THE ALASKA RAILROAD: AN AMERICAN PRESENTATION 14K GOLD RAILROAD SPIKE
MARK OF MAYER BROTHERS, SEATTLE, WASHINGTON, CIRCA 1923
Of typical form, engraved to one side with a presentation inscription, in a fitted leather case, marked on side
5 ½ in. (14 cm.) long
14 oz. 18 dwt. (463.4 gr.)
The presentation inscription reads,
Presented to
COL. FREDERICK MEARS
BY THE
CITY OF ANCHORAGE
in commemoration of the building of
THE ALASKA RAILROAD 1915-1923
Provenance
Presented to Col. Frederick Mears (1878-1939) by the City of Anchorage in 1923.
With Fred O. Johnson, North Hollywood, California, by 1967.
With Bob Soares, California, by 1983, sold,
The present owner, acquired 9 July 1983, St. Mary’s Antique Show, Pacific Grove, California.
Literature
‘Harding Cuts Short Visit to Far North; Goes Back to Coast,’ The New York Times, 17 July 1923.
R. Barr, ‘Precious Tie Spike Links Seattle, Alaska,’ The Seattle Times, 26 May 1967.
Exhibited
Juneau, Alaska, Alaska Museum, August 1923.
Fairbanks, Alaska, Alaska 67 Centennial Exposition, 27 May – 30 September 1967 (loaned by Fred O. Johnson).
COLONEL FREDERICK MEARS
Engineer of the Alaska Railroad, Frederick Mears (1878-1939) was born in Omaha, Nebraska to a military family, enrolling at 15 years old in the Shattuck Military Academy in Montana, where his father had also attended. Upon graduation, Mears immediately enlisted as a private in the Army, shipping off to the Philippines at the start of the Philippine-American War in 1899. In 1905, after quickly rising through the ranks and reaching the position of second lieutenant, Mears was requested to work as an engineer on the construction of the Panama Canal.
Mears once again proved his worth and drive, starting as track foreman in 1906, and being promoted to chief engineer of the Panama Railroad by 1909, and eventually to general superintendent of the Panama Railroad and Panama Canal Company Steamship Line in 1914. It was this experience and skill that caught the attention of President Woodrow Wilson as he was embarking on plans to establish a new railroad in the territory of Alaska.
THE ALASKA RAILROAD
Following the purchase of the territory of Alaska from Russia in 1867, and the Klondike gold rush from 1896-1899, Congress and President Wilson began a push to construct a railroad so as to better access the important and plentiful stores of coal and other minerals found throughout the Alaskan interior. Multiple small private railroads had already been constructed, and it was finally determined that the route would begin in the Southcentral coastal settlement of Seward, utilize the existing Alaska Northern Railroad to the head of Turnagain Arm near present day Anchorage, travel north through the Matanuska and Susitna Valleys, cross the Alaska Range at Broad Pass, and then continue north cross the Tanana River utilizing the Tanana Valley Railroad to reach Fairbanks at the center of the territory. To complete this massive project, President Wilson created the Alaskan Engineering Commission, comprised of Frederick Mears, William C. Edes, and Thomas Riggs Jr.
Frederick Mears was tasked with the construction of the central portion of the railroad, beginning around Ship Creek near Anchorage. This would be crucial to linking the existing railroads near Fairbanks and Seward, as well as providing access to the coal deposits in the Matanuska Valley, the plentiful spruce and birch forests of the area, and a port, in addition to that in Seward, which would be ice free at least six months out of the year. Upon arriving in 1915, Mears was greeted by a bustling tent city along the banks of Ship Creek, brimming with laborers hoping to be hired by the railroad. Therefore, Mears’ first order of business was to oversee the surveying of a 350-acre site on the plateau to the south, as had been done during the construction of earlier railroads in the American west, creating the city of Anchorage, now the largest city in the state, and the first of many towns created in conjunction with the railroad.
Construction of the railroad continued until the onset of World War I in April 1917; Mears, along with thousands of workers, left to join the war efforts in Europe. Now promoted to Major, Mears was order to recruit and train 1,000 men for the construction of military railroads in France, for which he received the U.S. Distinguished Service Medal and the Grand Cross of the French Legion of Honor. Upon the conclusion of the war, Secretary of the Interior Lane requested Mears to return to the construction of the Alaska railroad, where he served as the chairman and chief engineer of Alaskan Engineering Commission following Edes retiring, and Riggs leaving to become the third territorial governor of Alaska.
By September of 1918, the connection between Seward and Anchorage was completed, and by January of 1919 the track reached just south of Nenana, another community built in conjunction with the railroad along the Tanana River. It would take another four years to finish the final 122 mile stretch to Fairbanks, slowed by the complex engineering and construction of bridges required over Riley Creek, the Tanana River, and Hurricane Gulch, the largest span at 918 feet long and 296 feet high. Eventually, though, the Alaska Railroad was completed in summer of 1923, in time for President Warren G. Harding’s visit to The Last Frontier.
THE “GOLDEN SPIKE”
With the completion of the railroad in sight, Frederick Mears was sent to Seattle by the Army in March 1923 following the merging of the Alaska Engineering Commission and the Alaska Road Commission. In gratitude for his tireless work on the railroad, as well as the establishment of Anchorage, the city presented him with a solid gold railroad spike. This spike was loaned by Mears to Governor Bone for use in the ceremonial completion of the railroad on July 15th with President Harding.
President Harding’s journey to Alaska with his wife Florence, the first visit by a U.S. president, began in June of 1923 in Washington D.C., crossing the contiguous states to Seattle, Washington before continuing by ship to Seward, where the party, including 23 other government officials and their wives, 32 members of the press, and 30 railroad men, journeyed by train first to Anchorage, then on to Nenana. It was there on July 15th 1923 that Harding participated in the ceremony to officially open the railroad. In an article published July 17th, the New York Times describes that,
‘The president lightly tapped the gold spike twice with a silver sledge hammer. Then Governor Bone quickly withdrew the spike and replaced it with one of ordinary steel… President Harding lifted the silver sledge higher for a more substantial blow on the steel spike. He missed it. A second attempt also went wild, the hammer striking the rail of the track. Then with determination in his eye the President took good aim. This time he drove the spike nearly to its head. Another blow finished the job.’
The gold spike would go on to be exhibited at the territorial museum in Juneau, before being returned to the possession of Frederick Mears. This would mark one of the final official ceremonies President Harding would participate in, as he was rumored to be in poor health even before the trip, and he died August 2nd in San Francisco, California as he continued his Western tour.
LEGACY
After almost a decade of work, and at a cost of around $60 million, the Alaska Railroad become an incredibly important transportation network crucial to the development of the territory, and eventually the 49th state. Owned by the State of Alaska since 1985, the railroad to this day hauls around 3.5 million tons of freight each year, including natural resources such as coal, oil, and timber, in addition to serving as an important mode of transportation for over half a million yearly passengers, both locals needing to reach communities off the road system, and tourists looking to enjoy the beauty of the Great North. This includes transportation to Denali National Park, which was created in part as a result of the construction of the railroad as conservationists worked to protect the land around the mountain, along with its flora and fauna, from further development. During his tour of the state for the opening of the railroad, President Harding became the first and only sitting president to visit the park.
Frederick Mears remained in Seattle with his wife Jennie Wainwright Mears, and continued to serve as chief engineer for the Great Northern Railway until his death in 1939. He was further honored for his role in the construction of the railroad on August 22nd, 1974 when the bridge over the Tanana River, where the gold spike was hammered by President Harding in 1923, was named as the Mears Memorial Bridge.
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