Point Retreat Light Station
Point Retreat Light Station is one of sixteen staffed navigational lights established by the U.S. Government in Alaska.
Lighted on September 15, 1904, it has been part of a system of navigational aids to safely guide commercial and recreational vessels through the dangerous and heavily traveled southeast Alaska waterway known as the Inside Passage.
It is located a short distance north of the City of Juneau and is accessible only by water or air. The U.S. Lighthouse Service constructed the existing light tower and support buildings and structures in 1924.
One of the first concrete lighthouses built in Alaska during the 1920s, often to replace older wood frame buildings. Point Retreat's architecture is influenced by the Art Moderne.
Keepers sought assignment to Point Retreat because they could bring their families with them and because of the station's close proximity to the cities of Juneau and Douglas.
In 1973, the U.S. Coast Guard automated Point Retreat Light Station and removed the remaining staff. Although the light continues to guide commercial and recreation vessels through Southeast Alaska's Inside Passage, the period of significance ends in 1953.
The discovery of rich gold deposits in upper Yukon River tributaries at the close of the nineteenth century prompted a huge increase in the number of ships navigating Southeast Alaska's Inside Passage, a safer route for ships to travel than the open unprotected ocean route to the west.
In the late 1890s, watercraft of every description converged upon the Pacific Northwest ports to sail north. Once they passed British Columbia waters, there were few guides. Fog, rain, strong tides, and a rocky shoreline made the Inside Passage particularly difficult, especially for large steamers overloaded with prospectors and freight.
Over three hundred accidents in Inside Passage waters were reported in 1898. Although Alaska's governors had been urging the U.S. Government to mark navigation hazards along Alaska's coasts for over a decade, only a few markers and buoys had been installed.
In 1901, President William McKinley issued executive orders reserving land specifically for lighthouse purposes in Alaska. One of the reserves was of 1,505 acres at the northern end of Admiralty Island known as Point Retreat, near the junction of Stephens Passage and Lynn Canal.
The original lighthouse built at the site was a white hexagonal wood tower topped by a black hexagonal lantern. Beginning operation September 15, 1904, the site did not initially house a fog-signal as would many Alaskan light stations.
Other site buildings included a one and one-half story dwelling south of the light tower and a boathouse east of the dwelling.
Prior to 1917, the station was not staffed and reduced to a minor light. A new acetylene light was established on site. Annual light reports from 1920-1923 indicate that the light was found extinguished at each visit.
Wickersham House
The Wickersham House is located in Juneau's most venerable residential district, Chicken Ridge, at 213 7th Street. Some of Juneau's most prominent early residents lived in this Victorian home.
The house itself, although large and well-situated, bears few distinguishing architectural features. It is sturdy, solid, functional but without the gingerbread characteristic of turn-of-the century, fashionable near-mansions. This simplicity was more characteristic of Alaska than the Lower States.
It was built in 1898 by Frank Hammond, owner of the Sheep Creek Mining Company, who enjoyed the affluence to build as he wished.
Strength, comfort, quality and convenience were considerations he prized above pomp and ostentation.
Building supplies were not a serious problem as they were in the Interior. Juneau, as the major mining center of the Far North since 1880, had well-stocked lumber, hardware and furniture supply houses and was a principal ocean port north of Seattle and San Francisco. He built accordingly, and the house as Hammond built it remains virtually unaltered.
The second owner was John Malony, a lawyer for Alaska Treadwell Gold Mining Company and the founder of Juneau Cold Storage. Malony was persuaded to sell the house to Bartlett Thane who needed a big place in which to entertain.
Thane was the manager and director of the Alaska Gastineau Mining Company. Thane, a highly respected promoter of the mines, entertained Charles Haden, New York investment banker and Daniel Jackling, comptroller of the nation's copper industry.
The Honorable James V. Wickersham who served as U.S. District Judge in Alaska from 1900-1908 and as Territorial Delegate to the Congress of the United States for 14 years, purchased the home in 1928 and lived there until his death in 1939 at age 82.
