Alaska
Before he rose to fame and sparked controversy, L. Ron Hubbard was a seafaring radio host in Alaska
Last week, this column covered the curious path of hard-boiled crime writer Dashiell Hammett, who was near 50, sickly, a celebrity and a Communist Party member when he went from Hollywood fame to Army enlistment to his posting in remote Adak. Of course, Hammett was far from the only celebrated author with ties or at least a significant visit to Alaska. From Jack London to freshly minted Pulitzer winner Tessa Hulls, Alaska has lured and inspired numerous writers. Next week’s column will cover two particularly diverse examples: Shel Silverstein and Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn. And this week is yet another disparate character, L. Ron Hubbard.
When Lafayette “you may call him L” Ron Hubbard (1911-1986) washed ashore at Ketchikan on Aug. 31, 1940, he was a generally well-regarded author of pulp magazine tales. Today, he is overwhelmingly recognized as the inventor/founder of Scientology, and of shakier reputation. But 1940 Hubbard was years away from Xenu and his volcano, “Dianetics” (1950), the science-fiction novel “Battlefield Earth” (1982), and the maligned film adaptation starring Scientologist John Travolta that bombed in 2000, long may its memory fade.
Back then, he was best known for his prolific writing and numerous pseudonyms. During the 1930s, a heyday of Wild West, detective and other pulpy genre adventure magazines, it seemed like every other issue contained a Hubbard story. His official biographies make outlandish claims that he wrote more than 7 million words during the decade, but the actual output of around 160 articles published from 1933 to 1941 still represents a rather fevered pace.
Hubbard was sailing around Alaska as part of what he grandiosely referred to as the Alaskan Radio Experimental Expedition, though he indeed carried the prestigious Explorer’s Club flag, a distinction typically reserved for scientific expeditions. And Hubbard accordingly claimed he was testing various instruments and methods of radio position finding.
In 2018, the Church of Scientology held an awards banquet for 70 of their most significant benefactors at the Cape Fox Lodge in Ketchikan, part of their pattern to hold events in places where Hubbard visited, worked, or lived. Per the church, Hubbard “came up to study the Tlingit Indian tribes, and send back a finding of the research of the tribes and the ethnological factors of the Indians here.”
Back in 1940, The Ketchikan Chronicle offered a humbler description of his arrival and intentions. “Capt. L. Ron Hubbard, author and world traveler, arrived in Ketchikan in company with his wife aboard the vest pocket yacht, Magician. His purpose in coming to Alaska was two-fold, one to win a bet and another to gather material for a novel of Alaska salmon fishing.” The bet was whether the 27-foot Magician, which Hubbard nicknamed the Maggie, would survive the voyage north. The further reality was a shot engine and empty pockets, meaning a large part of a winter stranded in Ketchikan.
Russell Miller’s critical 1987 biography, “Bare-Faced Messiah,” notes Hubbard’s friends called the voyage “Ron and Polly’s trip.” Miller also quotes Hubbard’s Aunt Marnie: “Ron dreamed up the trip as a way of outfitting the Maggie. His brain was always working and when he was trying to figure out how he could afford to outfit the boat he wrote letters to all these different manufacturers of instruments and equipment offering to test them out.”
Suffice to say, accounts vary. No matter, there is little reason to believe Hubbard and his wife spent months in Ketchikan except for the need to earn enough money for boat repairs and subsequent escape. But a dashing young author, near enough a celebrity as far as locals thought, stood out around town. The 29-year-old writer soon found work with the KGBU, now KTKN, radio station, an announcer and as the host of his own program, “Mail Buoy.” It would be more accurate to say that the station eagerly offered him a position and hoped he would never leave.
