Researchers seek public’s help with Alcantra Armory history

WASILLA — Contractors seek the public’s help in documenting the history of the 320-acre Alaska Army National Guard Alcantra Armory Complex off Bogard Road.

True North Sustainable Development Solutions, under a contract with the Department of Military and Veterans Affairs, is completing an “Archaeological Inventory and Evaluation of Resources at the Alcantra Armory Complex.”

Principal preservation consultant Robert Meinhardt said the survey of the site’s nonstructural elements was completed last week. Now the group is shifting focus to document the history of the various buildings in the complex, he said.

Meinhardt said the history his group knows about the site is scant. It was named after John R. Alcantra, an aide to Governor Egan in the 1960s who lobbied for the creation of a youth facility there. And around 1976, the youth camp was conveyed to the National Guard.

Phillip Ashlock II, preservation specialist/archeologist with True North, said the land is near the Chickaloon Trail and some trees seem to have slash marks or other cultural modifications.

“Some of the depressions could be cache pits,” Ashlock said of a pit near one of the test digs conducted at the Alcantra complex this summer.

He said the 20 square meters of ground tested this summer found no cultural remains.

With the archeology survey complete, Meinhardt said researchers are now digging into the history of the buildings on site.

“There are a lot of questions about the history of the buildings on site,” he said.

A couple of unanswered questions surround a totem pole and log structure across the parking lot from the main armory building.

“Nobody knows anything about that totem pole,” Meinhardt said.

Unknown is who carved the totem pole and when and who built the log cabin or when, he said. Though by some accounts, Meinhardt said, there may have been two totem poles on the campus at one point.

Meinhardt said they do know the small log cabin served at one point as a chapel and later a social club. But they don’t know the timeframe for either, he said.

He said they think the first buildings on the site were Quonset huts and later a primary school may have been located there.

They’d like to interview former teachers, students, counselors or contractors who worked on construction projects at the site, Meinhardt said. He said they also are looking for historic photos of the youth facility and armory.

During the decade or so the acreage was a youth facility for 14- to 18-year-olds, he said between 14 and 40 students were housed there at a time.

“We’re trying to find these people,” Meinhardt said.

He said the survey is part of the Department of Military and Veterans Affairs long-range plan for the area.

To share information about the facility, contact Robert Meinhardt at (907) 841-4096 or robert.meinhardt@truenorthsds.com, or visit truenorthsds.com.

Contact Heather A. Resz at 352-2268 or heather.resz@frontiersman.com.