Army Engineer Storehouse Number Four - Hyder, AK - Alaska Historic Markers on Waymarking.com

The marker reads:

"This storehouse, Alaska's first masonry building, was built in 1896; under the direction of Captain David D. Gaillard, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.

In August 1896, Captain Gaillard was ordered to investigate Portland Canal, the waterway marking the Alaska-Canada boundary. He was also to build four storehouses, in Alaska, along the Canal's west bank. The lighthouse tender Manzanita was assigned to the mission. Loaded with coal, supplies, equipment,a nd materials (including cement, lumber, nails, and shingles for the storehouses), she left Seattle August 29, reaching the head of the Channel four days later. Workmen and supplies were unloaded here at Eagle Point, and, as the tender returned down the Channel, at three other locations. This building, Storehouse Number 4, was completed September 21, 1896. Storehouse Number 3, at Halibut Bay, was completed five days later. Storehouses 2 and 1, on Pearse and Wales Islands, were finished September 28. As the result of the decision of a 1903 Boundary Tribunal, the Alaska-Canada border was re-established north of Pearse and Wales Islands, and thereafter Storehouses 1 and 2 have been on Canadian soil. Gaillard subsequently served on the US-Mexico International Boundary Commission, in the Spanish-American War in Cuba as a colonel of engineers, and with the Isthmian (Panama) Canal Commission. His contributions to the construction of the Panama Canal where it crosses the Continental Divide at Culebra were recognized by the naming of that most difficult cut in his honor - Gaillard Cut. He died in Baltimore December 5, 1913, at the age of 54, and is buried in Arlington National Cemetery."

Marker Name: Army Engineer Storehouse Number Four Marker Type: City Addtional Information: The marker is located in Hyder, AK, just across the international border from Stewart, British Columbia, Canada. Hyder is at the head of Portland Canal, a narrow saltwater fjord approximately 70 miles long. In 1896, Captain D.D. Gaillard explored Portland Canal for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. Two years later, the first prospectors and settlers arrived. Hyder was named after Canadian mining engineer Frederick B. Hyder. Gold and silver mining dominated the early economy. Today the economy is driven by forestry, mining and tourism. Date Dedicated / Placed: Not provided Marker Number: None

Visit Instructions:
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Date Logged Log User Rating   06/22/2023 InGodsHands visited it