Alaska Film Archives

[Alaska Visitors Association film]
[Alaska Visitors Association film]
This 35mm film from the Alaska Visitors Association shows eagles, whales, rivers, sled dog teams, aerial views, mountains, seals, hills, forests, moose, sheep, caribou, geese, rivers, ducks, bears, a cruise ship, fish, Prince William Sound, totem poles, a blanket toss, Alaska Native peoples, recreational activities, and waterfalls. A narrator encourages people to visit Alaska following the 1989 Exxon Valdez oil spill.
[Fort Wainwright 1970s]
[Fort Wainwright 1970s]
This film contains scenes from the early 1970s of troops at Fort Wainwright boarding a C-130 aircraft, aerial views of the landscape, and scenes of soldiers with parachutes exiting the aircraft.
[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.
[Inside the trans-Alaska pipeline]
[Inside the trans-Alaska pipeline]
This film contains silent scenes of a welder inside the trans-Alaska pipeline and views as a camera moves down the length of the inside of the pipeline.
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.
[Seward scenes]
[Seward scenes]
The donor’s original number and title for AAF-20866 are: “RW 134. Early Seward.” This film features scenes from Seward, which include images of the railway station, people gathered around a small structure fire, the start and finish of the Fourth of July Mt. Marathon race, an Alaska Railroad AuRoRa prototype engine 1050 with a plow attached, women with flowers, a man and women outside a building, and a large ship in a bay and approaching a dock.
[Trailers hauled to snowy pipeline camp]
[Trailers hauled to snowy pipeline camp]
This film contains scenes featuring S.S. Mullen Construction Company equipment, a Caterpillar dealership in Fairbanks, aerial views of the Haul Road, a sign that says "Ice May Be Unsafe - Cross at Your Own Risk - State of Alaska Dept. of Highways," men standing next to a cargo airplane, trucks hauling equipment along a narrow snowy road, aerial views of the Brooks Range and a road, aerial views of trucks on a snowy road, aerial views of a pipeline camp, and trailers being assembled and put into place at the camp.