Longtime Ketchikan historian June Allen (1929-2016) recalled the opening to the show in a 2005 SitNews article. “Station owner Jimmy Britton’s well-remembered and breathless, asthmatic voice grandly intoned over the airwaves: ‘KGBU brings you the Mail Buoy, a program especially designed for Alaskan boatmen. It is the hope of this station that the exchange of information regarding the sea and ships will be found of benefit to those who wish to brush up on their calling, to those who wish to study the fine art of fighting the sea, and to those old-timers who can help the world to remember how to make all things shipshape and Bristol-fashion by keeping close tally on the data contained in this presentation.’” After describing the host, Britton declared, “Here now is Captain Hubbard,” followed by four bells and a jingle.
True to concept, the show was focused on practical maritime matters, with episodes on “Handling Your Hull” and “Anchors.” Other episodes answered listener questions, such as the “crackling and hissing” static heard on radio broadcasts, which he blamed on older radios and interference from electrical appliances. As might be expected, Hubbard was smooth on air, quick with a story and instantly a popular listen.
He also later claimed that he utilized his radio expertise to assist the FBI in tracking down a Nazi saboteur. No official records have been found to verify this tale, but Hubbard did write a short story inspired by his time in Ketchikan. In “Chee-Chalker,” first published in 1947, a tenderfoot FBI agent unravels a string of murders and uncovers a heroin smuggling ring, while entangling himself with a halibut heiress, as one does. A “chee chalker” is Hubbard’s version of a “cheechako.”
Years later, Hubbard said of notoriously vice-ridden Ketchikan, “They have there in Ketchikan, the only stream in the world where the fish and the fisherman go up to spawn. It’s a red-light district. It stretches up around the curve, a very beautiful stream. But the buildings have trap doors — most of Ketchikan is built over water. The fishermen — it’s mostly fishermen that come in there with any money — wear rather heavy rubber boots, and water gets into these boots rather quickly, and they go down rather fast. But when the police do find a fisherman drowned or floating there in the straits without anything in his pockets, they look him over very carefully and say, ‘Hmmm! Suicide!’”
During his radio broadcasts, Hubbard always found a chance to mention that he and his wife were stuck in Ketchikan because Regal Company of Bremerton, Washington, made a defective crankshaft and refused to replace it. Over and over, it was Regal Company’s fault. And when a new crankshaft arrived that December, he was believed it was only due to his on-air admonishments. Regardless, the Hubbards left as soon as the engine was fixed and arrived back in the Lower 48 on Dec. 27, 1940.
In addition to the gifted crankshaft, he also borrowed money around town, for living and repair expenses. Most notably, he owed First National Bank $265, about $6,000 in 2025 money. When World War II began, Hubbard went in the Naval Reserve. The bank thus tracked him down via the Navy. He agreed to pay the interest on the principal but claimed hardships prevented him from paying more. In an Oct. 29, 1942 letter, he wrote, “You are again informed that the reason of non-payment of this note is the sharp decrease in pay which I was willing to take to help my country. Until this war is ended and I can resume my former profession I can make only small and irregular payments.” It is unclear when or if the debt was settled.
There was one last relevant intersection of Hubbard and Alaska. Per an official proclamation by Alaska Gov. Steve Cowper, March 13, 1989 was to be L. Ron Hubbard Day — that is, until interrupted by then-Daily News reporter, and now novelist, Stan Jones. In a scathing article, Jones recounted the many allegations, scandals and lawsuits regarding Scientology, including the claim by Hubbard’s own son that his father created the religion “off the top of his head while he was under the influence of drugs,” the latter from an interview originally published in Christianity Today. “Hubbard Day” was quickly canceled, with the governor deciding he “does not identify” with the church or Hubbard.
Cowper’s press secretary, David Ramseur, told Jones, “Those proclamations come through the press office and I approve them. The governor does not sign off on proclamations unless they’re of enormous consequence. Or of more significant consequence than this.” Ramseur additionally noted that such proclamations were signed by a pen. Therefore, Cowper never actually saw the Hubbard Day proclamation and knew nothing about it. Jones asked Ramseur how much research was conducted before the declaration was approved, to which the press secretary replied, “Not much.”
