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 Tents to Skyscrapers - Anchorage, AK Posted by:  Lat34North
N 61° 13.208 W 149° 53.453
6V E 344762 N 6790740
The history of Anchorage, from the initial tent city to the surveying and auction of the lots forming the new town in 1915. Located on the east side of C Street.
Waymark Code: WMJ3WX
Location: Alaska, United States
Date Posted: 09/19/2013
Views: 8
Tents to Skyscrapers
When favorable engineering reports for a railroad sparked interest in the present-day Anchorage area,
thousands flocked here in 1915 hoping to find work.
Tent City
Even before President Wilson approved this route for the railroad in April, 1915, a city of tents blossomed in the creek bottom just north of this spot.
The residence of Tent City wanted land.
UY.S. General Land Office Surveyors chose to put the new town here on the bluff to make room for railroad yards below. They worked quickly beginning with survey points set three years earlier when an initial survey was completed from Seward to Matanuska Valley. The new town site had 121 blocks with about 1400 lots. You are now standing on part of the original Block 18.
Town Lots Auctioned
On July 10, 1915, the town lots were sold at a U.S. General Land Office auction held just over the hill at the foot of C Street.
The first lot sold for $825.
Anchorage grew rapidly. Additional surveys helped establish orderly settlement in the surrounding area, including homesteads which provided farm produce for the new community.
Today
The original homesteads, now within Anchorage, have been subdivided, becoming businesses and residential areas.
Most of Anchorage’s streets follow the north-south and east-west rectangular grid laid out by the original surveyors.
The Bureau of Land Management, which inherited the survey legacy of the General Land Office in 1946, is extending the rectangular grid to the entire State of Alaska, defining Native in State lands as well as Federal land boundaries.
U.S. Department of the Interior, Bureau of Land Management
More Information:
Wikipedia - Anchorage, Alaska
City Data - Anchorage, Alaska
Wikipedia - General Land Office
Wikipedia - Bureau of Land Management
Wikipedia - Alaska Railroad
Marker Name: Tents to Skyscrapers
Marker Type: City
Addtional Information:
From Wikipedia: Anchorage, Alaska
"Anchorage (officially called the Municipality of Anchorage) is a unified home rule municipality in the southcentral part of the U.S. state of Alaska. It is the northernmost city in the United States with more than 100,000 residents and the largest community in North America north of the 60th parallel. With an estimated 298,610 residents in 2012 (and 380,821 residents within its Metropolitan Statistical Area, which combines Anchorage with the neighboring Matanuska-Susitna Borough), it is Alaska's most populous city and constitutes more than 40 percent of the state's total population; among the 50 states, only New York has a higher percentage of residents who live in the state's most populous city.
Anchorage has been named All-America City four times, in 1956, 1965, 1984-85, and 2002, by the National Civic League. It has also been named by Kiplinger as the most tax friendly city in the United States."
Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anchorage,_Alaska
Date Dedicated / Placed: Not listed
Marker Number: Not listed
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Visit Instructions:
Preferred would be to post a photo of you OR your GPS at the marker location. Also if you know of any additional links not already mentioned about this bit of Alaska history please include that in your log.
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