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Alaska Film Archives

About the Collection

Over the past half century, the University of Alaska Fairbanks has built the largest collection of archival films in and about Alaska. The collection combines hundreds of donations of film and videos to UAF by individuals, organizations and institutions. Materials range from professional productions to amateur home-movies, made in and about Alaska from the earliest days of filmmaking through today. Since 1993 these materials have been held by the Alaska Film Archives, a unit of Alaska and Polar Regions Collections & Archives in the Elmer E. Rasmuson Library. Films and videos selected for this portal project are a sampling of the thousands available for checkout on DVD through the Rasmuson Library. Unless otherwise noted, items are presented here in their entirety, unedited and uncut. Short, popular clips from the collection can be viewed on our YouTube channel. Read more about the Alaska Film Archives.

1 to 7 of 7 Objects
[Drag racing, air show, parade, construction, family, Haul Road 1]
[Drag racing, air show, parade, construction, family, Haul Road 1]
AAF-10405 is made up of several smaller reels of film. Handwritten notes on original film boxes are as follows: “Upside down truck, ag plane 28 mi, grizzlies feeding.” “Jon racing Eric’s car in drags.” “Jon’s Camarao 128 mph, Glennallen airshow 85.” “Glacier Bay 2, Jon popping wheelies, Severn’s.” “Sheep running on Atigun Pass, Bev and Katie with truck, Sheep on Atigun Pass and Katie B with cat 1983.” “Fire bombing, Henry’s, parade 1983.” “Golden Days parade 1983.” “Last part of Jon on porch very young, caribou.” “Stream[?], grizzly, Chezhs house, gold dredge, Cleary Summit, Bob Farmer, wife, Bev, Fairbanks Cr.” “Plane landing at Atigun Vern Bates, Wiseman caribou under pipeline, owl [?], Wiseman village, unloading truck at Wiseman, Vern Bate down in Haul Rd, Good pick adult caribou shot glimpse grizzly, caribou under pipeline.” This film contains footage of an overturned truck, flowers, a biplane airplane, bears, an airplane crashed on a road, drag racing, parachutists, an airshow, a post office, caribou, ice formations?, flowers, the Fairbanks airport, Alaskaland, a Golden Days celebration in Fairbanks, firebombers dropping retardant, motorcycles, family scenes, a cabin-building, an owl, a homestead, an airplane on a road, bears, caribou, and the pipeline.
[Golden Days, Fairbanks, Haul Road, snow, wildlife 1]
[Golden Days, Fairbanks, Haul Road, snow, wildlife 1]
AAF-10407 is made up of several smaller reels of film. Handwritten notes on original film boxes are as follows: “#2 Kobuk, D King flying, Walker Lake.” “#3 Kobuk.” “#4 Kobuk River.” “Dad’s vest, Parade Golden Days 1973.” “Parade, train, Tom and Jan, Parade 73, Bible Baptist.” “Gobblers Knob sign with Raven on it in middle of picture, good ending of snow covered trees at 46mi TAPS, chickadees feeding here?” “Winter cold of 74 in Fairbanks.” “Parade 1978.” This film contains footage of airplanes, a bear cub, a moose, river travel and fishing, camping scenes, a post office, a family in gold-colored vests, a Golden Days parade with Irene Sherman waving from a 3-wheeled bike prior to the KUAC float, downtown Fairbanks scenes, a KTVF station wagon and a Bible Baptist bus at a cabin, a helicopter, snowmachines, a Gobbler's Knob Prospect Creek sign, wintry Haul Road, trees south of the Yukon River covered with snow and frost, a chickadee at a feeder, Fairbanks streets and trees covered with frost in winter, a Golden Days celebration, the Kings Kup building in the background, Ted Stevens in a parade, and Don Young in a parade.
[Golden Days, Fairbanks, Haul Road, snow, wildlife 2]
[Golden Days, Fairbanks, Haul Road, snow, wildlife 2]
AAF-10408 is made up of several smaller reels of film. Handwritten notes on original film boxes are as follows: “Buffalo.” “Plane taking off mi 101 Steese Hi 182 Atigun Pass, bull moose in Park, plowing Atigun Pass going up after storm, Atigun Pass slide, 1980, Mt. McKinley.” “Prudhoe, Bev and I at P Bay, good summer shots of caribou, air show at Eielson.” “Snow bound blizzard, snow bound at Prudhoe blizzard, geese and swans springtime, ptarmigan.” “Wide building moving at P Bay, rest trial run with camera.” “Sheep.” “Great Denali Trespass, [?].” “Grizzly, air show, sheep, Haul Rd.” “Driving to and around Prudhoe, cam breakdown 2 mi TAPS, Teglar, S end [?], [?] king.” This film contains footage of bison and fall trees, a large raft on rapids, an airplane taking off on a road, moose, caribou, snow being cleared from a road, caribou, permafrost along river, a caribou and the pipeline, an airshow with a short takeoff and landing demo, ptarmigan, a storm on the Haul Road, trucks snowed in on the Haul Road, a helicopter and swans and waterfowl along a roadside, pump station facilities, city streets, dall sheep, a bear and the pipeline, a bear with three cubs, Cantwell, the 1979 Great Denali-McKinley Trespass event near Cantwell, a bear alongside a truck, construction, a truck off the road, and wintery road scenes.