A Daily News editorial stated, “If anybody in the governor’s press office had known the difference between scientology and Shinola, L. Ron wouldn’t have got a minute, let alone a day.” That said, it continued, “Gov. Cowper could do Alaskans a favor by tossing all those proclamations in his shredder and declaring Monday ‘No More Proclamations Day.’ The governor — and for that matter the legislature — has proclaimed enough.”
Anchorage Mayor Tom Fink‘s press office was more familiar with Scientology or more diligent in their research. They also received the suggestion for a “Hubbard Day” but rejected it out of hand. Fink aide Yvonne Alford told the Daily News, “Part of it, of course, is the controversy that surrounds the Church of Scientology and, further, Dianetics is a commercial enterprise. We do read the information that comes in for proclamations.”
Sometimes, usually, it is for the best that the future is unknown. At the least, it would have complicated matters for the denizens of a small fishing and lumber town to know where their local radio host would go, what he would become. Had he wanted to stay, he would have been welcomed, but greater fortunes awaited. His stint in Ketchikan was relatively brief and of little import, particularly compared to the self-created tumult of the decades that followed. Yet, he never forgot Alaska. References to his time in the north abound in his official biographies, and his Ketchikan tenure is an appreciated aspect of his personal journey. All to say, it proves that the immensity and grandeur of Alaska affects us all, affects every sort of person.
Key sources:
Allen, June. “L. Ron Hubbard’s Alaska Adventure.” SitNews, January 19, 2005.
“Church of Scientology meets in SE.” Sitka Sentinel, April 27, 2018, 6.
Jones, Stan. “Governor Gives Day to L. Ron Hubbard.” Anchorage Daily News, March 9, 1989, A1, A14.
Miller, Russell. Bare-Faced Messiah: The True Story of L. Ron Hubbard.
Persily, Larry. “Scientologists Refute Reports.” Anchorage Daily News, March 14, 1989, B1, B3.
“Whereas and Therefore.” Anchorage Daily News, March 10, 1989, B4.
President Donald Trump has signed bills nullifying Biden-era environmental protections in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge and in Northwest Alaska in an effort to promote oil and mining activity.
The actions were a win for Alaska’s congressional delegation, which sponsored the measures to open opportunities for drilling in the refuge and development of the 200-mile road through wilderness to reach the Ambler mineral district.
The actions are part of Trump’s effort to aggressively develop U.S. oil, gas and minerals with Alaska often in the limelight.
Potential drilling in the refuge and the road to minerals are two of the standout issues in the long-running saga over resource development in Alaska, with Republican administrations seeking to open the areas to industry and Democratic administrations fighting against it.
The signings were a loss for some Alaska Native tribal members and environmental groups that had protested the bills, calling them an unprecedented attack against land and wildlife protections that were developed following extensive public input.
An Alaska Native group from the North Slope region where the refuge is located, however, said it supported the passage of the bill that could lead to oil and gas development there.
One of the bills nullifies the 2024 oil and gas leasing program that put more than half of the Arctic refuge coastal plain off-limits to development. The former plan was in contrast to the Trump administration’s interest in opening the 1.5-million-acre area to potential leasing.
The federal government has long estimated that the area holds 7.7 billion barrels of “technically recoverable oil” on federal lands alone, slightly more than the oil consumed in the U.S. in 2024. The refuge is not far from oil infrastructure on state land, where interest from a key Alaska oil explorer has grown.
Two oil and gas lease sales in the refuge so far have generated miniscule interest. But the budget reconciliation bill that passed this summer requires four additional oil and gas lease sales under more development friendly, Trump-era rules.
Voice of Arctic Iñupiat, a group of leaders from tribes and other North Slope entities, said in a statement that it supports the withdrawal of the 2024 rules for the refuge.
