today's post after a long break i must admit, is about an album salvaged a week ago all about early settlers in Alaska around 1910 and the little town of Cordova .A rare look at what was Americans life on the last real frontier.The gold discoveries and people rushing north led the U.S. Army to return to Alaska and establish six posts to maintain order. These posts were complete communities. Around the posts, communities grew, providing goods and services.When the posts were closed down, the local communities declined. This same pattern occurred during and after World War II and the Cold War.
Starting construction in 1900, the U.S. Army built Alaska's first significant road and a telegraph system. The Trans-Alaska Military Road went from Valdez north and east to Fort Egbert, the army's headquarters near Eagle on the Yukon. The Army constructed a 1,900 mile long telegraph to connect the six army posts. Along the telegraph routes, small communities grew around telegraph stations and roadhouses were built to serve workers and travelers, including the U.S. mail carriers.
Several private companies built railroads after the gold discoveries. Seward was founded as the southern end for a road that would cross the Kenai Peninsula and then head north to Fairbanks. Cordova was the seaport end for the railroad to bring the rich Kennecott copper out of the Wrangell Mountains. Stations along these routes grew into small towns.
