Transportation moves us all
Determines cities' rise and fall
The imprints of those who heard the Call
Of Possibility.
And here we find some commemorate
Who in Seward's founding participate
And dreamed of moving folk and freight
From the salty sea.
Seward with its sheltered bay
Became Alaska's great gateway
Even now, to its port we stray
This historic town to see.
Beside the shores of Resurrection Bay (just across from the Old Seward Depot), you will find Mile 0 of the Historic Iditarod Trail and this stone monument. Refurbished for Seward's centennial, it commemorats the 1903 founding of Seward and the Alaska Central Railway.
The Monument Reads:
On August 28th, 1903, the steamer Santa Ana arrived in Resurrection Bay and Seward was founded by the Alaska Central Railway Co. as the ocean terminus of the proposed railroad to interior Alaska.
John Ballaine chose the site and named the town Seward. He was the chief organizer of a contingent of men, women, children, equipment, and horses. As the leader and visionary in the founding of Seward, he described the ship's entry into Resurrection Bay on a calm, clear day.
"If there is such a place as Heaven, I cannot imagine anyone admitted through its pearly gates with sentiments more joyous than I experienced that shining forenoon as we glided easily in those majestic scenes up to the timber covered site I had chosen for the future terminal city -- the future gateway into and out of Alaska's great interior."
This monument sponsored by a generous contribution from Wells Fargo.
From a Seward Walking Tour Brochure:
The coastal walk ends at Mile 0, at the south-eastern corner of the
downtown waterfront. The Founder’s Monument honors John
Ballaine, Seward’s founder, and the landing party which arrived
on August 28, 1903. Looking to the right, imagine a bustling
steamship harbor in the early 1900s or an active rail terminal in
the middle of the century. Until 1964, the waterfront area housed
warehouses, docks, and a pattern of intersecting railroad tracks.
The Green Building to the west was built in 1917 as the depot
for the Alaska Railroad and served that purpose until 1964, when
the tracks were destroyed by tidal waves.
Remnants of an old pier and boat ramp are just down the shore, and worth investigating.
Of course, though the founding of Seward is dated from that August 28, 1903 landing party headed by the Ballaine brothers and the founding of the Alaska Central Railway, there were early settlers prior to 1903. Mail and supplies for the gold fields in the Hope-Sunrise area were landed here as early as the 1890's. Later this included Nome and Iditarod. (
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Founders' Monument - is a wonderful Centennial 2003 make-over gift from Wells Fargo. The founders' monument was originally a gift from the Seward Elks 2075. Prior to the Centennial, folks started talking about a face-lift for the obelisk and a new information plaque to replace the old bronze plate which was hard to read. Our Seward branch manager stepped up for the generous Wells Fargo contribution. Stop by and read the dedication story of Seward's foundation as a city, 100 years ago. Thanks to Wells Fargo, Lori Draper, the Seward Elks, Damon Capurro and the Centennial Committee.
NOTES ON SEWARD:
(source) Ride Guide to the Historic Alaska Railroad by Anita Williams and Linda Ewers ©2003
MP0 Seward. Seward is located at the northern end of Resurrection Bay and is tucked into the Kenai Mountains. It is an ice-free port with a relatively mild, and often wet, climate. Winter temperatures average 25F and summer temperatures range between 50F and 60F.
Seward was first settled by Russians in the late 1700s. It was named for US Secretary of State William H. Seward who was instrumental in the purchase of Alaska from Russian in 1867. In 1902 Seward was chose as the starting point for the Alaska Central Railroad.
…Today Seward, population 2630, is an important port. Commerce includes shipping, fishing, and tourism. By road Seward is 127 miles from Anchorage. It has become a very popular recreation area and center for excursions to the Kenai Fjords National Park. The Alaska Marine Highway sails from Seward to Homer, Kodiak, and Cordova. The annual Silver Salmon Derby, held in August, awards over $100,000 in cash and prizes to anglers. …Notice the shipping docks which also accommodate cruise ships and the coal loading facility. Coal from the mine at Healy (MP 358) is shipped from here to Korea.
MORE SEWARD HISTORY:
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The small city of Seward is nestled at the foot of Mount Marathon along the scenic shoreline of Resurrection Bay, a restless, fickle body of water teeming with abundant species of fish and frolicking marine mammals. In 1792 the bay was sighted and named on Resurrection Day, Easter Sunday, by Alexander Baranof, the most famous of Alaska’s early Russian explorer-governors. Against a backdrop of peaks and passes sculpted by Ice Age glaciers, Seward’s ice-free harbor has long served as a natural gateway to the vast scenic and resource riches of Alaska’s huge interior.
The city of Seward was named for President Lincoln’s Secretary of State, William Henry Seward, the man who engineered the purchase of Alaska from Russia in 1867. The city was officially founded in 1903 on a long-abandoned Native village site, but the town had already been a Gold Rush encampment for at least a decade. Optimistic prospectors heard tales of a trail that led from Seward to riches-to-be, and on to Cook Inlet. That dogsled trail would indeed lead to the rich strikes at Hope and Sunrise and later to the bonanza at Iditarod, a place name commemorated in today’s Iditarod Sled Dog Race, and on to Nome.
Then in 1903, a party of railroad men arrived and laid out the present city in a traditional grid of city blocks and wide streets that would be familiar to anyone from similar small railroad towns across America. In the boasting spirit of frontier towns, one of Seward’s streets was named Millionaires Row for the gold barons, another was called Home Brew Alley for obvious reasons. The new railroad that was built to reach Cook Inlet (the city of Anchorage) was called the Alaska Central Railway. It would later become the Anchorage to Seward route of today’s Alaska Railroad.
Seward’s history is well documented in a variety of websites and can be seen close up and personally at the excellent, homey Resurrection Bay Historical Society Museum located on 3rd Avenue.