Sketches of Alaska
1 FOLLOWERS
Explore Ray Bonnell's Sketches of Alaska blog, where the Alaskan artist, historian, and writer from Fairbanks shares his passion for Alaska's history and landscapes. Through his art and words, he educates and preserves the state's rich heritage, offering insights into an artist's life in Fairbanks and his travels across Alaska.
Sketches of Alaska
1M ago
My newest book, A Creek, a Hill & a Forty: The early years of Alaska’s Matanuska Colony, seen through a colonist’s letter home—Margaret Miller’s story, has just been published. The book is a firsthand...
The post A Creek, a Hill & a Forty book just published appeared first on Sketches of Alaska ..read more
Sketches of Alaska
8M ago
The Alaska Railroad depot in Palmer in the 1970s, more than a decade after the last train left the station.
Prior to construction of the Alaska Railroad through the Matanuska Valley, there was little development in the area that would one day be Palmer.
One of the first white men in the valley was George Palmer, who came to Alaska in 1893. He opened a small self-service store at the northern end of Cook Inlet’s Knik Arm some time before 1898 and later participated in other commercial ventures in both Upper and Central Cook Inlet.
According to Orlando Miller, in his book, The Frontier in ..read more
Sketches of Alaska
8M ago
Sutton’s first post office, constructed in 1948. It is now at Sutton’s Alpine Historical Park.
Sutton, about 15 miles northeast of Palmer on the Glenn Highway, owes its existence to coal mining.
Geologist G.C. Martin explored the area for the U.S.G.S in 1905 and reported an estimated 61 square miles of coal deposits, much of it high-grade bituminous coal. Unfortunately, the coal seams were faulted and folded, with intrusive rocks. This made coal mining difficult and lowered the coal’s value unless intrusives and other contaminants were removed.
Shortly after miners began developing cla ..read more
Sketches of Alaska
8M ago
K-6 gillnetter salmon fishing boat on display at the Kenai Visitors and Cultural Center
One of the earliest commercial transactions involving Alaska salmon occurred in 1786. In that year two British ships stopped in Cook Inlet, which was then under Russian-American Company control, to trade Hawaiian yams for fresh salmon.
The Russian-American Company never developed a for-profit salmon industry. However, after the United States acquired Alaska in 1867, Americans began operating salteries in Southeast Alaska to preserve the fish for market.
In 1878, the first Alaska cannery was built at ..read more
Sketches of Alaska
8M ago
The Kickstarter campaign to fund the printing of my new book, Interior Sketches III, More ramblings around Interior Alaska historic sites,” just reached 50% funding after only one week. The campaign runs for another three weeks, so there is still time to support the project
The book features 70 historic sites scattered across Eastern Interior Alaska, and each entry includes a detailed pen & ink illustration of the site, plus an essay describing the site and its significance.
Coupled with my first two Interior Sketches books, which have just been revised and updated, and which will a ..read more
Sketches of Alaska
8M ago
The Inlet Trading Company building in Homer was constructed in about 1937 and served as a mercantile establishment for over 50 years. The building now houses the nonprofit Bunnell Street Art Center plus several small businesses.
“Old Town” Homer is located on the benchlands of Kachemak Bay’s north shore, southwest of modern Homer’s business district. The Sterling Highway delineates the area’s northern boundary, with Bishop’s Beach to the south, and Beluga Lake to the east.
It is one of the oldest sections of “Homer on the bench” — as opposed to “Homer on the Spit.”
Homer on the Spit was ..read more
Sketches of Alaska
8M ago
We are entering the final week of the campaign to fund the printing of my book, “Interior Sketches III, More ramblings around Interior Alaska.” The campaign is in an excellent position – not only fully funded; but with funding standing at over 200% of our goal! The book will become a reality.
There is still time to pledge, with numerous reward levels including PDFs of the book, signed Interior Sketches III books, sets of all three of my Interior Sketches books, and original pen & ink drawings. I’ve even upped the ante a bit by including a custom-designed “Interior Sketches II ..read more
Sketches of Alaska
8M ago
The Seward depot as it looked during winter in the early 1920s, when it was still located near the foot of Adams Street.
The old railroad depot in Seward is testament to the travails the city has gone through as a railroad town.
Although constructed in 1917, the depot’s history can be traced back to the advent of railroading in southcentral Alaska 15 years earlier.
The Alaska Central Railroad (ACR) was organized in March 1902 by a group of Seattle businessmen. Their goal was to build a line from Resurrection Bay on the the Kenai Peninsula to Interior Alaska.
The ACR pur ..read more
Sketches of Alaska
8M ago
In the past two days our Kickstarter campaign has met and then greatly exceeded our funding goal!
Thanks to an article in Thursday’s Fairbanks Daily News-Miner newspaper, our Kickstarter campaign went from about $850 in pledges to just over $2800 in pledges in just 36 hours. That easily topped our funding goal of $1500. Yay! Thank you to everyone who has pledged so far.
And the funding campaign still has two weeks to go. There is still plenty of time to pledge if you haven’t done so, or if you know someone who might be interested in helping preserve the history of Eastern Interior Alaska. The ..read more
Sketches of Alaska
8M ago
1929 Ford Model AA dump truck used on the Pertersville Road now sits in front of the Trapper Creek Museum
Petersville Road began as short cut to Peters Creek and Cache Creek mining areas
The 1929 Ford Model AA dump truck shown in the drawing sits in front of the Trapper Creek Museum, at mile 7 of the Petersville Road. It was used by the Alaska Road Commission (ARC) on the Talkeetna-Cache Creek Road (now Petersville Road), which was a supply route between the Alaska Railroad at Talkeetna and the mines of the Peters Creek/Cache Creek area about 25 miles to the northwest.
Prospectors disco ..read more