The James Girdwood Collection: Photos from 1896-1904

When "Colonel" James Girdwood, namesake of the town of Girdwood, Alaska, undertook his journey north, he kept a photographic record of it, and of his early ventures into gold mining at what was then known as Glacier City. With more than 100 photos of travel up the Inside Passage to Cook Inlet, of the earth-moving operations required to reach and mine his gold claims on Crow Creek, and of life in a turn-of-the-century Alaskan frontier town, the digital album chronicles the early history of a town that looks much different today.