Lesson 8: Alaskana

I had the most fun with this lesson because of all the wonderful resources that were available for a historian with a distant family connection to five generations of Alaskans.  I have always found useful things in the archives and previously been involved in ownership of a historic site at Alaskaland, and in more recent times the historic Chatanika Gold Camp and Restaurant.  Years ago. when I would research the history of Alaskaland and try to find information about some artifacts I would go into the library and speak with Rene Blahuta who would lead me in the right direction.  My husband use to travel all over Alaska collecting and trading with the indigenous peoples who nicknamed him, "Ivory Jack"!  My son-in-law was a Herning, who's father is Earl Beistline, a well known professor of Mining at the UAF and as a young man worked on the Gold Dredge in Chatanika, Alaska.  Now on to the assignment!

1.  Name two categories in SLED and provide one website from each.  Also does anything surprise you?
The first category is Alaska Communities; http://www.commerce.state.ak.us/dca/commdb/CF_COMDB.htm
Next category was Teen Express;
http://gamesforthebrain.com/ and one other under Tourist Information;
http://fairbanks-alaska.com/northern-lights-alska.htm

I was surprised with all the games available for teens that were actually good for the mind.  I also enjoyed finding more references to the Northern Lights.

2.  I used FAQ in SLED to answer all the following:
The Pope met Presidient Reagan in Alaska on May 2, 1984 and I was there with my 3 year old daughter.
Found on the Arts, Literature and History reference pages.
The official break-up date for the Nenana Ice Classic in 1942 was April 30, 1:28PM. This was found on the Daily Living, Recreation and Sports page.
According to FAQ, the Alaska Native people were officially given US citizenship in 1924 by the Congress although they were offered it by the Territorial Legislature in 1915 through an act called "The Enabling Act". This was found on the Native and Indigenous Peoples list.
The words to the Alaska Flag song could be found on the Reference Desk.
I could not find the percentage of US volcanoes found in Alaska.
3.  I used the community profile page to find out the community of Eek had a population of 318 and a sales tax of 2%.  In comparison Fairbanks had a population within the city of 30,547 and no sales tax.


4. Search the Alaska's Digital Archives using Fairbanks and give the URL and title.
The URL was    www.ci.fairbanks.ak.us and I found the following items:
City Annual Budget& Financials
City Fee Schedule and Bed Tax
Garbage service and street and snow removal
Invitations to Bid
Code of Ordinances
Moving To Fairbanks & More
I had a favorite and it was about snow removal dated back March 12 and explaining that snow berms would not be removed!
The URL was http://www.fairbanksalaska.us'snowplowing-snow-removal-update
Thanks to Daniel I have a correction to add to this question using a different URLhttp://vilda.alaska.edu
I would have found many different pictures and information showing Fairbanks from different locations like the Chena River, and downtown.
First I went to digital archives at:vilda.alaska.edu/cdm/searchterm/Fairbanks.
You then get a variety of thumbnails to select and when you click on them a description is given along with copyright information.  You can enlarge the pictures for full views, quite interesting.


5.  In the Alaska Polar &Periodical Index I searched for Will Rogers and found 50 titles over several pages.
One of the interesting articles was Front page of Fairbanks Daily News-Miner on August 16, 1935 reporting the death of Will Rogers and Wiley Post the evening before in an airplane crash) by Candy Waugaman
1 copy available at Alaska&Polar Periodical Index in UAF-Level-2 Alaska Per MFilm
I did a search of my own on family member Earl Beistline and found the following:
2006 Earl Hoover Beistline inducted into the National Mining Hall of Fame.
i copy available at Alaska&Polar Periodical Index in UAF level 2 Alaska Per.


6.  Using the Alaska State Museums Collection Search, can you locate a halibut hook? What's the objects ID.   Did you find anything else of interest?


I found the picture of the halibut hook-Ernest Smeltzer-Tlingit-wood/carved string/ivory-halibut fishing but I could not find an ID number, not sure I was in the correct place.  I looked at several other pictures and think this is a great reference site.

7.  Name two projects from Project Jukebox and who was interviewed in each.
Dog Mushing in Alaska and it was Mary Shields-Tape #Oral History2011-19-01and the next was:

Gileech' agarohookhyaa Shro'

Don't Forget The Past

Interviews Caroline Frank and Kenneth Frank's
Johnny Frank with his dog, Vat'aii (Vat'aii means strong) in Old Venetie. The other dogs are Greenjir (like Granger tobacco, the kind Johnny smoked) and Leader. The person in the background is unknown. This photo was taken in the early 60's.

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This site had some interesting interviews but I searched for on that  was on Gold Mining and this is where I spent an hour or more listening to Jane William's interviews about Circle and Central.  This is where she spoke of my son-in-laws grandparents, Bill and Alice Herning and the town of Circle and Circle Hot Springs.  Jane spoke of the first wave of old-timers in the late 1800's and then her group or the 2nd Wave of gold explorers.  I found this fascinating because I am interested in the family history and many of the people mentioned I have met.  For example in the 70's she mention Bob Cacy and Jack Tripp building a cover for the hot pool at circle, it was during this time that I was a frequent visitor to Circle and I know those men.

http://jukebox.uaf.edu/mp3c/central/95211

As you can tell I really found this assignment invigorating and the research was so much fun, thank you for setting this up as it was a great lesson.