Alaskan History Magazine
Contributed by Helen Hegener
The July-August issue of Alaskan History Magazine features the writings of Alaska’s territorial judge for the 3rd District, James Wickersham, whose well-kept diaries provide an open window into life on the last frontier in the earliest years of its existence. In this issue the Judge embarks on a dog team trip from Circle to the new gold mining camp of Fairbanks in 1903.
Also in this issue: A tale told in a hut in France during WWI, by the Rev. George C. F. Pringle, an inveterate storyteller who spent nine years in the Yukon ministering weddings, funerals, and more; the strange political history of the once self-dumping Lake George, now a National Natural Landscape, including an eight-page brochure describing the geography of the phenomenon; the third chapter of Robert Service’s autobiography, “Ploughman of the Moon,” in which he joins fellow travelers on an arduous trek via the Rat River in Canada’s Northwest Territories; a tribute to the hardy sled dogs of pioneer Alaska and how they captured a nation’s imagination; and the story of Sergeant William Yanert, U.S. Army 6th Cavalry, who explored the Chilkoot Trail before it was known by that name, blazed the first trail from the Nenana River near Denali north to the Tanana River, and later gained noteriety as the “Cartographer from Hell,” with his devilish 7’ tall ‘St. Nicolas’ lurking beside the Yukon River to startle steamboat travelers.
Alaskan History Magazine, published in Wasilla, is 64 pages, 6” x 9” B/W format, available for $12.00 per issue postpaid, or $40.00 for a one year/six issue subscription. alaskanhistorymagazine.com