Alaska Film Archives

[Gold mining in Alaska]
[Gold mining in Alaska]
The donor’s original number and title for AAF-20641 are: “M 7. Gold Mining in Alaska.” This film contains scenes of a bulldozer clearing land and knocking down an old log cabin, a pilot with an airplane on floats, a large placer mining operation, draglines and hydraulic giants, a man and women cleaning a large sluice box, the Sternwheeler Nenana pushing a barge, many people on the porch of a Northern Commercial Company building as barrels are loaded onto the barge, a sternwheeler paddling away, hydraulic giants removing overburden at a mining operation, a sign for N.C. Co. Air Field, metal-sided buildings, a Gullwing Stinson airplane being fueled, an International tractor wrecked in the ice, and sled dogs.
McCall Glacier Project
McCall Glacier Project
AAF-20835: “McCall Glacier Project,” copyright 1974 by the Geophysical Institute of the University of Alaska, was presented as a contribution to the International Hydrological Decade. The film covers scientific studies on the McCall Glacier, and includes detailed explanations of scientists’ activities, equipment used, and data analyzed. Director of photography and editing is Milan J. Alexander. Narration by William Huhn. Sound by Steve Browne. Music by David J. Rychetnik and Gary Westcott. Studies on McCall Glacier were supported by grants from the Atmospheric Science Section, National Science Foundation. Senior Scientists were Gerd Wendler and Carl Benson. One title screen reads as follows: "We express our appreciation to the Naval Arctic Research Laboratory, Point Barrow, for logistic support, the Air National Guard for two excellently executed air drops, and the skillful Alaskan Bush pilots Chuck Meggill, Lowell Thomas Jr., Mike Van Hutten, Merrill Wien, Richard Wien and Al Wright.” According to Dr. Carl Benson in 2016, the film includes scenes of departure from Fairbanks and a flight to the Romanzof Mountains in the Brooks Range, the McCall Glacier on Mount Hubley, and scientists – including University of Alaska Fairbanks professors Will Harrison and Gerd Wendler, graduate students Dennis Trabant and Charlie Fahl, Yuji Kodama of the National Institute of Polar Research in Tokyo, and scientists from the Institute of Low Temperature Science at Hokkaido University in Japan – using instruments to study weather conditions and glacier depths.
Thinking Cold
Thinking Cold
AAF-20588 is a film titled “Thinking Cold," an informative program about Husky Oil operations and the construction of the Trans-Alaska Pipeline. A film by Pendleton Productions, Inc., of Anchorage Alaska, and presented by Husky Oil N.P.R. Operations, Inc. Directed by George E. Lukens, Jr. Principle photography by George Lukens, Jeff Mart and Bill Bacon. Contains scenes of Alaska's North Slope, maps of Alaska, workers and construction camps, James Dowden and Phil Jeans of Husky Oil, cargo airplanes, mess hall in a construction camp, food service operator Bill Jenkins, administrative coordinator Sally Van Horn, the moving of portable camps across snowy landscape, Arnold Palenske of Tetra Tech, technicians in the field searching for oil drilling sites, geophysics manager Alan Balby, Carroll Livingston of Husky Oil, offices and managers in Anchorage, environmental director John Schindler, caribou, surveyors at work, archaeological workers, archaeologist Mike Kuntz of the Bureau of Land Management, helicopters flying low over the terrain and hauling cargo, oil drills, pipe-yard, airplanes landing on snowy runway, medic Bobbie Hendricks, transportation manager James Schwartz, construction manager Thomas Brooks, construction of ice roads, environmental specialist Philip Smith, installation of drill pad and drill rig, Rolligon, drilling manager Jack McCarthy, geology manager Sam Hewitt, lab and office scenes, and wintry Cat train scenes.