Homesteads on Fort Richardson, Alaska - The USARAK Home Page ...

horses or oxen, but the majority of settlers who had no work animalshad to use heavy, homemade windlass arrangements turnedwith a twenty -or thirty -foot pole. Slashing, felling, and skidding,stump pulling, windrowing debris, and burning stumps and rootsdid not end the labor. A blanket of dense, springy moss, often twotothree-feet thick and laced with roots of trees and low, creepingbushes, had to be removed. 69Many cleared the absolute minimum in order to get patent on the land. Agriculturein the Fort Richardson area was further hampered by the high acidic content of thesoil. Often food could be more easily and effectively acquired by hunting, trappingand fishing.Perhaps the best remembered homesteaders in Alaska are those from the MatanuskaValley. Several projects over the years, including the Matanuska Colony and theExperimental Farm at Matanuska, were started to stimulate settlement and agriculturaldevelopment in the area. It should be remembered, however, that homesteadingwas taking place throughout Alaska. Indeed nearly the entire Anchorage Bowlarea (outside of the city) was at one time or another open to, or settled by, homesteaders.Homesteading in Alaska required independence, a sense of adventure and often alot of hard work. The beauty of the land and life, however, made it all worthwhile.7.2 Fort Richardson HomesteadersThe area that is now Fort Richardson was quite sparsely populated in the earlyhomesteading years. Limited road access probably contributed to the lighter developmentand interest in the area. Most homesteads were clustered on what is nowthe western border of the base. There they were closer to Anchorage, main roadsand the conveniences of “civilization”.Homestead residences varied in size and complexity. In the Fort Richardson area,most built small log cabins and a few outbuildings with the occasional barn. Nopublic utilities were available, and wood stoves were the sole source of heat inwinter.This study focuses on the 40 homesteads or claims that were still in existence at thetime of government land withdrawals for W. W. II base establishment. (See Table 1for a complete list of names and land transaction dates) Of the 40 parcels, only 16were patented homesteads. The rest were still in the process of proving up on theirclaims. About half of the homesteaders in this study did not file for entry until thelate 1930s. Many were quite close to receiving patent when the government acquiredthe land.A number of the homesteaders were single men with no known family in Alaska.Unfortunately, this contributes to a lingering mystery regarding their personal livesand intended use of the homesteads.Homesteading on Fort Richardson is divided into three main time periods in thisreport. 1914 to 1919 represents the initial phase of homesteading on Fort Richard-69Ibid., p.21.22<strong>Homesteads</strong> on Fort RichardsonAlaska