The Dawn Of Aviation Around Lake Clark Pass 1927-1960

This book attempts to address the need to illuminate the early history of flight in the Lake Clark Pass area of Alaska and to a lesser extent in the wider Bristol Bay region. The history of Port Alsworth and of the last two decades of Tanalian Point (1930-1950), the predecessor village of Port Alsworth, has been defined by the accessibility of people and goods and services brought about by aircraft. The very reason for the existence of Port Alsworth was civil and com­mercial.

Enjoy this aviation historical resource that’s primarily an effort to illuminate the early years of the development of aviation and its influence on the lives of the people who lived around Lake Clark and Nondalton Alaska. The Lake Clark-Iliamna area was strategically situated half-way between the Anchorage commercial and transportation hub and the dynamic Bristol Bay commercial salmon fishery and the nascent sport hunting and sport fishing industries that commercial aviation enabled during the 1930s and 1940s.

Acknowledgments 1
Preface 2
Map 1: Lake Clark Area 4
Introduction, Commentary and Timeline 5
The Enigmatic Helen Mae Beeman Denison 8
The Diary of Helen Mae Beeman Denison 13
The Development of Aviation in
The Cook Inlet and Bristol Bay Region 1927-1941 233
Map 2: Route of 1939 Mercy Flight 250
The Anatomy of a Mercy Flight 251
Ray Petersen’s Initial Flight through Lake Clark Pass, April 1934 260
Pioneer Aviator Leon “Babe” Alsworth
Remembered, October, 2004  267
Bibliography 276
Index 283
 

Historians, educators, students and individuals who might find a detailed history during the period in time, and the interesting people in Alaska who helped shape the growth of civil aviation during the period in which it had just begun to take flight.