SITKA Administrative History

Chapter 3:
SITKA NATIONAL MONUMENT, EARLY YEARS (continued)

Appropriations and visitation increase

The Sitka Camp of the Arctic Brotherhood was soon asking that money be appropriated for monument maintenance. This was only the first of a number of instances in which the Sitka camp took an interest in the monument.

The brotherhood, a male fraternal organization, was open to men who had hiked the Chilkoot Trail to Lake Bennett. Like many such organizations, the brotherhood shrouded itself in ceremony and regalia including secret initiation rites, robes, and pins for members. In addition to its social activities, the brotherhood also sponsored community service projects. Its ten camps in communities around Alaska and the pioneer character of its members made the brotherhood a significant political force in the newly-created Territory of Alaska. [108]

In January of 1913, James Wickersham, Alaska's voteless delegate to Congress, forwarded the Arctic Brotherhood petition to Washington. [109]

About the same time, the Alaska Territorial Legislature for warded a joint resolution to the Secretary of the Interior asking that $5,000 be spent on Sitka National Monument. [110] Concurrently, Wickersham renewed his efforts to encourage the Interior Department to take action with regard to Sitka. He asked that the department publish Lewis' report on Sitka and asked for an annual appropriation of $5,000 for maintenance of the Sitka monument. [111]

The secretary's reply was not encouraging. Although Lewis' report would be considered for publication "if conditions warrant and funds are available for the purpose," the secretary advised that it might be inadvisable to attempt to obtain appropriations for individual monuments. Instead, the department had been trying for several years to obtain "a small appropriation for general administrative purposes in connection with the National Monuments, thus far without success." [112]

Wickersham and other Alaskans kept up the pressure. In 1914 the Interior Department asked Congress to appropriate $1,500 for maintenance of the Sitka monument. [113]

No money was forthcoming. In 1914 Christensen advised the Commissioner of the General Land Office that none of his staff had been able to visit Sitka since Lewis' 1912 visit. Christensen noted that the Secretary of the Interior had appointed Arthur G. Shoup, a Sitka attorney, to oversee the territorial home for Alaskan pioneers at Sitka. Shoup, born in Challis, Oregon, in 1880, had come to Sitka with his parents in 1897. He studied political science and law at the University of Washington for three years, then served as Deputy United States Marshal at Ketchikan and Sitka from 1902 to 1910. By 1910 he was practicing law at Sitka, where he went on to serve three terms as mayor. His father, James McCain Shoup, had been an Idaho state senator before serving as U.S. Marshal at Sitka from 1897 to 1906 and at Juneau from 1906 to 1909. [114]

Special Agent Lewis recommended Shoup as the best man at Sitka through whom the department might work. According to Lewis, Shoup had worked with Langille to have the monument established. Shoup was willing to assume charge of the monument and use his best efforts to prevent vandalism. He estimated that $5,000 was needed for repairs at the monument and recommended that an archway be erected at the entrance. [115]

The situation had not changed by the following year. Christen sen reported that his staff had still not visited Sitka. The monument still needed repairs. The number of visitors, however, had risen from an estimated 8,000 to 10,000 in Fiscal Year 1914 (July 1, 1913 - June 30, 1914) to 9,000 to 10,000 in Fiscal Year 1915 (July 1, 1914 to June 30, 1915). The visitor figures were estimated by counting the number of steamers docking at Sitka and assuming that about 100 passengers visited the monument during each port call. In 1914, for instance, the steamers City of Seattle, Dolphin, State of California, and Spokane made two trips per month to Sitka with about 100 passengers each over a four- month tourist season. [116]

Although the field division responsible for the monument, now the Alaska Field Division headquartered at Anchorage, speculated that visitation at Sitka might be up because of the war in Europe, the count for Fiscal Year 1916 showed a decline. Some where between 6,000 and 7,000 visitors were estimated. [117]

Some visitors were traveling through the park in two-horse drawn vehicles. There was no objection to this traffic. The vehicles were light and no damage was being done to the road. The road was in good condition as the Alaska Road Commission had spent approximately $1,500 making repairs and gravelling it. The Indian River bridge was also in good condition, but trails on both sides of the river needed work. About $500 was needed for this rehabilitation, and an additional $750 was needed for totem pole rehabilitation. Another $100 was needed for guide boards and $500 to $1,500 could be used for a stone tablet at the entrance to the park. Without some sort of identifying entrance sign, "hundreds of tourists [were] passing through the park each year without getting any information as to the monument itself, and even knowing that the park is set aside as a National Monument." [118]

This situation began to change soon after Congress created the National Park Service in 1916 to care for the nation's national parks and monuments.