The Bugges of Ketchikan: A great Alaska love story

A part of a seamless weekly collection on Alaska historical past by native historian David Reamer. Have a query about Anchorage or Alaska historical past or an concept for a future article? Go to the shape on the backside of this story.

About three and a half miles southeast of Ketchikan, alongside the South Tongass Freeway, lies a slender stretch of a seaside. The scenic view and picturesque mossy rocks punctuated by tidepools make it a popular vacation spot for locals and vacationers alike. In 1928, the Rotary Membership of Ketchikan leased the property with the hope of remodeling it right into a park. Two years later, a number of Ketchikan social golf equipment labored collectively and raised $2,500 (roughly $45,000 in 2022 {dollars}) to buy the land. For that reason, some name the vacation spot Rotary Seaside. In the best way of outdated Alaska cities, many locals have maintained the earlier identify, Bugge Seaside. Who have been the Bugges? That’s an Alaska love story.

Magnus J. Bugge was born in 1875 in Norway. By 1880, his household had relocated to rural Douglas County, Minnesota, the place they have been surrounded by many different Scandinavian immigrants. Some authors declare his first identify was formally anglicized from Magnus to Martin upon coming into the nation. Whereas most Alaskans knew him as Martin, his official identify remained Magnus. This was the identify he used on his draft registration for the Census, and that which is on his headstone.

Rising up in Minnesota, he fell in love with the woman subsequent door, Emma Halvorson. However Magnus had but to make his mark, not to mention his fortune on the planet. He had little to supply the girl of his goals. Then, information of the Klondike gold rush struck like a bolt of lightning. His likelihood had arrived. He requested Emma to attend for him and departed for Alaska.

In his early 20s right now, Magnus at the least was younger and, as a Minnesotan, acquainted sufficient with chilly winters. These fundamental {qualifications} positioned him above most of the 1000’s of naïve fortune hunters, women and men who made the journey north to Alaska and Canada fueled extra by ignorant, determined ambition than any concrete understanding of what they have been getting themselves into. The journey itself was fraught with peril. Some would-be prospectors died on the overpacked steamers that sank alongside the rocky Inland Passage. Others froze to loss of life on the paths. Focused by criminals and winnowed by the terrain, solely about half of the 100,000 members of the Klondike gold rush really reached the gold fields. And even there, they endured meals shortages and rampant ailments like cholera.

By the point the frenzy had really begun, many of the worthwhile websites had already been claimed. The lucky few discovered a approach to mine the miners, promoting gear, alcohol, medicine, flesh, or different providers to the prospectors. Among the many gold rushers that survived the expertise, the far majority returned house with lower than they’d began. Magnus Bugge beat the percentages. By 1901, he had washed up in Ketchikan. From there, he was lastly capable of set up himself.

Per Ketchikan historian June Allen, none of Magnus’s personal mining claims ever panned out. Nevertheless, he grew to become rich by diversifying his alternatives and minimizing the non-public threat, by managing and financing extra profitable operations. He had pursuits in mines, accommodations and building. And he was prepared to work laborious and maintain quiet about his fortunes, a uncommon sufficient mixture. Nobody on the town knew the extent of his wealth.

Although he managed to keep away from the felony and bodily hazards that hindered many throughout the Alaska gold rushes, he endured any variety of little adventures. In a single painful anecdote, he was visiting the Mount Andrew Mine on Prince of Wales Island. In line with the character of his business empire, he was a stakeholder with out the dangers of being a full proprietor. An aerial tram carried passengers from the seaside to the mountain operation. When he was midway to the mine, the equipment broke down, leaving Magnus in a bucket 30-40 ft within the air with no approach of reaching the bottom. For some time, he maybe loved the view. Then, the flies and mosquitoes discovered him. For too lengthy, he was compelled to endure their assault, and by the point the tram was working once more, his face was a swollen, near-unrecognizable mass of bites.

Nonetheless, he by no means forgot candy Emma Halvorson again in Minnesota. No sources describe what she will need to have thought because the years piled on. If she had her doubts, they’re misplaced to historical past.

Some fortune hunters deserted their Decrease 48 households over the course of their adventures. Fellow Ketchikan notable Judson Lathrop is a living proof. Like Magnus, Lathrop left Minnesota for alternatives in Alaska and finally established himself in Ketchikan. In contrast to Magnus, Lathrop was already married and had produced three youngsters earlier than he left for the north. Fourteen years later, Lathrop lastly returned to his household. Besides, each he and his spouse had by then remarried. There was no joyful reunion.

Magnus’s promise to Emma may have withered like a dream deferred. As a substitute, he stored his phrase and returned to Minnesota 15 years after setting out for Alaska. Throughout Bugge’s absence, each his father and mom had died, however Emma, who had been instructing, was nonetheless single. He was 38, and she or he was 32. On Sept. 3, 1913, they lastly married.

They returned to Ketchikan, the place they lived above the intersection of Major and Dock Streets in a home previously owned by Stedman Avenue namesake John Stedman. Now not capable of educate — married girls have been then usually barred from the occupation — Emma settled down as a homemaker although she nonetheless taught Sunday faculty classes at their Lutheran church. Three years later, Magnus purchased a number of gold claims, land that included Bugge Seaside.

Eighty years after their deaths, nobody alive knew the Bugges as friends, as fellow mature adults. There may be little proof as to the standard of their marriage apart from the delayed nature of their union and its endurance. Like all {couples}, they undoubtedly disagreed occasionally, however regardless of a late begin, they traveled their lives collectively. And equally, once they left this world, they left collectively.

The 1943 Fourth of July weekend in Ketchikan was, as ordinary, a moist one. Emma had been coping with well being points for a while, and that Saturday, July 3, she checked into the hospital. At 6 a.m. on July 5, she died. The hospital dispatched a member of the family to hold the unhappy information to Magnus, however he was nowhere to be discovered. A search celebration was organized, and round 3 p.m., his physique was lastly found inside a patch of berry bushes on the backside of some stairs that led to his home. Upon examination, officers decided that he had doubtless slipped on the moist stairs and suffered a coronary heart assault. Actually, he had been lifeless for round 12 hours and thus had died earlier than his spouse.

Magnus and Emma Bugge died on the identical day, with the saving grace that neither needed to study of the opposite’s passing. They have been buried collectively in Ketchikan’s Bayview Cemetery. And, in fact, the seaside with their identify endures.

Key sources:

Allen, June. “Martin Bugge’s Seaside: A part of the 1915 Gold Nugget Claims.” Sit Information, October 9, 2002.

“Double Funeral on Thursday for Mr.-Mrs. Bugge.” [Ketchikan] Alaska Fishing Information, July 7, 1943, 6.

“Martin Bugge Discovered Useless Yesterday.” Ketchikan Alaska Chronicle, July 6, 1943, 4.

“Mrs. Bugge Dies at Hospital.” Ketchikan Alaska Chronicle, July 5, 1943, 1.

“Mrs. M. Bugge Pioneer Handed Away Right this moment.” [Ketchikan] Alaska Fishing Information, July 5, 1943, 6.

“Steadman Home Bought.” [Juneau] Alaska Each day Empire, November 3, 1913, 6.

“Territorial Information.” [Juneau] Alaska Citizen, August 14, 1911, 13.