From the first car to first escalator: Some assorted ‘firsts’ in Alaska history

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

As humans, we tend to remember and immortalize the first occasions of events and innovations. The first to reach a peak, the first to fly, the breakthroughs and pioneers and trendsetters — these are the gold of historical material. We recall their places in time, or at least we try to do so. In that vein, this column covers a few “firsts” in Alaska history, of greater and lesser import, the better to remember for a little longer.

Alaska’s first car exists somewhere between the two poles of notoriety. It is far from forgotten history and is, in fact, on display in an Alaska museum. Yet, it should be something grander than that. The tale of the first Alaska car should be famous, more of a foundational folk story and all the greater for its grounding in reality.

In 1905 Skagway, Bobby Sheldon (1883-1983) built a car. He was talented enough with machinery, having worked in steamship engine rooms and as an engineer for a power company. But he was hampered by the simple fact that he had never actually seen a car in person. Instead, he was inspired by sketches in magazines, a general knowledge of how engines worked, and a surplus of ambition. He scrounged about town for trash and abandoned equipment, like old bar stools for seats and wheels from a broken down wagon. And, against all odds, he produced a working automobile, what became known as the Sheldon. Today, it is displayed at the Fountainhead Antique Auto Museum in Fairbanks.

That is a good enough story, but the context improves it. The entire endeavor was meant to impress a woman. An eligible young lady in a town like Skagway then inherently possessed an abundance of suitors. Another young man who owned a fine horse-drawn carriage was in the lead for her affections. As Sheldon saw it, a car would be his way of beating the competition. In a 1957 article for the Fairbanks Daily News-Miner, he admitted taking her on “many an exciting spin at 15 miles per hour” but was ultimately rejected. On another occasion, a reporter asked him if he married her, and Sheldon replied, “No, but three other fellows have since then.”

Sheldon would have further driving adventures, a subject for a future column. Cars require roads, and a particular stretch of street in Ketchikan was a notable Alaska first. In 1920, the block of Front Street between Dock and Mission Streets was paved, the first paved road in Alaska. James Howarth Begg, the Freemason’s Grand Master for Washington and Alaska, poured the first bucket of concrete.

The first Alaska Native awarded the Miss Alaska title was Minook “Minnie” Motschman. An Athabascan born in Nulato, she was primarily educated in Fairbanks. As of 1940, she was working in a boutique and taking classes at what is now the University of Alaska Fairbanks. After winning the Miss Alaska, she left on a tour of the Lower 48, including stops in New York City and Washington, D.C. At the latter, she met First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt. She was visiting St. Louis when she met a man, fell in love, and got married.

There have been two Navy vessels named for Anchorage. The first USS Anchorage (LSD-36) was a dock landing ship, built to provide covering fire while landing smaller amphibious craft. Launched in 1968, she first visited her namesake town in 1971. Decommissioned in 2003, she was sunk as target practice in 2010. The second and current USS Anchorage (LPD-23) is a more modern amphibious transport dock, launched in 2011.

As far as I can tell, the first professional sports team to visit Alaska was the Harlem Globetrotters in January 1949. The main roster did not make the trip, but Olympic star Jesse Owens accompanied the backups north. In what must have been an exhausting whirlwind tour, the Globetrotters played 14 games over just five days in Alaska, including a couple of games in Anchorage. The full roster would return to Alaska several times over the following decades.

The first woman to run for federal office in Alaska is one of the more forgotten firsts in Alaska history. Lena Morrow Lewis (1868-1950), a minister’s daughter, was a fierce advocate for women’s suffrage and worker’s rights, and against alcohol. She spent most of the 1910s in Alaska, editing multiple newspapers, teaching, and promoting socialism. In 1916, she was the Socialist candidate for Alaska’s non-voting representative to Congress.

Socialism was especially popular amongsAlaskan laborers, miners, and fishermen in the decade before America entered World War I. The largest log building in early Anchorage was the Alaska Labor Union Hall, with a sign over the door: “Socialists and Pioneers.” Anti-labor agitators and legislators in Alaska made several moves to under the social movement. In 1913, the Territorial Legislature passed a $4 poll tax on all men, excluding firefighters and federal employees. The average worker struggled to pay the 2024 equivalent of $130 to vote. The territorial election was also moved from August to November after many workers had left the territory for the winter. And that Union Hall in Anchorage was burned to the ground on the night of Oct. 15-16, 1916. Lewis received 10% of the vote in that election a few weeks later.

