska
Chapter 5.0AnchorageThe history of homesteaders on Fort Richardson is inextricably tied to the historyof the city of Anchorage. As the city grew, homesteading increased correspondingly.Before the Alaska Engineering Commission (AEC) arrived to survey possiblerail routes in 1914, there were very few people in the area. Within a few years,as railroad construction began in 1915, nearly 5,000 people would arrive and makeAnchorage their home. 22 The population over the next thirty years would rise andfall until World War II brought a large influx of permanent development and settlement.Figure 1. Tent city, Anchorage, 1915. Courtesy of Anchorage Museumof History and Art, B94.26.3.Anchorage started as a railroad town.President Woodrow Wilson officiallyannounced the railroad route on April9, 1915. It would extend fromFairbanks to Seward, running throughthe new Ship Creek town site. Manyhad correctly anticipated the courseand were already settling in the area.A “tent city” sprang up seeminglyovernight on the northern side of ShipCreek in what is now GovernmentHill. People flocked into the area hopingto get jobs working for the railroador to supply goods and servicesfor the workers building the line fromAnchorage to Seward. 23Tent city was disorderly at first. Trash was disposed of on the outgoing tides ofCook Inlet. There were no sewers. Officials were concerned that drinking waterwould become contaminated if things were not cleaned up. The land office steppedup the pace of surveying the new 350-acre town site on the south side of ShipCreek. On July 10, 1915, the auctioning of town lots began. Within a few days, 655lots were sold for a grand total of $150,000. The AEC, the federal agency in chargeof Anchorage for the first five years, instructed the people to move off the ShipCreek flats to the new town site by August 16 th . 24People began flooding into the new town and erecting permanent structures. In1916, wide concrete sidewalks were built down Fourth Avenue and the AEC installeda power plant for electricity. By 1917, between 6,000 and 7,000 people wereliving in Anchorage, though only 4,000 were permanent residents. 25 Many of theearly settlers were immigrants from Greece, Russia, Norway, Sweden and Den-22Orlando Miller. The Frontier in Alaska and the Matanuska Colony (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1975) p. 25.23Carberry and Lane. Patterns of the Past: An Inventory of Anchorage’s Historic Resources. p. 2.24Elizabeth Tower. Anchorage: From Its Humble Origins as a Railroad Construction Camp (Fairbanks: Epicenter Press, 1998) pp. 28, 29.25Ann Chandonnet. Anchorage, Early Photographs of the Great Land (Whitehorse, Yukon: Wolf Creek Books, 2000) p. 38.<strong>Homesteads</strong> on Fort RichardsonAlaska11
Page 3 and 4: Homesteads onFort
Page 5: table of contentsCHAPTERS1.0 INTROD
Page 8: may have homesteaded in the area an
Page 11: Chapter 3.0 The EnvironmentFort Ric
Page 15: Chapter 4.0Early PeopleIt is though
Page 19 and 20: profitable. 32 Ohlson tried, as had
Page 21 and 22: Chapter 6.0World War II and FortEst
Page 23 and 24: Fort Richardson was originally what
Page 25 and 26: Chapter 7.0HomesteadingHomesteading
Page 27 and 28: unsurveyed, a physical description
Page 29 and 30: son. Anchorage was just established
Page 31 and 32: 0 1 2 Miles0 1 2 3 KilometersMap 2.
Page 33 and 34: x 32', which had fallen into disrep
Page 35 and 36: 0 1 2 Miles0 1 2 3 KilometersMap 3.
Page 37 and 38: Map 4: Homesteads
Page 39 and 40: eauty shop in downtown Anchorage. P
Page 41 and 42: The children attended high school.
Page 43 and 44: Chambers built a 12' x 18' log hous
Page 45 and 46: accomplished musician. He played th
Page 47 and 48: William and Lily StoltBill was born
Page 49 and 50: George JohnstonGeorge Johnston file
Page 51 and 52: Folberg. Mannick sold the land to t
Page 53 and 54: Chapter 8.0National Registerof Hist
Page 55 and 56: Hoserud, Robert Prizer, John Thomps
Page 57 and 58: The south room has four bunk bed fr
Page 59 and 60: ReferencesAir Force History. United
Page 61 and 62: Other Sources1920 US CensusBureau o
Page 63 and 64: APPENDIX A: Abbreviations and Acron
Page 65 and 66: Appendix b:APPENDIX A: Abbreviation
Page 67 and 68:
Fort RichardsonHOMESTEAD RECORDProp
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Appendix c:Records of Unperfected F
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Appendix d:Land Acquisition and Dis
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Map 5. Land Acquisition/Disposal Hi
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Index of HomesteadersCampbell, 26,
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