Dubious Founding Fathers: Alaskan Towns Honoring Crooks, Thieves, & Hustlers

Did You Murder Your Wife  & Run For Your Life?     WHAT WAS YOUR NAME IN THE STATES?  There's a song about the early   citizens of t...


Did You Murder Your Wife & Run For Your Life?  

 

WHAT WAS YOUR NAME IN THE STATES? 
There's a song about the early citizens of the Gold Fields. It goes like this: 

"Oh what was your name in the states?
Was it Thompson, or Johnson or Bates?
Did you murder your wife? And run for your life?
Tell me. What was your name in the states?

 

COPPER RIVER COUNTRY JOURNAL 
During the Great Alaska Gold Rush there were many people of dubious character roaming the territory. Anonymity was pretty easy to come by. But even when people did know your real name – and your sins – bad behavior and cheating didn't keep folks from naming their towns after you.  

Alaskans have always been willing to pardon transgressors. Here's a brief rundown of Alaskan "founding fathers" who had problems that were forgiven by their tolerant brethren... 

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There's No Place Like Homer...
A CON ARTIST 
Homer Pennock gave his relatively humble name to the scenic seaside town. But there's no mistaking that the town of Homer, Alaska had a namesake who was an outrageous con artist who skipped out of Alaska for the more fertile goldfields of the Klondike soon after arriving in 1896 on the Homer Spit.

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Rollicking Copper Mine
NAMED AFTER A DEPRESSED YOUNG MAN 
NAMED ROBERT KENNICOTT..
For many years, people have wondered what killed Robert Kennicott, the man that Kennicott  was named after. Kennicott died in May, 1866, a year before Alaska was purchased, and he actually never even saw the Kennicott copper deposits. His mission as a naturalist was to see if Alaska was worth buying.  When he died, he was only 30 years old. 

His last day was ominous. He was at Nulato, went for a walk -- and left behind a note for his men, telling them to come look for him if anything happened. When he didn't come back, they found him on the Yukon riverbank, lying on his back, dead. 

Robert Kennicott's little vial of strychnine that he apparently carried with him everywhere to get animal specimens, was gone. And for at least a century, everyone thought that the ambitious explorer had killed himself. (Smithsonian scientists, who dug him up recently, though, appear to have vindicated the young man. They say their studies show he died of a heart attack.)

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Forgiving Fairbanks
ITS FOUNDING FATHER, E.T. BARNETTE, WAS A KNOWN SCOUNDREL & EMBEZZLER
During the Gold Rush, the town known as Fairbanks was Alaska's version of Dawson City, with plenty of partying and carrying-on. LIke the Klondike, Fairbanks had lots of scam artists. One of these was E.T. Barnette, a horse-trading swindler who had already been sentenced to 4 years in prison in Oregon when he first arrived. 

He is now considered the city's founding father. In 1901, Barnette left St. Michael, on the coast of Alaska, headed upriver with tons of merchandise, to start a trading post. The riverboat got stuck in the Chena River, at what was to become the town of Fairbanks. 

Starting a tradition, Barnette was elected its mayor. Barnette went on to rip off his financial backers, and got sued by them. But he survived, and started a bank in Fairbanks, become its president, and then, when it went bankrupt in 1911, he stole the equivalent of millions of dollars, fled Fairbanks in the middle of the night, and was arrested in Los Angeles. 

Fairbanks is a forgiving town; the E.T. Barnette School and Barnette Street were both named after him.


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Knik historic building. (Photo, Country Journal) 


Bootlegging Trading Post
GEORGE PALMER WAS HARDLY 
AN UPSTANDING CITIZEN
The town of Palmer is named after a Knik-area miner and trading post operator. During the 1890s, Knik was the primary "city" of the region. 

George Palmer (according to a recent biography)  arrived in  Knik around 1894. The Russian Orthodox priest in Knik tried to shame Palmer into marrying the mother of his children. 

Annoyed, George Palmer punched the priest out. As time went on, Palmer began bootlegging huge quantities of liquor, running a saloon, getting drunk, and, eventually, committing suicide.

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