The group said cultural traditions and onshore oil and gas development can coexist, with taxes from development supporting wildlife research that support subsistence traditions.
“This deeply flawed policy was drafted without proper legal consultation with our North Slope Iñupiat tribes and Alaska Native Corporations,’ said Nagruk Harcharek, president of the group. “Yet, today’s development shows that Washington is finally listening to our voices when it comes to policies affecting our homelands.”
The second bill that Trump signed halts the resource management plan for the Central Yukon region. The plan covered 13.3 million acres, including acreage surrounding much of the Dalton Highway where the long road to the Ambler mineral district would start before heading west. The plan designated more than 3 million acres as critical environmental areas in an effort to protect caribou, salmon and tundra.
The bills relied on the Congressional Review Act, which gives Congress a chance to halt certain agency regulations while blocking similar plans from being developed in the future.
U.S. Rep. Nick Begich and Sens. Lisa Murkowski and Dan Sullivan attended the signing in the White House.
“We’ve known the road to American prosperity begins in Alaska; the rest of America now knows that as well,” Begich said in a post on social media platform X.
Alaska’s story is one of vast potential and opportunity. Equally as important, America is stronger when Alaska is empowered to lead in energy and resource development.
With the leadership of @POTUS and @HouseGOP, we are advancing legislation at an historic pace to unlock… pic.twitter.com/c0cjA2lNcK
— Congressman Nick Begich (@RepNickBegich) December 12, 2025
Begich introduced the measures. Murkowski and Sullivan sponsored companion legislation in the Senate.
They were part of five bills Trump signed Thursday to undo resource protections plans for areas in Montana, North Dakota and Wyoming, using the Congressional Review Act.
Trump last week also signed a bill revoking Biden-era restrictions on oil and gas activity in the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska, another Arctic stretch of federal lands west of the refuge. That measure was also sponsored by the Alaska delegation.
The Wilderness Society said in a statement Thursday that the bills destabilize public lands management.
“Americans deserve public lands that protect clean air and water, support wildlife and preserve the freedom of future generations to explore,” said the group’s senior legal director, Alison Flint. “Instead, the president and Congress have muzzled voices in local communities and tossed aside science-based management plans that would deliver a balanced approach to managing our public lands.”
Alaska tribal members criticize end of Central Yukon plan
The Bering Sea-Interior Tribal Commission, consisting of 40 Alaska tribes, said in a statement Thursday that it condemns the termination of the Central Yukon management plan using the Congressional Review Act.
The action dissolves more than a dozen years of federal and tribal collaboration, the group said.
The termination of the Central Yukon plan will hurt tribes that hunt caribou and other subsistence foods, the group said.
“On the heels of the seventh summer without our Yukon River salmon harvest, we are stunned at the idea our leaders would impose more uncertainty around the management of the lands that surround us,” said Mickey Stickman, former first chief of the Nulato tribal government. “The threat of losing our federal subsistence rights, and confusion over how habitat for caribou, moose, and salmon will be managed, is overwhelming.”
After the signing, federal management of the Central Yukon region will revert back to three separate old plans, removing clarity for tribes and developers and requiring the Bureau of Land Management to start again on a costly new plan, the group said.
“This decision erases years of consultation with Alaska Native governments and silences the communities that depend on these lands for food security, cultural survival, and economic stability,” said Ricko DeWilde, a tribal member from the village of Huslia, in a statement from the Defend the Brooks Range coalition. “We’re being forced to sell out our lands and way of life without the benefit of receiving anything in return.”
Alaska may soon face major decisions about the future of the Alaska LNG project and, if so, the Legislature will need to ensure that every step serves the best interests of Alaskans.
It is essential to remember that Senate Bill 138, the blueprint for state involvement in Alaska LNG, was passed in 2014 for a very different project: one led by ExxonMobil, BP and ConocoPhillips, with a key role fulfilled by TransCanada. Today’s project is led by a private-equity developer, Glenfarne, pursuing a structure that diverges dramatically from what lawmakers contemplated more than a decade ago. When a project changes this much, the underlying statutes need to be revisited.
