This week I am posting two photos I promised a few weeks back to various people interested in the history of the lower Kenai Sugpiaq region.

Courtesy of Theresa Graham Mickelson Historic Photograph Collection – PM – 2002.019.0015 – Pratt Museum Photo Archives

The first photo is the one I mentioned on Facebook’s Sugpiat message board last week asking for input whether to keep it on the Sugpiaq Catalog list or not. It is from the Theresa Graham Mickelson Historic Photograph Collection (PM – 2002.019.0015) and it features a great number of people living in Homer in the early 1900s. I am posting both the front and the back of the photo, as it contains the original handwritten list of the names of the people depicted on the picture. For an easier review, I am also listing the names here as they correspond to the numbers.

Courtesy of Theresa Graham Mickelson Historic Photograph Collection – PM – 2002.019.0015 – Pratt Museum Photo Archives

1. Mrs Munson, 2. Larry Slavin, 3. Mrs. Ed Anderson, 4. Bertha Munson, 5. Vega Anderson, 6. Mrs. Wells, 7. Charlie Miller, 8. Mr. Slavin, 9. Gladys Deitz, 10. Raymond Deitz, 11. Carl Anderson, 12. Jack Deitz, 13. Tom Munson, 14. Fred Anderson, 15. Perry Harrington. The photo was taken in front of the schoolhouse. Also, the photo collection has an accompanying oral history collection written by Theresa Graham Mickelson available at the Pratt Museum.

Courtesy of the Pratt Museum photograph collection – PM 1990.002.0001 – Pratt Museum Photo Archives

The second photo (PM – 1990.002.0001) is from Bear Cove in Kachemak Bay. It is taken from a boat on the water and it shows Ted Pedersen’s buildings standing close to the beach in Bear Cove. Ted Pedersen was originally from the Aleutians, and he settled down with his wife, Elsa, in Bear Cove in the mid-1900s. Details on the story of the Pedersen homestead can be found in Elsa Pedersen’s book “Kachemak Bay Years: An Alaska Homesteader’s Memoir.” As part of the Sugpiaq Ethnohistory project, I recorded interviews with participants on information they felt they wanted to share about the history of Nanwalek and the region. One of the participants, Nina Kvasnikoff, described her life living in the Bear Cove / Halibut Cove area as a child. She mentioned that her family used to visit a man by the name of Pedersen on a neighboring island. Ted Pedersen was their closest neighbor, although many newcomers tried their luck with homesteading and fishing for the canneries in Seldovia. Nina and her family left the remote island homestead behind after the 1964 Good Friday Earthquake and moved to Seldovia that offered greater security. Yesterday, March 27th, was the 50 year anniversary of the Earthquake and the subsequent Tsunami that claimed over 130 lives in Alaska, Oregon, and California.