City commemorates centennial of Eielson’s first commercial flight, completion rail line to Fairbanks
The city of Nenana will host a celebration Saturday to commemorate the 100th anniversary of two important milestones in the history of transportation in Alaska. The aviation and railroad milestones both occurred in Nenana, and they played key roles in the development of Alaska.
That’s a big deal for the small city at the confluence of the Tanana and Nenana rivers, 60 miles south of Fairbanks. And Mayor Josh Verhagen says he’s looking forward to celebrating the centennials.
“There’ve been quite a lot of big things that’ve happened in this little town,” he said.
The first milestone occurred on July 4th, 1923, when fledgling pilot Carl Ben Eielson and a passenger flew from Fairbanks to Nenana and back. Verhagen says a lot of Alaskans don’t know about the flight or fully appreciate its significance. And neither did he, until he started studying it a few months ago.
“And I am really into the history,” he said, “but it wasn’t until this year that I learned that the very first flight made from one community to another in the Interior of Alaska was a hundred years ago.”
Fairbanks aviation history buff Bill Green says that first flight launched Eielson’s career as a bush pilot and explorer.
“So it was really Eielson’s first flight personally in Alaska, and it was also the start of commercial aviation, you might say, here in Fairbanks,” he said.
“Right away, he started giving rides here in Fairbanks. And they did some charter flights in July-August of 1923,” said Green, who’s a member of the Pioneer Air Museum in Fairbanks. The museum donated a plaque honoring Eielson’s achievement that’ll be installed in Nenana. And members of its staff and the local chapter of the Experimental Aircraft Association helped organize the tribute to the pilot.
Eielson also explored remote regions of Alaska by air, and in 1928 he was the first to fly over the North Pole en route to Europe. Later that year, he also flew to Antarctica. But in 1929, he and his mechanic died in a plane crash in Siberia, where they’d flown to help evacuate crewmembers of a ship stranded in ice, along with its cargo of furs.
“He was a history-maker,” Green said, “and unfortunately, he met an early end there in eastern Siberia.”
Verhagen says he hopes to get a flyover for Saturday’s celebration by aircraft out of Eielson Air Force Base, which was named after the pilot. He says the Eielson-themed events will begin at 10 a.m. in the city square downtown and out at the airport, followed by activities at the Alaska Railroad depot to commemorate completion of a rail line from Seward to Fairbanks.
“This is, to me, the most exciting thing almost of the whole day,” Verhagen said.
The railroad-themed events begin with a presentation by members of the California-based Polish Council of Engineers in North America, who will present a plaque honoring Ralph Madjeski, a Polish-American engineer who designed the railroad bridge across the Tanana River at Nenana.
“They wanted to honor him and put up a plaque in his name to give him credit for his engineering feat,” the mayor said.
The delegation also will give the city a 4-and-a-half-foot replica of the 700-foot bridge. Verhagen says the Mears Memorial Bridge is the second-longest single-span truss bridge in the world. It was named for its builder, Col. Frederick Mears, the chairman and chief engineer of the Alaska Engineering Commission, the federal agency that built and operated the railroad.
Verhagen says Mears chose the single-span design because he didn’t want to risk setting up a piledriver operation in that stretch of the Tanana.
“At this point, the Tanana is deep and wide and powerful,” the mayor said. “So they didn’t believe putting a pile in the middle of the river was a good idea, with what they’d seen from the power of the river breaking things up.”
Modjeski’s design solution enabled Mears to soolve that problem and complete work on the rail line. Railroad officials held the 1923 golden spike ceremony on the approach to the north end of the bridge.
The State of Alaska formed the Alaska Railroad Corp. in 1984 and and bought the railroad from the federal government the next year.
The unveiling of the bridge model and plaque will be followed by commemorations of the history of the railroad that runs through the town.
Alaska Railroad Corp. President and CEO Bill O’Leary says invited dignitaries will re-enact President Warren G. Harding’s driving of a golden spike in Nenana in a July 15th, 1923 ceremony that signified completion of the rail line.
“The governor is going to be involved in that,” he said. “I think Senator Sullivan and I think maybe actually the head of the Federal Railroad Administration.”
O’Leary says he may even take a turn at pounding the spike.
He says the railroad appreciates all the recognition -- and he wants Alaskans to know the feeling is mutual.
“Everybody that works here knows how important this railroad is to the state, and take that very seriously,” he said. “And we’re really honored to be in that position.”
Verhagen says all Alaskans are invited to the centennial celebrations. And for those who can’t make it, he says the events will be streamed live on the mayor’s Facebook page.
