Alaska Film Archives

Fairbanks Yesterday Today Tomorrow
Fairbanks Yesterday Today Tomorrow
This program presents the history of Fairbanks from its geological formation through 1974. Credits are as follows: host, Dave Geesin; pre-history, Florence Weber; miner, Tim Ames; mining discussion, Dr. Earl Beistline and Bruce Thomas; readings, Mark Bergeson, Pamela Buckway and Tom Duncan; narration, Charles Creamer, Tom Duncan, Don Hering, Clara Rust and Marion Wood; director, Frank Herriott; Hering segment director, Myron Tisdel; producer, Patrick Moore; production assistant, Frank Henry; research, Kit Jensen; cinematography, Mark Badger; graphics, Nancy Van Veenen; audio, Tom Saxton; video, Dave Walstad and John Reisinger; production, Carolyn Dowling, Pat Fitzgerald, John Ryan, Jim Schneider and Pat Thrasher; photos provided by Mrs. V.K. Brickley, CamerAlaska, Fabian Carey, William Cashen, Florence Collins, Roger Cotting, Mary Hansen, Nelson’s Studio, University of Alaska, and United States Air Force; furnishings provided by Nerlands; parka provided by Martin Victor Furs; produced through the facilities of KUAC-TV and the Division of Media Services at University of Alaska.
[Glaciers, Wonder Lake, Merrill and airplane]
[Glaciers, Wonder Lake, Merrill and airplane]
This film contains images of men sorting supplies for a field expedition (likely including Roscoe Bonsal, Ben Wood, Percy Pond, Andrew M. “Andy” Taylor, and Paul Kegal), a man unloading supplies from a small boat onto shore, men with packs hiking across an uneven glacier surface, a rock slide in the distance, canvas tents on a glacier, men hiking and posing for the camera, men hiking alongside crevasses, men roped together while hiking, men looking out across an icefield, snow covered mountain peaks, a glacier calving into water, mountain peaks as viewed from a boat, men on a boat, men posing with mountain goats they’ve hunted, a boat moving through icy waters, men with animal hides on a dock, a man (possibly skipper Paul Kegal) repairing the boat M/V Eurus, Paula and John Anderson’s fox farm and roadhouse (Polly’s roadhouse) at the north end of Wonder Lake in what is today Denali National Park, dogs pulling a sled in summer with one man driving and another riding in the sled, men at a cabin near the lake, a man and woman (possibly Paula and John Anderson) at a cabin, dogs, railroad tracks as viewed from a moving train, a train going through a tunnel, a south or southeastern coastal Alaska town, the Anchorage No. 1 Travel Air biplane taking off and climbing steeply, men in a rowboat towing the Anchorage No. 1 on floats, pilot Russel Merrill fueling an airplane, a man cranking and hand propping the Anchorage No. 1 airplane, aerial views of landscapes and shorelines from an airplane, a totem pole, Ketchikan, the Ketchikan Spruce Mill, a fish trap tender boat named the "Eureka of Seattle" with a fish scow alongside it named "APEX No. 3" (or possibly No. 8 or No. 9). The poles sticking out of the water are part of a fish trap known as a standing trap or pile trap. Identifications were made by comparing the film to photos in “With a Camera in My Hands: William O. Field, Pioneer Glaciologist: a Life History as Told to C. Suzanne Brown,” edited by C. Suzanne Brown and published by University of Alaska Press, 2004. According to Ketchikan author and retired Alaska Marine Highway System Captain William M. Hopkins in 2016, the end of the film contains views of Ketchikan, including the old Spruce Mill at the mouth of Ketchikan Creek. The waterway scenes are of the Eastern Channel of the southern end of Tongass Narrows between Mountain Point and the Coast Guard base and the Spruce Mill. If the entire clip was filmed in the same general area, the fish trap is possibly located somewhere along the southern Tongass Narrows or along nearby Annette Island.