[Kennecott, Eagle, Haul Road scenes, winter trucking and wildlife 1]
[Kennecott, Eagle, Haul Road scenes, winter trucking and wildlife 1]
AAF-10403 is made up of several smaller reels of film. Handwritten notes on original film boxes are as follows: “1986 Tim Walcott and I flying to P Bay.” “Ketchev plane flying alongside back to Prospect Camp with church people.” “Glacier Bay 1983, excellent falling, Glacier Bay 1.” “Haines eagles, flying to and from Anchorage, Mt. McKinley from air.” “Jim’s river boat, McCarthy, Teklaneka 79.” “End of D. King trip to Isreal – Anchorage, sheep at Glenn Hwy, bear near truck, Bill Chesley wh[?] fishing.” “Good D King and I cutting logs on So Fork, DK landing on So Fork winter time, good pictures at PB on taxi way lots of activity, Good taxi way P Bay, cutting logs with D King.” “Winter view mt from house 6mi, Little at Eagle in Dawson Parade.” “Good activity at Deadhorse Airport P Bay, small sheep, Larissa, beginning of D King logging.” This film contains footage of an airplane and the sign “Jim River DOT,” the pipeline, airplanes, tankers, a fishing boat, seals, calving glaciers, an eagle, mountains at sunset, children with a sled and snowmachine, McCarthy store lodge, Kennicott Glacier and Kennecott Mine, a family boating, dall sheep, a bear at close range trying to climb into a truck, a man chasing a grizzly, a bear and a truck on the Haul Road, cutting up trees, an aircraft, trucking, scenes in Eagle, a helicopter, a sternwheeler riverboat, a parade, and airplanes and trucks at a busy Deadhorse/Prudhoe Bay Airport.
[Kennecott, Eagle, Haul Road scenes, winter trucking and wildlife 2]
[Kennecott, Eagle, Haul Road scenes, winter trucking and wildlife 2]
AAF-10404 is made up of several smaller reels of film. Handwritten notes on original film boxes are as follows: “Going down Atigun Pass N side winter time, north of Atigun, Haul Road winter, snow covered trees, good scenery.” “Arctic fox, Dad changing tires on truck.” “Coming down Atigun and Chandler good scenery.” “Papa driving Haul 78/79.” “Haul Road avalanche.” “101 mile Steese Xing Eagle [?] with Kenworth, caribou, going into mine at Wiseman, good picture of grizzly at my truck, moose and calf N of Brooks Range, lots of caribou.” “Good picture coming from Franklin B to Prudhoe B, winter state clearing road, Jon driving Atigun to Dietrich pass wide load down Atigun on left side, driving to and around Prudhoe.” “Good picture of sheep pawing in snow, caribou in winter, Larry Lilly and babies at trailer park McGrath, Livia new baby.” “End of grizzly, beginning of flying trip to Anaktuvuk Pass umiat, slope mt Atigun Pass.” This film contains footage of scenic mountains and snow covered trees, Haul Road trucking scenes, a tire being changed, helicopters, a snow machine, a fox, a bear, trucking on a snowy road, deep snow on a roadside, bears, moose, caribou, family scenes, a bear, a woman with a duck in a truck, and aerial views.
[Kermode bears]
[Kermode bears]
The filmmaker's original labeling scheme has film AAF-20352 numbered as Bacon 87-01 and titled “Kermodei Bear.” Reed Bovee interviewed filmmaker Bill Bacon in 2010, and the following information about this film is based on Bovee's notes from that interview: “Kermode bears are all white at the San Juan Islands off of Canada - This is the only place in the world where you can find these bears - It’s a white black bear - Bill spent days looking for them and finally a guy said what are you looking for - Bill told him the Kermode Bear - The guy said, ‘Oh go to the dump they are there every night,’ and sure enough that’s where he found them - Great story - Reel 1 contains very rare footage - Valuable - There is only one other guy who has film of these bears.” Notes on the film box are as follows: “Kermode Bear – black bear mother with cubs/cave” and “Reel 1: Original, ECN, Kermode bear.”
[Kermode bears in cave]
[Kermode bears in cave]
The filmmaker's original labeling scheme has film AAF-20353 numbered as Bacon 87-02 and titled “Black Bear Mother w/Cubs Playing Outside, Inside Cave.” Reed Bovee interviewed filmmaker Bill Bacon in 2010, and the following information about this film is based on Bovee's notes from that interview: “Kermode bears are all white at the San Juan Islands off of Canada - This is the only place in the world where you can find these bears - It’s a white black bear - Bill spent days looking for them and finally a guy said what are you looking for - Bill told him the Kermode Bear - The guy said, ‘Oh go to the dump they are there every night,’ and sure enough that’s where he found them - Great story - Reel 1 contains very rare footage - Valuable - There is only one other guy who has film of these bears.” Notes on the film box are as follows: “Kermode Bear – black bear mother with cubs/cave” and “Reel 2: Black bear mother with cubs outside cave – playing – inside cave.”