Descripción
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. 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. On arrival in Iditarod at the end of October Rogers then pr. N° de ref. del artículo 030857
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