In June, the Alaska Gasline Development Corp.’s president told his board that AGDC would be coordinating with the developer, the administration and the Legislature regarding legislation needed to support project development. He also noted that AGDC would work with the administration and Legislature on policies required to exercise the corporation’s option to invest 5% to 25% equity at Final Investment Decision, or FID. When AGDC itself signals that legislation is necessary, we should look forward to their outreach.
SB 138 also assigned important responsibilities to the departments of revenue and natural resources that may require legislative action. One key responsibility is the Legislature’s authority to approve major gas project contracts negotiated by the DNR commissioner. The law clearly states that balancing, marketing and gas sale agreements for North Slope gas cannot take effect without explicit legislative authorization. That statutory requirement was intentional and recognizes a project of this scale demands legislative oversight.
We also know that the pressure for speed on complex megaprojects often backfires, sometimes creating more problems than it solves. The Legislature must balance the legitimate need for progress with the responsibility to ensure Alaskans are not asked to assume unreasonable financial risk. As Speaker Bryce Edgmon recently observed, legislation of this magnitude “could dominate the session” and “take significant time.” Senate Finance Co-Chair Bert Stedman was even more direct: if we get this wrong, it could be “detrimental for generations.”
Last week, 4,000 miles away in Washington, D.C., Glenfarne and POSCO International announced a major strategic partnership. It is a meaningful milestone. But Alaska has seen similar announcements before, and it does not diminish the need for hard questions. If anything, it raises them.
Final Investment Decision is when investors and lenders commit billions based on the project’s economics and the state’s fiscal terms. Any legislation affecting property taxes, payments-in-lieu-of-taxes, aka PILTs, state equity, fiscal stability, or upstream royalties and production taxes must be decided before this takes place.
The Legislative Budget and Audit Committee has focused on providing lawmakers and the public with the information needed to understand the choices ahead. I revisited the Legislature’s 2014 “Alaska LNG: Key Issues” report, which helped lawmakers evaluate the original SB 138 framework. Building on that model, I directed our consultants, GaffneyCline, to prepare an updated “key issues” report; not to endorse or oppose the current project, but to provide a high-level overview of potential policy choices, which should be available to the public within the next few days.
The refreshed “key issues” report will be an important starting point. I ask Alaskans to approach it with an open mind and to read it as objectively as possible, free from assumptions shaped by past disappointments or early optimism. Keep asking tough questions of the Legislature, AGDC, Glenfarne and the administration. Don’t assume the project is a done deal or a doomed one. This is not about cheerleading or obstruction, but insisting on rigorous analysis, strong oversight and a fair deal for our children and grandchildren.
Some Alaskans have raised questions about a potential conflict of interest: GaffneyCline is a subsidiary of Baker Hughes, which recently announced agreements with Glenfarne to help advance the Alaska LNG project. I share those concerns, which is why I have met with the Legislature’s director of Legal Services and with GaffneyCline’s North America director. I have been assured by GaffneyCline’s leadership that no one outside the GaffneyCline project team has influenced their analysis, and that their global reputation for independence and trust remains intact. Still, we also must fully vet this issue when we convene in Juneau next month. Transparency and independence are non-negotiable.
The recent ceremony in Washington, D.C., with Glenfarne and POSCO International underscores the project’s potential; however, the authority to determine how and when Alaska monetizes its resources rests here, not with dignitaries celebrating overseas commitments. Our future will be determined in Alaska, by Alaskans, based on the fullest and most honest understanding of the choices before us.
Sen. Elvi Gray-Jackson, D-Anchorage, represents Senate District G, which includes Midtown, Spenard and Taku Campbell in Anchorage. Sen. Gray-Jackson serves as the chair of the Legislative Budget and Audit Committee.
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