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Charles Arthur Riddiford, for whom the first post office in Cooper Landing was named, served with the U.S. Postal Service for more than three decades, mostly as a postal inspector. He achieved nationwide notoriety in the early 1920s. (USPS historical archive photo)

Life

Riddiford: Story of a Name Change — Part 2

Generally speaking, Charles Riddiford did not seem to be an imposing figure

This is the military plaque placed upon the Anchorage grave of Arlon Elwood “Jackson” Ball. (Photo from findagrave.com)

Life

Human Complexity: The Story of Jackson Ball — Part 4

Summing any life is never easy. There is always, it seems, more to the story.

Charles Riddiford, far right in the back row, posed for this Spokane Post Office staff photo in 1898 when he was just a clerk. The photo appeared in a 1922 edition of the Spokesman Review, along with a discussion of the post office’s tremendous growth.

Life

Riddiford: Story of a Name Change — Part 1

So who was this Riddiford, and why did this name hold such sway at the site of Joseph…

This photo from the early 1960s shows Jackson Ball enjoying the Christmas holidays with his eldest three daughters. His fourth and youngest daughter was born less than a year and a half before Ball’s death in 1968. (Photo from Ball Family memorial slideshow, 2022)

Life

Human Complexity: The Story of Jackson Ball — Part 3

Misfortune was written across the recent history of the Arlon Elwood “Jackson” Ball family

This is an early photo of U.S. Army soldier Arlon Elwood “Jackson” Ball in uniform. The patches, ribbons and medals on this uniform demonstrate that he had not yet served overseas or been involved in any combat. (Photo from Ball Family memorial slideshow, 2022)

Life

Human Complexity: The Story of Jackson Ball — Part 2

Perhaps going to Alaska was the fresh start he needed at this time in his life

After being honorably discharged from the U.S. Army in 1945, Arlon Elwood “Jackson” Ball posed for this photograph, demonstrating his five years of military service through his many ribbons, badges and patches. (Photo courtesy of the Ball Family Collection)

Life

Human Complexity: The Story of Jackson Ball — Part 1

A premise to explore

For many years, Abby (Lancashire) Ala (standing) gave horseback riding lessons at her home, the site of her longtime business, Ridgeway Farms. (Clark Fair photo from 2001)

Life

The Lancashires: Evolving lives on the evolving Kenai — Part 9

The Lancashire sisters came as children with their parents to homestead in Ridgeway in 1948

Rusty and Larry Lancashire pose out in front of Larry’s Club, located about a mile north of Kenai, circa the mid-1960s. (Photo courtesy of the Lancashire Family Collection)

Life

The Lancashires: Evolving lives on the evolving Kenai — Part 8

Rusty Lancashire hadn’t allowed her first impressions of Kenai in 1948 to deter her from making the central…

Rusty Lancashire kneads bread dough in her kitchen. (1954 photo by Bob and Ira Spring for Better Homes & Garden magazine)

Life

The Lancashires: Evolving lives on the evolving Kenai — Part 7

Health care — especially emergency care — could be difficult to come by

Rusty Lancashire smiles for the camera in the frame house that in the late 1950s replaced the Lancashires’ original homestead log cabin. (Photo courtesy of the Lancashire Family Collection)

Life

The Lancashires: Evolving lives on the evolving Kenai — Part 6

The roads were lifelines between communities and among neighbors

Rusty Lancashire does some baking. (1954 photo by Bob and Ira Spring for Better Homes & Garden magazine)

Life

The Lancashires: Evolving lives on the evolving Kenai — Part 5

Ridgeway homesteader Larry Lancashire was reminded of the value of such friendship in December 1950 when he shot…

The Lancashire family shares a meal in their original homestead cabin. (1954 photo by Bob and Ira Spring for Better Homes & Garden magazine)

Life

The Lancashires: Evolving lives on the evolving Kenai — Part 4

The Lancashires had settled in

1954 photo by Bob and Ira Spring for Better Homes & Garden magazine Rusty Lancashire backs up the family tractor so her husband Larry can connect it to the disc for their fields.

Life

The Lancashires: Evolving lives on the evolving Kenai — Part 3

Rusty and the three Lancashire daughters arrived in Kenai on June 19

[ 2a—] Larry and Rusty Lancashire (at left) pose in front of a B-24 bomber in the early 1940s with another unidentified couple. Larry was a B-24 co-pilot during World War II. (Photo courtesy of the Lancashire Family Collection)

Life

The Lancashires: Evolving lives on the evolving Kenai — Part 2

Larry Lancashire’s status as a military veteran would aid him in his homesteading efforts on the Kenai Peninsula

[1a—] After doing business in the Kenai Commercial Company store, Rusty Lancashire climbs into family station wagon, with its sagging back bumper, to head for home. (1954 photo by Bob and Ira Spring for Better Homes & Garden magazine)

Life

The Lancashires: Evolving lives on the evolving Kenai — Part 1

Mrs. Lancashire certainly didn’t fit Lee’s notion of what a homesteading woman should look like.

This plaque was created in the 1980s to memorialize persons known to have been buried in Homer Community Cemetery. The plaque was considered necessary because so many of the graves here had lost their markers or had never been marked. (Clark Fair photo)

Life

Homer Community Cemetery: Difficulties in filling a public need (Part 2)

For about a half-dozen years, the Homer Community Cemetery served its purpose without a hitch

Clark Fair photo Homer Community Cemetery was first established in 1928 and has been closed to non-reserved burials since the early 1980s.

Life

Homer Community Cemetery: Difficulties in filling a public need (Part 1)

Dying was the problem

Mable Smith pecks away at her typewriter in the Cheechako News office in Ridgeway, circa mid-1960s. (Cheechako News photo)

Life

Don’t stop the presses

The Mable Smith Story — Part 2

Cheechako News photo Mable Smith came into her own as a reporter for the Cheechako News (central Kenai Peninsula) in the 1960s and early 1970s.

Life

Don’t stop the presses

The Mable Smith Story — Part 1

Charles “Windy” Wagner, in his later years, and an unknown woman smile for the camera in Wagner’s Kenai River cabin. (Photo courtesy of the Knackstedt Collection)

Life

Windy Wagner: Breath of fresh air or just a blowhard? (Part 3)

The conclusion of a three-part story about the life of the man most people knew as “Windy”