Over 100 years ago
Full of promise and derring do
Stepped ashore John Ballaine
And his railroad founding crew.
Alaska's interior (still remote)
Beckoned like the promise land
Goods to move both in and out
Might put a fortune in your hand.
So here in a sheltered, ice free port
Ballaine and company set their roots
That Seward still calls itself 'Gateway'
Shows that they reaped some mighty fruits.
On the shores of Resurrection Bay, sharing a view with the Alaska Sealife Center, Mile 0 of the Historic Iditerod Trail, and the Seward Depot, you will find a spit of Hoben Park featuring this distinctive Stone Monument with a steam engine weathervane marking the breeze (as it were).
(City of Seward Parks (
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"Founders' Monument - is a wonderful Centennial 2003 make-over gift from Wells Fargo. The founders' monument was originally a gift from the Seward Elks 2075. Prior to the Centennial, folks started talking about a face-lift for the obelisk and a new information plaque to replace the old bronze plate which was hard to read. Our Seward branch manager stepped up for the generous Wells Fargo contribution. Stop by and read the dedication story of Seward's foundation as a city, 100 years ago. Thanks to Wells Fargo, Lori Draper, the Seward Elks, Damon Capurro and the Centennial Committee."
The Monument Reads:
On August 28th, 1903, the steamer Santa Ana arrived in Resurrection Bay and Seward was founded by the Alaska Central Railway Co. as the ocean terminus of the proposed railroad to interior Alaska.
John Ballaine chose the site and named the town Seward. He was the chief organizer of a contingent of men, women, children, equipment, and horses. As the leader and visionary in the founding of Seward, he described the ship's entry into Resurrection Bay on a calm, clear day.
"If there is such a place as Heaven, I cannot imagine anyone admitted through its pearly gates with sentiments more joyous than I experienced that shining forenoon as we glided easily in those majestic scenes up to the timber covered site I had chosen for the future terminal city -- the future gateway into and out of Alaska's great interior."
This monument sponsored by a generous contribution from Wells Fargo.
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NOTES ON SEWARD:
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Article: Seward's Day and Seward's Centennial year [March 2003]
Seward is a significant name in Alaska. This month, as well as this year, are special times for celebrations of Alaska's history and especially in the town carrying the famous diplomat's name. Whether you are a historian at heart, or simply like to know why you get a day off from work, Seward's Day celebrates an interesting event.
On March 30, 1867, Secretary of State William H. Seward agreed to purchase Alaska for $7.2 million and signed an agreement with Baron Edouard de Stoeckl, the Russian minister to the United States. It sparked a typically Alaskan controversy. Few Americans outside of Alaska could understand what possible use or interest to the country the 586,000 square miles of land would offer. Hence, the agreement was widely known as "Seward's Folly" or "Seward's Icebox" or even Andrew Johnson's "polar bear garden." In 1896, the great Klondike Gold Strike was announced and the perception of Alaska's uses to the country changed.
Seward's Day is celebrated on the last Monday of March, this year falling on March 31, and is a federal and state holiday. In the city of Seward, the Seward's Day Pioneer Luncheon will be held March 30 at the Elks Lodge. The city also has other celebrations planned this year to commemorate its own anniversary.
Seward was founded in 1903. A special event at the historic Van Gilder Hotel will help raise money for ...the Seward Centennial Committee to be used for further centennial events. The celebrations will honor the founding of the town in 1903 as the ocean terminus for a railroad to the Interior.
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The small city of Seward is nestled at the foot of Mount Marathon along the scenic shoreline of Resurrection Bay, a restless, fickle body of water teeming with abundant species of fish and frolicking marine mammals. In 1792 the bay was sighted and named on Resurrection Day, Easter Sunday, by Alexander Baranof, the most famous of Alaska’s early Russian explorer-governors. Against a backdrop of peaks and passes sculpted by Ice Age glaciers, Seward’s ice-free harbor has long served as a natural gateway to the vast scenic and resource riches of Alaska’s huge interior.
The city of Seward was named for President Lincoln’s Secretary of State, William Henry Seward, the man who engineered the purchase of Alaska from Russia in 1867. The city was officially founded in 1903 on a long-abandoned Native village site, but the town had already been a Gold Rush encampment for at least a decade. Optimistic prospectors heard tales of a trail that led from Seward to riches-to-be, and on to Cook Inlet. That dogsled trail would indeed lead to the rich strikes at Hope and Sunrise and later to the bonanza at Iditarod, a place name commemorated in today’s Iditarod Sled Dog Race, and on to Nome.
Then in 1903, a party of railroad men arrived and laid out the present city in a traditional grid of city blocks and wide streets that would be familiar to anyone from similar small railroad towns across America. In the boasting spirit of frontier towns, one of Seward’s streets was named Millionaires Row for the gold barons, another was called Home Brew Alley for obvious reasons. The new railroad that was built to reach Cook Inlet (the city of Anchorage) was called the Alaska Central Railway. It would later become the Anchorage to Seward route of today’s Alaska Railroad.
Seward’s history is well documented in a variety of websites and can be seen close up and personally at the excellent, homey Resurrection Bay Historical Society Museum located on 3rd Avenue.
A Finalist in the This Place Matters Promotion
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Alaska Founders Monument
Submitted by: Lee Poleske
Seward, Alaska
The Seward, Alaska Founders Monument commemorates the arrival of the steamer Santa Anna and her crew of 35 settlers, 25 railroad employees, 14 horses, a pile driver, sawmill, supplies and equipment that arrived on the shores of Resurrection Bay on August 28, 1903 to found the city of Seward.
In 1902, after scouting several potential seaports for the fledgling Alaska Central Railway, John Ballaine selected Resurrection Bay as the most desirable location, beating out a host of other locations, including Valdez, Knik and present day Whittier. The name of Seward was chosen for the new town in honor of William H. Seward, the Secretary of State who negotiated the purchase of Alaska from Russia in 1867.
The Santa Anna entered Resurrection Bay the morning of August 28th and the passengers, horses, supplies and equipment were unloaded that afternoon, at the bottom of what is now 5th Ave. The next day, the founders started building the new town, a dock and a railroad. The dream had begun.