Wickersham also edited the seven-volume Alaska Law Reports, a Bibliography of Alaskan Literature, and Old Yukon Tales Trails and Trials.
"No other man has made as deep and varied imprints on Alaska's heritage, whether it be in politics, government, commerce, literature, history or philosophy. A federal judge, member of Congress, attorney and explorer, present-day Alaska is deeply in debt to him." said Evangeline Atwood, author of Frontier Politics.
Wickersham was responsible for "Home Rule", the Alaska Railroad, the University of Alaska, and Denali National Park (formerly Mount McKinley National Park).
Deborah Bell-Wickersham (1863-1926) was the judge's wife for 46 years. They had three sons, Darrell, Andrew and Howard. Darrell was the only one that lived to adulthood. He had no children of his own.
Grace Vrooma-Bishop, a widowed school teacher with no children became the Judge's second wife in 1928. After his death in 1939, she continued to live in their Juneau home until her death in 1963.
Distin, William Langmead
General William Langmead Distin was a charter member of the Juneau Men's Igloo.
Distin was born at Cincinnati, Ohio, February 9, 1843, enlisted at the outbreak of the Civil War and served in many of its major engagements. Later he was in Illinois National Guard and served as aid-de-camp to Governors Hamilton, Olgesby, and Fifer of that state. He also served a term as Grand Commander of the Republic.
On August 7, 1897, President McKinley appointed him the first Surveyor-General of Alaska, which office he held until October 18, 1913.
In the fall of 1906 he moved the records, papers, and furnishings of the Governor's Office from Sitka to Juneau, thus finally establishing Juneau as the capital.
Distin Avenue - a short residential street branching of Indian Street in the central part of Juneau was named after him. The street was first named Farnum Street for Oliver T. Farnum.
Distin died in Chicago, November 20, 1914.
Heid, John Godlove
John Godlove Heid was a charter member of the Juneau Men's Igloo.
Heid was born in Wapakoneta, Ohio on December 14, 1852. From his native state, he migrated to Denver, Colorado in 1872 where he engaged in mining. He then went to New Mexico for several years prospecting for gold.
At some time in his career he studied law, as he opened a law office in Juneau soon after his arrival on April 11, 1885. He has practiced law since that date, and is today the oldest member of the Alaska Bar Association in active practice.
He was married at Juneau in July 1888, to Henrietta Jensen, a government school teacher. This union produced three daughters: Mrs. V.H. Dupuy, Gertrude and Elizabeth.
The family has lived in the same dwelling house in Juneau, where the daughters were born, educated and one married.
Heid has been continuously engaged in mining and developing the mineral resources of Alaska for the past thirty years, and is perhaps more familiar with the mining conditions in Southeastern Alaska than any other man, having been identified with many of the mineral locations which have in later years been developed into producing mines.
Heid was Republican National Committeeman of Alaska for eight years and was delegate to the Philadelphia convention when McKinley was nominated for his second term. John Heid also attended the national convention in 1904 when Theodore Roosevelt was nominated for President.
John Godlove Heid died in San Francisco January 24, 1917. He had gone to that city to argue a case for the Territorial Legislature.
Daily Alaska Dispatch, Oct. 18, 1914, Jan 24, 1917
Biographies of Alaska-Yukon Pioneers 1850-1950, Volume 2 p129-130, by Ed Ferrell (May 1, 2009
Strong, John Franklin Alexander
Governor John Strong was a charter member of the Juneau Men's Igloo.
Strong was born in Salmon Creek, New Brunswick, Canada on October 15, 1856. He graduated from the New Brunswick Normal School in 1874. After graduation he spent the next fourteen years working as a store owner and teacher throughout the province.
On December 31, 1879 he married Elizabeth A. Aitkens of Fredericton, New Brunswick. The marriage produced three children.
