2023 is the 100th Anniversary of the opening of the Alaska Railroad, whose 500-mile-long tracks run from the seaport town of Seward, on the Kenai Peninsula, to Fairbanks, the Golden Heart of Alaska. Along the way they cross two formidable mountain ranges, several broad and daunting rivers, and numerous deep gorges and canyons. The rails wind along the tidewater edge of Turnagain Arm, past Bartlett and Spencer Glaciers, and skirt the highest point on the North American continent, the Great One, Denali.

The Alaska Railroad: 1902-1923, subtitled Blazing an Iron Trail Across The Last Frontier, shares the compelling story of the construction of the Alaska Railroad and its predecessors, from 1902, when John Ballaine built the Alaska Central Railroad; through 1923, when President Warren G. Harding drove the Alaska Railroad’s ceremonial Golden Spike in Nenana. This 400-page book is a wide-ranging look at Alaska’s growth and development, and the many ways in which the railroad played a major role. 

A website for the book, by Northern Light Media. ~•~

The Alaska Railroad: 1902-1923

The Alaska Railroad: 1902-1923, Blazing an Iron Trail Across The Last Frontier, by Helen Hegener, published in May, 2017 by Northern Light Media. 400 pages, over 100 b/w historic photos, maps, bibliography, indexed. The book can be ordered for $24.95 plus $5.00 for First Class postage.

$29.95