For the current story I’m writing, I had to research Anchorage, Alaska. I’d done a bit of research for a story last year just as background for a character as a place he was from. But this time I needed to know more about the actual city. I'm not sure where the city's name originated, but I like the motto "Big Wild Life."
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| park in Chugach Mountains |
As many might know from American History, Alaska was occupied by Russian trappers right before it became part of America. What I didn’t learn in high school was about the 5,000 years of native people occupying the land at the end of Cook Inlet. Descendants of those early people still live in Alaska. Cook Inlet is named for the explorer Captain James Cook who in 1778 stumbled upon that waterway while searching for the Northwest Passage—the fabled shorter route to reach the Pacific from Europe instead of going around Asia or South America. After anchoring his ship HMS Resolution, he named the spot Anchor Point near a place called Ship Creek. (A town of that name already existed in south Alaska so it was later changed to Anchorage.) Information gained from natives clued Cook the area was not the desired route, and he continued his search.
In the early 19th century, Russia established several trading posts along Cook Inlet to handle the gathering and transportation of furs. In 1867, America purchased the land from Russia in a deal that is known as Seward’s Folly, named after the Secretary of State William Seward who brokered the deal that gained the land mass for about two cents an acre. Seward was later redeemed when gold was discovered not far from Anchorage, and a stampede of hopefuls traveled north to seek their fortunes.
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| 1915 Anchorage tent city |
Without mining or fishing nearby, the town contained only a few white settlers by 1912. The tent city hugged the edge of Cook Inlet because not far away stood the Chugach Mountains. But the 1914 choice of the town as the spot to center railway construction proved the spark to make it grow. With proponents of Prohibition gaining strength, and with the approval of President Woodrow Wilson, the Army platted a townsite a bit south of the tent city on higher ground. An interesting proviso was that anyone who broke the alcohol laws endangered repossession of their land.
In 1923, the Alaska Railroad was complete and connected to a line already established from Seward in the south. The town’s economy centered around the railroad, and the town boasted a film production studio and a baseball team—both feature in my novella. By 1925, the population was about two thousand people. Winters are long and cold. The spring is the muddy season. Summers are short but I’m making sure my characters enjoy it while it lasts.
BLURB for Ruby, Switchboard Sisterhood, book 17
Actress Ruby Moreau yearns to be in the silent movies, but Hollywood is so far away. On the eve of her wedding, she rebels against her Seattle society parents’ urging her to marry the boring son of Father’s business partner. Seeing an ad for a film shot entirely in Alaska, she boards a ship for Anchorage to seek an audition. Upon arrival, she learns the moving picture studio is not currently filming, but the Spruce Telephone Company is always hiring. She becomes a switchboard operator…telling herself this is just temporary until her parents cool down and let her run her own life.
Stevedore Ivan Dragunov works any job he can find on the docks. But his real passion is playing in the Anchorage Baseball League on the weekends. An encounter with an emotive passenger coming off a ship forces him closer to a woman than he’s been since his fiancée sailed back to Russia. When he keeps running into her around town, he becomes intrigued. But what do an actress who wants to see her name in lights and a man devoted to putting his team on the scoreboard have in common?
I’ve never been to Alaska but visiting there is on my travel wish list. How about you?
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