Old-time Alaska

Valley Life editor

When Jack Webb started helping his elderly father move out of his large Sandy, Ore., home in 1986, a couple of boxes caught his attention.

"They were sitting under the stairwell, and they hadn't been touched for 30 years or so," Webb said. "I asked my dad what they were, and he said, 'Just junk. Go ahead and throw it out.'"

Webb didn't throw them out. Instead, he opened them up, found letters from decades past, negatives of old-time Alaska and memories of growing up in Bush Alaska. Now, 20 years later, Webb is making sure those memories live on in a new book, "True North in Alaska," which is based on his the lives of his parents, Richard and Milly Webb, from 1937-1966 in Alaska.

"True North in Alaska" is a treasure trove of Alaska information, artifacts and memories from the post-Gold Rush era. Webb was born in Fairbanks and grew up in Alaska, but after reading through his parent's letters and looking through their photographs, he saw a part of Alaska he never knew while growing up here.

"I learned my parents were a lot more adventurous than I ever thought," Webb said. "My father's father wanted to come to Alaska during the Gold Rush but never made it, and when my dad came up here, he sent very detailed letters home about their experiences and first impressions of Alaska.

"Living in the Bush, my parents had to be a little bit of everything -- the doctor, even though they weren't trained, they had to help with the reindeer herding, the social actions and welfare of others," Webb said. "I never fully realized all they had done."

The project was never intended to be a book, although that's how it turned out. Originally, it was going to be an extensive family genealogy project.

"We're interested in genealogy and started that way, but as we got going, we saw that it really transcends just family stories," said Susan Hankey Webb, Jack Webb's wife and coauthor. "People up here will appreciate that passing on of information."

Both Webbs are retired U.S. Air Force lieutenant colonels. Jack Webb started really putting the book together when his wife was stationed in Saudi Arabia during Operation Desert Storm.

"I got about half of the book done while my father was still alive. I had been bothering him to write down his stories, and it was half done," Webb said. "It made it all worthwhile to see him holding those pages."

Once both Webbs retired from the Air Force, they decided to put a big effort into finishing the book.

"We were doing a lot of sailing, and we finally said, 'Let's get this thing done,'" Webb said. "So we finally did."

The end result is a big book -- it's 500 pages long -- filled with letters, photographs and family members. While it is a family history of sorts, it is more a history of Alaska, as seen through one of the state's pioneers. Throughout Webb's family's travels, a young Alaska is examined. Living conditions in villages such as Koyukuk, Barrow and Wainwright are examined in great detail. Life among Native Alaskans is also examined extensively through the letters sent from Richard Webb to his family.

"As people start getting older, I think they start telling stories that are a little taller, if you know what I mean," Webb said. "But once we started going to museums and libraries, I started finding handwritten things from my father, and all of his stories were true. It was a lot of fun to collect all this information and put it together."

For Susan Webb, working on the book was a chance to get to know the family she married into.

"By going through all the letters and photographs, I got to understand more of my mother-in-law's personality. I feel like I really got to know her better. She passed away 20 years before I ever came on the scene, so I never got a chance to meet her. This was like my first meeting," Susan Webb said. "We're just keeping her and her husband's legacies alive."

Now that the book is complete, the Webbs haven't decided whether or not to keep writing. Jack Webb said he is interested in helping his sister-in-law start putting together a family history of Vi Coughlan, who homesteaded just north of Wasilla in the 1940s.

"Writing this book sparked some interest in writing, yes," Webb said. "Who knows if we'll do anything more, but I enjoyed the process."

The book is available at Fireside Books in Palmer (where the couple will sign copies tomorrow from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m.) as well as at Cook Inlet Books and Title Wave Books in Anchorage, Webb said.

Todd Communications is helping distribute the book around Alaska.