William G. Atwood collection, 1902-1913.
Title:
William G. Atwood collection, 1902-1913.
Personal Author:
Physical Description:
0.45 cu. ft.
Abstract:
This collection includes photographs that document the potential route of the Alaska Central Railway, including various pictures of tunnels, a suspension bridge above Placer River Canyon, numerous views of Crow Creek and Crow Creek Summit, Sushetna River [Susitna River] and Sushetna Station [Susitna Station] including a Russian church at Sushetna Station, Chulitna Canyon, Broad Pass, and glaciers. There is also an assortment of pictures of Seward, including the Alaska Central Railway office building and 4th Avenue in downtown Seward. The papers from the Atwood collection include photocopies of an article from the April 30, 1905, Seattle Times about the Alaska Central Railway, correspondence between Atwood and the Honorable James Wickersham and his wife Ellen Rogers Atwood, Atwood's lecture drafts "Justice in the early Klondike days," and his final report to the Chief Engineer about a 1902 spring-summer reconnaissance trip from Skagway to Dawson and then up the Tanana River by steamer to the mouth of the Nenana River.
Biographical/Historical Data:
William G. Atwood was born on August 4, 1872, in Fredonia, New York. Atwood graduated from Cornell University in the College of Civil Engineering in 1892. William G. Atwood first came to Alaska in August of 1897 during the Yukon Gold Rush and lived in the Rampart City mining camp. Atwood eventually became a U.S. Deputy Mineral Surveyor and conducted mining engineering work and prospecting. Atwood left the territory in 1901 and returned to Alaska in the spring and summer of 1902 where he and a small reconnaissance party traveled from Seattle to Skagway to Whitehorse to Dawson and then up the Tanana River by steamer to the mouth of the Nenana River. Atwood wrote a report of this trip to the C.M. Anderson, Chief Engineer of the Alaska Central Railway. Atwood was the Assistant to the Chief Engineer of the Alaska Central Railway from 1903-1904.
Restrictions on Access:
Access limited to Alaska and Polar Regions Collections research room hours.