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Episode 71: George Hinton Henry, The Father osf Alaska Journalism Found at Last —Maybe
No chapter on newspapers in Alaska would be complete without a section on the most-sued member of the press, George Hinton Henry. Henry published/edited six papers in four cities between 1907 and 1915. These included the Yukon Press, Tanana Citizen, Hot Springs Echo, Tanana News, Free Press (Fairbanks), and Socialist Press in Fairbanks. He was responsible for a great number of newspapers in a great number of towns, all of which went broke. Further, he probably holds the record for the number of times an editor has been sued for slander, though the true number is unknown as most of the records for that time period have been lost. While some of the historical documentation still exists, the bulk of the information on his sordid career appears in the various papers not published by him.
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Get to know the authors at The Readers and Writers Book Club
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Now Available
Meet Steve Levi, Your Host for Episode 71:
George Hinton Henry, The Father osf Alaska Journalism Found at Last —Maybe
Steve Levi is a 70-something writer in Alaska. He specializes in the impossible crime and the Alaska Gold Rush. An impossible crime is one in which the detective must figure out HOW the crime was committed before he can go after the perpetrators. As an example, in THE MATTER OF THE VANISHING GREYHOUND, the detective must figure out how a Greyhound bus with four bank robbers, a dozen hostages, and $10 million can vanish off the Golden Gate Bridge. Steve’s books can be seen at www.authormasterminds.com/steve-levi and www.steverlevibooks.com. He also does two historical uploads a week. Send Steve your email, and he will include it in the mailings.
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The citizens of Fairbanks should have been so lucky. Fairbanks, like Juneau and Nome, was founded by accident. In August of 1901, Elbridge Truman Barnette convinced a gullible steamboat captain that his steamship could easily ascend the Tanana River without striking bottom. However, when it became apparent that Barnette did not know what he was talking about, the steamboat captain angrily evicted the protesting Barnette along with 135 tons of his
supplies onto the nearest shore – which happened to be on the Chena Slough. As Barnette’s supplies were being offloaded, a sourdough by the name of Felix Pedro suddenly appeared on the bank. He had just made a major find in the area and was wondering if Barnette would have any food to sell since he, Pedro, did not want to walk the 360 miles round trip to Circle for supplies. Then and there was established Chenoa City, later to become known as Fairbanks.
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Perhaps the most famous Alaska Ghost ship story is that of the Eliza Anderson. Here is the saga of a ship in distress, forced to choose between being battered to splinters by the savage sea or running around on the rocky shoals of Kodiak Island. Instead, a tall, gaunt, wind-swept, rain-soaked giant of a stranger seized control of the ship’s wheel and steered her safety. Then, his job completed, he vanished as mysteriously as he had arrived. For fifty years, the legendary “Stranger Who Came Aboard” was grist for the supernatural mill of Alaska Gold Rush stories.
No saga of the Alaska Gold Rush would be complete without a touch of the mysterious. Every rush has its eerie events, and the Alaska Gold Rush was no exception. Perhaps the most perplexing incident of that era was the saga of the Clara Nevada. Here was a tale of greed, robbery, and murder, along with a ghostly re-visitation. But it was more than that. It is also one of the largest successful robberies in American history combined with the third largest mass
murders in American history as well, surpassed only by the Oklahoma City bombing in 1995 and the 911 attack on the World Trade Center.