SITKA Administrative History

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

Blockhouse becomes monument resource and erosion is checked

Not long after Trierschield's February totem pole count, Mather made a decision about Sitka National Monument resources that later caused his service a great deal of trouble. John Panamarkoff, secretary of the Sitka Commercial Club, wrote to say that citizens of Sitka wished to donate a replica of a Russian blockhouse to the park. The Alaska Historical Association and the Territorial Museum supported the proposal, as did Steese and Territorial Governor George A. Parks. The Alaska Road Commission would supervise the project. Mather replied that "I give my approval to this proposal." [168]

The Department of the Interior press release announcing the blockhouse reconstruction incorporated the first National Park Service statement concerning an interpretive theme for Sitka National Monument. The Battle of Sitka had paved the way for Russian supremacy in Alaska. "Had Russian supremacy failed early in the nineteenth century England's effort to acquire the Territory would have been successful." [169]

Nineteen-hundred and twenty-six was otherwise a quiet year, but early in 1927 Alaska's Delegate to Congress Donald Alexander (Dan) Sutherland notified Mather that Indian River was undermining the witch tree at Sitka. Mather left the matter to Cammerer. He in turn corresponded with Steese. The colonel already had the matter in hand, having visited Sitka in December of 1926 to investigate. Temporary protection costing $100 had been instituted then. Steese subsequently arranged for the stream to be cleared of obstructions above the tree's location, reconstruction of 100 feet of road, and placing of a bulwark along the bank at the tree's location. His telegram confidently advised Cammerer, "Your share $250." [170]

Steese also moved ahead with monument development. He often advised the park service after the fact about what he regarded as minor improvements and only sought Washington's approval for major undertakings. In addition to a recitation of maintenance work and expenditures in his 1927 annual report, Steese noted that in the coming summer he planned to construct a new path following the boundary from the west entrance around the west and northeast sides. This would allow the entire monument boundary to be patrolled.

The July 1927 annual report also advised that the blockhouse replica had been thrown up, using heavy cedar logs and hardware from the original Blockhouse No. 2 (Blockhouse D). [171] A Sitka Commercial Club drive raised the $2,500 cost of blockhouse reconstruction, with the Alaska Steamship Company being the largest contributor. Titus Demidoff and W.R. Hanlon of Sitka built the replica, using Blockhouse D as a model. Blockhouse D had been a point, toward Swan Lake, on the wall separating the Russian and Native settlements at Sitka. The United States Observatory crew at Sitka demolished the original blockhouse in 1921 because its metal affected their instruments. [172]

Mather's authorization for construction of the replica had come in April of 1926, and by April of 1927 Steese was forwarding photographs of the completed structure to Washington. The photographs elicited a response from A.E. Demaray, acting assistant director of the service, that "it [the blockhouse] was certainly well done." [173]