There’s a golf course there now, but Anchorage prisoners used to farm at Russian Jack Springs Park

Part of a continuing weekly series on local history by local historian David Reamer. Have a question about Anchorage history or an idea for a future article? Go to the form at the bottom of this story.

Immediately before World War II, the area we call Russian Jack Springs Park was comprised of the Peter Toloff and Nicholas Darlopaulos homesteads. Today, they are primarily remembered for allowing “Russian Jack” Jacob Marunenko to live on their land. In short, “Russian Jack” was a Russian immigrant who abandoned his family in Russia, bootlegged and killed a man in Anchorage, and became the area’s namesake.

In 1943, the U.S. Army seized the land for possible expansion and compensated the former homesteaders $4,300, roughly $64,000 in 2020. In 1948, the city of Anchorage bought the land for $16,000, roughly $172,000 in 2020. At the time, the primary appeal of the land was its spring, a potential water source for the city. The spring proved insufficient, but the land remained reserved for future use.

The city’s first significant use of the land occurred in 1951 with the construction of a prison farm meant to alleviate overcrowding in the city jail. The prison farm stood in stark contrast to the second significant use of the land, a day camp founded in 1952 by local Girl Scouts pioneer, Marjory Bailey.

The prison farm initially consisted of three Quonset huts that collectively housed an average of 40 inmates. The site grew to include several wooden buildings, a dog pound, and a warehouse for long-term city storage.

Prisoners convicted of misdemeanors, primarily alcohol-related, were eligible for the farm. Anchorage judges during the 1950s began responding to charges of public drunkenness with 30- to 90-day farm sentences instead of the previously typical day or two jail stint. During what seems to have been an especially well-lubricated 1953 Memorial Day weekend, Anchorage police arrested 53 for drunkenness and vagrancy, requiring a special court session to separate those who could be sentenced to the farm.

The prisoners’ work included growing produce, cutting firewood and serving as labor throughout the city. The 26-acre farm became self-sufficient, productive enough that its crops were a crucial complement to the budget of the cash-strapped city prison. For September 1960, the prison farm was the city’s department of the month. In 1963, the prison provided 93,000 meals. However, the prison was only budgeted $18,000 ($150,000 in 2020) for meals, towels, medicine, first aid supplies, utensils, fertilizer, canning supplies, and coveralls. Ignoring the other costs, that’s 19 cents, about $1.60 in 2020, per meal. Every inmate meal included some of the potatoes, peas, cabbage, beets, and carrots grown at the farm.

Many Anchorage residents viewed the prison farm as a vacation resort for drunks. Longtime reporter Mike Dunham recalled:

“We even had people come into the police station, some of these people that were homeless and down and out and so forth, sayin’ ‘I wanna go to the farm.' They’d come in and ask. And I can remember one case, this guy came in, we all knew him. And it was getting towards fall, it was getting a little cold outside, and he says ‘I wanna go to the farm,’ and the officer told him, ‘Well, y’know, you haven’t done anything wrong.’ So he picked up the cash register off the counter, slammed it onto the floor, and he says, 'Now can I go to the farm?’ [laughs] Well, he did! He went to the farm.”

When Alaska became a state on Jan. 3, 1959, a judge seized upon the spirit of rebirth and pardoned the 50 inmates then serving on the farm. Within two wintry days, most were arrested again. Some begged police for a return to the farm. However, prison officials vigorously denied that life on the farm was an easy assignment. The first farm jailer, Roger Gidney, noted that prisoners were required “to do a reasonable amount of work” regardless of the weather.

The farm operated largely on the honor system. There were no surrounding fences. So, prisoners sometimes, albeit rarely, walked off through the trees. Amusingly, the city did not make prison escape illegal until 1958, likely inspired by an incident lost to time.

The Russian Jack prison farm remained active through 1968 when it was relocated near Point Campbell, inside today’s Kincaid Park. It closed a few years later, presumably after the state legislature decriminalized public drunkenness in 1975. In 1969, the Russian Jack Springs Park nine-hole golf course opened. The fairways utilized land previously cleared by the prison farm inmates -- what had been their cabbage and potato patches.

Key sources

“30 Go Back to Jail for Warmth and Food.” Anchorage Daily Times, January 5, 1959.

“53 Arrested by City Police in Three-Day Period.” Anchorage Daily Times, June 2, 1952, 12.

“Anchorage Opens Farm for Drunks.” Fairbanks Daily News-Miner, August 13, 1951, 2.

Anderson, Charles. Interview by Mike Dunham. Early Anchorage Oral History Project, August 13, 2013.

Asman, Lu. “Narcotics Problem Aired.” Anchorage Daily Times, January 29, 1952, 1.

“City Prison Farm Has Remarkable Record of Progress, Advancement.” Anchorage Daily Times, January 25, 1956, 9.

“Department of the Month.” [City of Anchorage] Municipal Bulletin, September 1960, 2.

“Farm Products Keep Meal Costs Down.” [City of Anchorage] Municipal Bulletin, October 1963, 3.

“Girl Scouts, Brownies to Attend Day Camp.” Anchorage Daily Times, May 24, 1852, 6.

“Judge Frees Prisoners on Statehood Day.” Anchorage Daily Times, January 3, 1959.

“Obituaries.” Anchorage Daily News, May 23, 2008, A13.

“New Code Puts End to Legal Jail Break.” Anchorage Daily Times, January 12, 1958, 1.