A more entertaining first, the first proper circus to perform in Alaska was Cristiani Brothers. They played the old Mulcahy Stadium in July 1954. This was the original Mulcahy Stadium location downtown, where the Anchorage Museum is now. There were clowns and dancers, trick riding, and aerial acrobatics. “The Great Zacchini” was fired from a cannon into a net 220 feet away. In all, they brought three rings, 30 horses, 150 performers, and five elephants. To the best of my knowledge, these were the first elephants in Alaska. On their way to Alaska, traveling up the Alcan Highway, the elephants caused a scare near Whitehorse when they escaped and spent an hour exploring the Canadian landscape.

We end with the first escalator in Alaska, which requires significant explanation. The first escalator in Alaska was installed in the Caribou Department Store in the Northern Lights Shopping Center, then within an independent Spenard. Escalators weren’t new, not by a long stretch. The first one opened on Coney Island at New York City in 1896. Two years later, one was installed in the Harrod’s department store in the heart of London. Visitors were admittedly astonished by the technology. According to one account, “Customers unnerved by the experience were revived by shopmen dispensing free smelling salts and cognac.”

The Northern Lights Shopping Center, the same one where Title Wave is today, opened in 1960, not the 1950s as many sources claim. The preeminent department store in Anchorage then, well before the arrival of chains like JC Penney, was the Caribou Department Store. Their motto was, “If you can’t find it at Caribou’s, you’re better off without it.” In 1960, the only Caribou store was in Mountain View. In April 1961, Caribou opened a new location at the east end of the Northern Lights Shopping Center, in what used to be REI. Some of you might remember a department store there but not the name Caribou. In 1966, Montgomery Ward merged with Caribou, and their Anchorage stores were renamed Caribou Wards. Beginning in 1969, they became simply Montgomery Wards.

Back to that escalator in Spenard. Though it had been decades since the earliest escalators, the idea of one all the way here was still astonishing to Alaskans. The twin escalators, up and down iterations, were driven up the Alaska Highway and cost $90,000, including their purchase, shipping, and installation. That is about $950,000 in 2024 dollars. They arrived in December 1960 and were ready when the store opened in April 1961.

Anchorage folk nearly lost their minds. People drove in from across town to ride up and down the escalators, to live the experience, and then go home. Visitors from around the state ensured the escalators were on their itinerary. Tour guides probably took perplexed tourists there. It was an attraction. In the surviving pictures, the escalators are packed with riders, people all without anything in their hands. Most visitors were there for the ride, not to buy anything. After the 1964 earthquake, letters poured in from around the state and even Outside asking if the escalators had survived. They did.

The Caribou owners sold the escalator to locals as a bridge from Anchorage to Spenard, that it literally carried riders from one town into the next. Co-owner Vance Phillips proclaimed, “The store was built on the Anchorage city limits. At the bottom of the escalator, you were in Anchorage and at the top in Spenard.” There were signs pointing one way for Anchorage and one way for Spenard.

If not precisely all in fun — the owners seriously wanted to recoup the costs — it was a lighthearted exaggeration. City limits, unsurprisingly, did not cut through the middle of a parcel. In 1961, the boundary in that area was Northern Lights Boulevard, close but not within the store itself. North of Northern Lights was Anchorage. South of Northern Lights was Spenard, what would become the Greater Anchorage Area Borough two years later.

One of the benefits of being a historian is that history is a renewable resource. There is always new history being created. Every Alaskan alive still has the opportunity to make history, to be the first in some way great or small.

Key sources:

“Big Time Circus Coming to Anchorage in July.” Anchorage Daily Times, March 11, 1954, 1.

“Elephants ‘Escape.’” Anchorage Daily News, July 6, 1954, 2.

“First Escalator Arrives.” Anchorage Daily Times, December 30, 1960, 9.

Perrigo, Darlene. “Whatever Happened to Vance Phillips?” Anchorage Times, January 14, 1984, G1.

Thomson, John. “Sheldon Drove Stages Over Richardson Highway When It Was Just a Trail.” Fairbanks Daily News-Miner, February 12, 1957, 8.

[untitled Ketchikan street paving article] Cordova Daily Times, September 22, 1920, 6.

“Whatever Happened to Caribou Department Stores?” Anchorage Times, July 24, 1982, B10, B11.