Part of a continuing weekly series on Alaska history by local historian David Reamer. Have a question about Anchorage or Alaska history or an idea for a future article? Go to the form at the bottom of this story.

Seward is not the first Seward in Alaska, nor the second one either. It is the third Seward worth noting, unless features besides settlements are included, in which case it falls further distant in the count. After all, creeks and glaciers and peninsulas matter. Then there was Fort Seward, completed after Seward was founded but, of course, not actually located in Seward.

Seward, not to be confused with antecedents or forgotten forts, is the fishing, whale-watching, aquarium-visiting port on Resurrection Bay. And indeed, it was not the first attempt at naming a town for William H. Seward, only the most successful, certainly the most enduring. From the 1890s into the earliest years of the 1900s, there was something of a rush to name things Seward, and that in a territory known for its mad rushes.

As regards Alaska, the existence of William H. Seward (1801-1872) is a never-to-be-forgotten piece of trivia. He was secretary of state from 1861 to 1869 and personally negotiated the 1867 purchase of Alaska. In fact, he was an avid expansionist with dreams of unifying the entire North American continent and more besides, including Greenland.

[When America considered trading part of Alaska for Greenland]

There is a longer history of Alaska place names encumbered by attempts to curry favor with, or otherwise honor, people who never set foot anywhere near this land. Fairbanks is named for Sen. Charles Warren Fairbanks of Indiana. Prince of Wales Island is named for George Augustus Frederick, later King George IV. Whittier — glacier and town — are named for Quaker poet and abolitionist John Greenleaf Whittier.

Yet, Seward at least visited Alaska, though not any of the locations that would later bear his name. In 1869, he made the trek north and gave a speech at Sitka, when he naturally talked about the weather like any other wandering politician. “The weather of this one broad climate of Alaska is severely criticized in outside circles for being too wet and too cold,” said Seward. “Nevertheless, it must be a fastidious person who complains of climates in which, while the eagle delights to soar, the hummingbird does not disdain to flutter.” He added, “It is an honest climate, for it makes no pretensions to constancy.”

The first earnest effort at a Seward town was Seward City, a gold-mining town established around 1890. It was located at the mouth of Sherman Creek, on the east side of the Lynn Canal, a little north of Berners Bay. It was between Haines and Juneau if that helps. The long-since abandoned settlement and its adjoining mine never quite developed enough for any permanency, let alone a significant population.

The limited documentation of Seward City suggests it may have been a rough place to live, particularly because of food shortages. In 1900, James Mathers and Alexander Irving died there after eating mussels contaminated by mine runoff. Two other men barely survived.

Fred and Marie Hanilla ran a hotel and general store there for over a decade but left due in large part to failing health. Their great-granddaughter, Beverly Keithahn, attributed their decline to the food. In 1998, she told the Juneau Empire, “Their diet, with little or no fresh food and improperly canned food, probably caused their untimely deaths in their 50s. There is no good winter anchorage at Comet, so it is supposed that they had no ships bringing food or anything else during the winter months.”

From an 1899 letter published in the Douglas Island News, Seward City was a “half dozen cabins — a fisherman’s hut and the two-story frame hotel under the direction of the genial Mr. (Hanilla).” In 1908, Seattle lawyer John W. Brown traveled north, the basis for his “Abridged History of Alaska” published the next year. He wrote, “Just as we were passing the north end of the gold belt, the captain wanted to know if I saw a town on the bank. I told him I did not; but he insisted there was one, and with the aid of the glasses we observed it to be one house, and which he said was Seward City.”

Seward City’s amorphous status was reflected in its names, plural. Some called it Seward City. With the arrival of the third Seward — that is the modern town of Seward — Seward City mine owner Thomas S. Nowell renamed the outpost after himself, Nowell City. It would later be called Kensington by presumably dozens of Alaskans.

However, for the brief periods when the town possessed a post office (1901-1902, 1936-1938), the stubborn Postal Service referred to it by another name in relatively common usage, Comet. There is a long history of post offices determining place names. Residents used to disagree on how to spell Soldotna. From 1949 to 1967, it was officially Soldatna. Note the “A” in the middle. In 1967, the Postal Service changed it to Soldotna. And more close to home, the Postal Service is why Anchorage is called Anchorage instead of Ship Creek, Woodrow, Alaska City, Terminal, Gateway, Mearsville, Strongov, Dgheyay Kaq’, or any of the other names tossed around.

[In 1915, Anchorage residents voted on an official name for the new city. The name ‘Anchorage’ came in 3rd place.]

The second attempt at a Seward town was on Kachemak Bay, by McNeil Canyon and near what would become Homer. In support of yet another mining operation, a post office was activated there on Oct. 26, 1895. Some sources incorrectly list this as being the site of modern-day Seward on Resurrection Bay, for the understandable reason of why wouldn’t Seward be at Seward. It closed a year later when a new location opened on the Spit, this time named Homer after con man mining promoter Homer Pennock.

