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Collection of Photographs and Real Photo Postcards assembled, and taken by Carl W. Rogers documenting the mining camp of Iditarod and nearby Mining Camps and Operations along the Iditarod River, 1908-1911
Large collection of 326 images of Alaska, 98 photographs, 139 real photograph and 89 photochrome postcards assembled and taken by Carl W. Rogers, of Fairbanks, and Iditarod, Alaska, mainly of Iditarod and other now abandoned mining camps along the Iditarod River, including Dikeman, Georgetown, Ophir, Flat City, Flat Creek, Ruby, and many others. The images date between 1908-1911. Many of the images were taken by Rogers and some have his signature on the verso. The images record these now largely vanished settlements, mining camps, trading posts, Native villages, roadhouses, pioneer cabins at the beginning of the mining boom that brought thousands to the shores of the remote Iditarod River. The images also include inhabitants both Native and white.
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The September 26, 1910, issue of The
Alaska Citizen of Fairbanks, carries the following announcement concerning
Rogers:
“Sendoff For Carl Rogers – Last Sunday
evening about sixty members of the Christian Science church assembled at the
home of Mr. and Mrs. Guy B. Erwin, at Ninth and Cushman streets, to participate
in a little farewell party to Mr. Carl W. Rogers, who left for the Iditarod on
the Teddy H. early Friday morning. Mr. Rogers had been second reader in the
Christian Science church for nearly a year past, and had won the esteem of
everyone, and his departure for the new camp is greatly regretted …”
Rogers had likely been in Alaska
since 1908, as there are photographs in the collection dated that year. There
is also a photograph of the congregation of the Christian Science church of
Fairbanks, in front of their building, dated 1909.
Iditarod is an abandoned town in the
Yukon-Koyukuk Census Area in the U.S. state of Alaska. It is presently located
within the boundaries of the Flat Census Designated Place, which has no
residents as of 2010. The town of Iditarod was named after the Iditarod River.
Iditarod comes from the Athabascan word Haidilatna.
On Christmas Day 1908, prospectors John
Beaton and W.A. "Bill" Dikeman found gold on Otter Creek, a tributary
to the Iditarod River. News of the find spread, and in the summer of 1909
miners arrived in the gold fields and built a small camp that was later known
as Flat. People and supplies traveled to the gold fields by boat from the Yukon
River, up the Innoko River, and up the Iditarod River to the current town site,
a short walk from Flat.
More gold was discovered, and a
massive stampede headed for Flat in 1910. The steamboat Tanana arrived June 1,
1910, and the city of Iditarod was founded as a head of navigation for all the
surrounding gold fields, including Flat, Discovery, Otter, Dikeman, and Willow
Creek. Iditarod quickly became a bustling boomtown, with hotels, cafés,
brothels, three newspapers (only one would last the year), a Miners and
Merchants Bank, a mercantile store, electricity, telephones, automobiles, and a
light railway to Flat.
By 1930 the gold was gone and most
of the miners had moved to Flat, taking many of the buildings with them.
Iditarod is now a ghost town. Only one cabin and a handful of ruins remain,
including the concrete bank vault from the Miners and Merchants Bank.
Rogers may have traveled to
Iditarod in July 1910, as there are photographs dated July 4th,
showing the town site in its very early days, when it was nothing but a street
of tents. He must have then decided to relocate there and a series of over 25 real
photo postcards, likely taken by Rogers, documents his journey to Iditarod
aboard the Teddy H. in September and October 1910. Traveling on the
Tanana, Innoko, Yukon and Iditarod Rivers, the journey lasted into the month of
October. The images are captioned in ink by Rogers himself. His images depict
other steam boats encountered villages, trading posts, and camps passed,
including Nulato, Anvik, and Discovery City.
Georgetown is located at 61°53′N
157°42′W on the north bank of the upper Kuskokwim River in the
Kilbuck-Kuskokwim mountains. It is 16 miles (26 km) downstream of Red Devil
just upstream of the mouth of the George River. Georgetown is accessible by
boat, snowmobile (winter), or small plane.
This section of the Kuskokwim river
first had contact with non-Native explorers in the mid-19th century. Lt.
Lavrenty Zagoskin of the Russian Imperial Navy explored the area in 1844. The
village was known by its native name of Keledzhichagat at that time. It was
used as a summer fish camp for residents of Kwigiumpainukamiut. In 1909, gold
was discovered up the George River and a mining settlement quickly developed.
This settlement was located on the bank of the Kuskokwim river just west of the
mouth of the George River.
The settlement and the river were
named for three traders named George: George Hoffman, George Fredericks and
George Morgan. By 1910, the population of Georgetown increased to about 300
with about 200 dwellings due to the mining activity. A fire swept through the
town in 1911 and destroyed most of these buildings. By 1953, the only large
structure that remained at the original site was the two-story log house
belonging to George Fredericks.
A second settlement began to develop
east of the George River, and this settlement was also called Georgetown. A
state school was established in 1965. As mining activity declined, residents
began leaving and the school was closed in 1970.
The Alaska Native Claims Settlement
Act provided an opportunity for the town's descendants to take ownership of the
land, and the Native Village of Georgetown was established in 1971. As of 1
June 2009, the Georgetown Tribal Council had 128 members, and most surviving
original members and their descendants still live in the vicinity.
Rogers evidently wintered over in Iditarod and his photographs from 1911 document the then growing town of Iditarod as well as mining operations in now abandoned mining camps and settlements in the area, including Ophir, Flat City, Flat Creek, Ruby, which was established in 1911 after gold was discovered, Dikeman, Otter Creek, Holy Cross Mission, (now Holy Cross, Alaska) and small Native villages such as Shageluk, and Tacotna, among other places. A few sample images follow:
