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*r riter Reviews Book on History of N.C. CompanyFLAG OVER THE NORTH: by Lois D. Kitchser, Illustrated with photograph*. The story of the Northern Commercial Company. (Seattle: Superior Publishing Company. 34* pajres. $5.00).★ * *Every student of Alaska will be glad this book was written, for it pins down in their right places many of the puzzling jigsaw pieces of the northland’s amazipg history.The Northern Commercial company actually is older than the territory itself, because many of the N. C. stores originally were Russian fur stations and trading posts. Some of them were near--ly a century old when that venerable food chain, the Great Atlantic Pacific Tea Company, was launched in 1859.“Of some , 6,159 American chains of food, department, genera 1-merchandise and variety stores listed by the U. S. Department of Commerce, no single chain has the geographical difficulties nor the range of stock that characterize Northern Commercial,” says the author.The N. C. company,” as it is popularly known throughout an area one-fourth the size of the United States, has been merchandiser to Alaska and the Canadian Yukon for most of their history.Mrs. Kitchener's story centers around Volney Richmond, Sr. (now retired; his son, Volney Richmond, Jr., carries on in his place), who sparked the N. C. organization as its active head for half a century—until a year ago.Mr. Richmond was born in Hoosick, N. Y., in 1871; he was caught up in the world-wide frenzy that swept adventurers to the Klondike from every corner of the world. With thousands of others he pulled his load of grub and tools from Skagway over the pass in |98.Mr. Richmond never struck pay dirt, but he was one of the few who stayed in the northland to invest his abilities and, eventual-* ly, his entire resources in Alaska.The pages of this book take one back to the lusty, vigorous days of the various gold stampedes — and further. They make present' historyi for all its mechanical contrivances and gasoline-powered push, seem pretty tame.Early N. C. history is filled with whalebone, fur seals, windjammers, and a vast flow of humanity up the Yukon river.It was no small job, this being supplier to the needs of impatient pioneers—including the human failures who were provisioned and equipped at company expense.Filled NeedsWas a steamship line needed •out of San Francisco to carry goldseekers 2,500 miles to St. Michael near the mouth of the Yukon river? It was provided. Were river steamers needed to carry goods and people 2,000 miles farther into interior Alaska? They were built—scores of them. Was a stage line needed to operate hundreds of miles in winter along the roadless banks of the Yukon? It was established and operated.One of N. C.’s far-flung stores,at Unalaska in the Aleutian Island s, in 1940 still had in it* stock case upon case of flints for flintlock rifles; it had detachable celluloid collars by the gross; II even had cases of whalebone corsets.The store manager there today is Walter Dyakanoff, an Aleut descendant of sea-otter hunters; his assistant is Paul Tutiakov, another Aleut.When Japanese planes attacked Dutch Harbor, across the channel, in June of 1942 the N. C store at Unalaska was damaged. Later, when the entire surrounding area became a bristling armed camp with nearly 100,000 troops bivouacked at the height of the Aleutians campaign, the Unalaska store had another role. Everythin*; SoldGrass-woven A11 u baskets, ivory carvings, hand-made wallets, scarves, belts — anything and everything in the gift line was brought from ancient storage and sold “like hotcakes” to eager GIs and civilian customers who wanted “something to send back home.”This writer, incidentally, was one of that store’s customers at that time—purchasing some canned fruit that had been shelved for who knows how many years, but which was still sweet and palatable . . . and ever so unattainable then in the States!So runs Alaskan history in Flag Over the North—the story of the one company that, more than any other by far, has supplied Alaska over the years with what she needed to become what she is.Today's N. C, activities are just as varied and just as essential, ranging from goods sold in “Alaska’s finest department store” in Anchorage to airplanes and a complete aviation overhaul or “airmotive” service in Fairbanks and the sale of huge tractor* in a dozen northern cities.
Newspaper Details
Fairbanks Daily News Miner
Fairbanks, Alaska, US
Wed, Feb 09, 1955
Page 12
Full Page
Clipped by
Ava D.
NA, 28 Feb 2024
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