Major Strong was a newspaper man by profession. He had been identified with newspapers in Spokane, Bellingham, Seattle, and Tacoma for many years.
In 1896 he married Miss Anna Hall of Seattle, and the next year, 1897, the couple went north to Skagway, the gateway to the Klondike goldfields.
His objective point was the Klondike, but Skagway was booming in those days and he was soon engaged in writing editorials for an embryo newspaper that had been started there.
“Soapy” Smith and his gang reigned supreme at that time, and the law-abiding citizens were beginning to make a noise like they intended to do something to remedy the evils then rampant. What was needed was editorial support on the part of a newspaper. With Major Strong at the helm, that need was adequately supplied.
An emissary of “Soapy” called on the Major and made a proposition. He said that if the Major would “lay off” he
was authorized to say that a hundred dollar bill would be found on the Major’s editorial desk each and every morning. But nothing doing. The editorial attack on the Smith gang only increased in vigor. The result is well known to all old-timers.
In 1899, Major and Mrs. Strong headed for the Klondike. The Major tried prospecting for a while but had no luck. He was soon in newspaper work again, on the Dawson News.
In 1899, he went to Nome, where in the early spring of 1900, he established the Nome Nugget which he ran
successfully for many years.
Leaving Nome, the Major established a newspaper in Iditarod; then went to Katalla and started a newspaper there, and later came outside and established a paper in a mining camp in Arizona.
The call of the North soon found him back in Alaska, where he founded the Alaska Daily Empire in November 1912. He sold this newspaper when he was appointed governor under the Wilson administration.
President Woodrow Wilson nominated Strong to become Governor of Alaska Territory on April 17, 1913. The nomination was in keeping with a 1912 Democratic plank calling for territorial governors to be area residents. The new governor was sworn into office on May 21, 1913.
Soon after becoming governor, Strong was faced with a financial crisis. The territory's salmon canneries, claiming the recently enacted tax on canned salmon was illegal, refused to pay. The tax was a major source of income for the territory and the lack of funds thus created severely limited Strong's ability to implement development projects. This issue continued until after the governor left office.
Significant legislation signed into law by Governor Strong included the granting of United States citizenship to members of the indigenous population that gave up tribal life, implementation of workers' compensation, and the United States' first old age pension, authorization of a territorial university, and creation of a Board of Education.
Additionally, in 1917, the voters in the territory approved a prohibition referendum. Other changes affecting the territory were the authorization for construction of the Alaska Railroad in October 1914, loosening of federal controls on road building and coal mining, and creation of Mount McKinley National Park in 1917.
President Wilson declined to reappoint Strong to a second term as governor and his final day in office came in April 1918. According to U.S. Senator, and Alaskan history expert, Ernest Gruening this was because the President has been given information indicating the Canadian-born Strong had never been naturalized as a United States Citizen.
J.F.A. Strong died in Seattle, Washington, July 27, 1929.
Biographies of Alaska-Yukon Pioneers 1850-1950, Volume 2 p 309-310, by Ed Ferrell (May 1, 2009
Biographies of Alaska-Yukon Pioneers 1850-1950, Volume 3 p 282-283, by Ed Ferrell (May 1, 2009
John Franklin Alexander Strong (October 15, 1856 – July 27, 1929) was a British North America-born journalist who was the second governor of Alaska Territory from 1913 to 1918.
John Franklin Alexander Strong was born in Salmon Creek,[citation needed] a small farming community in Queens County, New Brunswick, British North America on October 15, 1856, the son of Adam Robert and Janet (Nicholl) Strong. He graduated from the New Brunswick Normal School in 1874. After graduation he spent the next fourteen years working as a store owner and teacher throughout the province. On December 31, 1879, he married Elizabeth A. Aitkens of Fredericton, New Brunswick. The marriage produced three children: Jane, Elizabeth, and Robert. He committed bigamy[1] in 1896 when he wed Anna Hall of Tacoma, Washington.[2]