Before introducing the third Seward settlement, there are all the other features adorned with Seward’s name, many of them likewise gaining the moniker before the modern town of Seward existed. The Seward Mountains are a small part of the Boundary Ranges in Southeast Alaska, named in 1868 by Staff Cmdr. David Pender of the British Royal Navy, who was surveying the adjacent Portland Canal region. Geologist Israel Russell named Seward Glacier in 1891.

Alaska Gov. John Green Brady proposed the Seward Peninsula name sometime around 1898. That moniker eventually won out over other contenders, such as Nome Peninsula, Kaviak Peninsula and Sumner Peninsula. The Seward Creek southeast of Eagle gained its name during the Klondike gold rush. There are other creeks, a passage and so many streets. There were and are ships and businesses. Certainly, there are more common place names in Alaska, but the state is absolutely lousy with Sewards.

As for the Seward Highway, it was built in increments over decades. In 1923, the road out of Seward ran 18 miles to Kenai Lake. By the late 1930s, it was possible to drive from Seward to Hope but not to Anchorage. Motorists from Anchorage would have their cars delivered via railroad to Moose Pass, where they could continue driving. The highway was completed in 1951, then paved and widened to two lanes throughout in 1954. The term “Seward Highway” was in use by the late 1920s, an informal designation that gained gravitas over the years, from back when the road was definitely not a highway as people would understand it now.

Then there is Seward, the third and most successful settlement of its name. In 1901, Seattle businessman John E. Ballaine decided to, in his own words, “organize and promote a railroad from the Pacific Coast through Central Alaska to the Yukon valley.” The Alaska Central Railway was organized in March 1902, and construction began the following year.

For a base of operations, he wrote, “my first aim was to establish the ocean terminus on a harbor easy of access and free from obstruction every hour of every day of the year.” Several locations were considered, including Cordova Bay, Iliamna, Resurrection Bay, Seldovia, Tyonek, Valdez, Whittier and Knik. The latter location was opposite Ship Creek on the Knik Arm. Ballaine narrowed his choices to Cordova Bay, Valdez and Resurrection Bay, settling on what would become Seward, where he “found every requirement to my complete satisfaction.”

That left the name of the new settlement. If Terminal and Lane sound like dire options for Anchorage, consider the alternatives for Seward. The other contenders were Almouth and Vituska, both given serious consideration by Alaska Central Railway bosses. Almouth was supposed to suggest the port was the mouth of Alaska. And Vituska was a combination of “Vitus” from Vitus Bering and the last two letters of “Alaska.” Bering was the Danish-born leader of two 18th-century Russian expeditions to Alaska.

In 1902, a group of Alaska Central Railway engineers made the acquaintance of Seattle journalist and historian Edmond S. Meany while traveling north aboard the steamer Bertha. Meany taught at the University of Washington and established the Washington Historical Quarterly journal. In 1907, he published an article in that journal that included relevant correspondence. So, the name of Seward is surprisingly well documented for Alaska of that era.

When one of those engineers wrote to Meany for place name suggestions, the professor quickly offered Seward. He wrote, “I thank you for the opportunity of suggesting a name for the southern terminus of the new railroad. The name above all others most appropriate for a prominent city in Alaska is Seward … More than any other one man is he responsible for American ownership of Alaska.” As regards the naming of Seward, that was essentially that. It speaks to the relative anonymity of Seward City that a Seattle journalist well familiar with Alaska was seemingly unaware of its existence.

As the concluding offering of trivia, there is Fort William H. Seward. From 1925 to 1940, it was the single permanent military facility in Alaska. And naturally it was not in Seward. Construction began in 1902 outside Haines and was completed in 1904. After it was deactivated in 1945 and eventually sold, it became Port Chilkoot, which was later merged into Haines.

The Alaska Central Railway was less successful than the town formed in its wake. The railroad only made it about 50 miles out of Seward before bankruptcy in 1907. But consider the opportunity costs, what was lost. Alas, scenic Almouth that we never had. ALMOUTH. It just rolls off the tongue and lands on the floor with a thud.

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Key sources:

Ballaine, John E. “Where Seward Got Its Start and Name.” Seward Weekly Gateway. January 6, 1906, 1, 4.

“A Breezy Letter.” Douglas Island News. September 13, 1899, 1.

Brown, John W. An Abridged History of Alaska. Seattle: Gateway Printing Co., 1909. Washington D.C.:

Knopf, Adolph. Geology of the Berners Bay Region Alaska. Washington D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1911.

Meany, Edmond S. “The Naming of Seward in Alaska.” Washington Historical Quarterly 1, no. 3 (1907): 159-161.

Orth, Donald J. Dictionary of Alaska Place Names, Geological Survey, Professional Paper 567. Washington, D.C.: United States Government Printing Office, 1971.

“Seward City to Become Nowell City.” [Skagway] Daily Alaskan. September 23, 1904, 3.

Seward, William H. Alaska Speech of William H. Seward at Sitka, August 12, 1869. Washington, D.C.: James J. Chapman, 1879.

Thomson, Lori. “Area’s Early Mining Days Detailed.” Juneau Empire. February 17, 1998, 1, 8.

“Two Men Killed at Seward by Poison.” [Skagway] Daily Alaskan. June 14, 1900, 1.