KNIK -- Before Anchorage was even a tent city, the community of Knik, just across Knik Arm, was a bustling mini-metropolis.
The newspaper of the day, the Knik News, speculated that Ship Creek and other settlements in what is now Anchorage would likely never amount to much; mosquitoes were bad there and the area was mostly swampland.
Knik, on the other hand, seemed to be thriving as the jumping-off point for miners headed to Alaska's gold and coal fields. Goods were shipped by boat to Fire Island, then offloaded to smaller skiffs and delivered at Knik when tides allowed or boated up into Interior Alaska. By 1909 Knik residents had built four deep-draft cargo docks on the mud flats.
"From there teamsters would transport the goods by either horse-drawn wagon or dog sled using a network of trails radiating from Knik," according to a historical account in the 1985 Mat-Su Borough book "Knik, Matanuska, Susitna."
Diane Williams, the volunteer at Knik Museum, said the Knik docks and town services were essential to gold-rush towns such as Iditarod, Discovery, Flat, an area that included about 10,000 people.
AN EARLY VILLAGE
The area was a settlement well before that, however. It was a popular fishing camp for Athabascans and, according to "Knik, Matanuska, Susitna," the first Alaska census in 1880 recorded 46 Athabascans living in what was then known as "New Knik." "Old Knik," now Eklutna, was slightly larger.
Williams said Russians were the first group of non-Natives to come through the area. A group of explorers traveled to Hatcher Pass in the 1860s looking for gold, she said.
O.G. Herning, Knik's most famous resident thanks to his impeccable diary-keeping and love of photography, moved to Knik in 1898. His diary entries account for much of the short-lived town's history. Herning recorded the Jan. 10, 1912, arrival in Knik of four dog teams that had spent "33 days on the trail from Iditarod, with 2,600 pounds of gold."
That entry was outdone by a later one, dated Dec. 31, 1916. "The Iditarod Gold team came in to Knik with 3,400 pounds of gold hauled by 46 dogs," Herning's entry stated.
Williams said in its heyday, Knik and the nearby area likely boasted more than 1,500 residents, many of them miners. It had a school, post office, two stores, a roadhouse, doctors, lawyers, hotels (with dog kennels instead of stables), a candy store, movie house, barber shop and even a U.S. Commissioner, according to the Mat-Su Borough account.
"This was a family town," Williams said.
But less than a decade later, the stores were moved or abandoned, the docks were derelict and Knik was mostly a memory. Residents who lived there had moved across the inlet to the new town of Anchorage or 13 miles north to Wasilla, both towns that sprang up along the advancing Alaska Railroad.
"The train actually killed Knik," said Williams.
Williams said Knik townsfolk were sure a rail spur would save their community; that the Alaska Railroad would recognize the importance of Knik as the access point to mining towns and keep the community going. That never happened. When the railroad made its way to Wasilla in 1917, people flocked there, seeking jobs.
"It was sad for a lot of people. If you spent 20 years here ... the dirt was no good, to get a garden going took time and effort, and you get attached to the area," she said.
PICNIC TO CELEBRATE
Although little remains of Knik, the Wasilla-Knik Historical Society is planning a 100th Anniversary picnic Sunday to celebrate the community's founding.
The Knik Museum, formerly the Fulton-Hirshey Pool and Billiard Hall, named for owners Tom Fulton and George Hirshey, is turning 100. Built in 1910, a Knik News advertisement proclaimed patrons could get "all kinds of fruit" there and boldly announced there was no bar on site.
The former billiard hall has had many lives since, including a roadhouse and residence. It was headquarters for the first short Iditarod Sled Dog Race in 1967. It's been home to the Knik Museum since then.
A potluck begins at 1 p.m. at the museum, located at Mile 13.9 Knik-Goose Bay Road. Members of the Fulton family, descendants of the original pool hall owners, will be present. A representative from the Iditarod will be there to discuss the 100 th anniversary of the Iditarod Trail.
Mail will be delivered at 3 p.m. by dog team, reenacting Knik's early mail deliveries. Attendees can get letters hand canceled with a Knik Museum postmark or buy a commemorative envelope with a drawing of the museum for $10.
Round-trip tickets for two by train to Seward and an Alaska Railroad poster will be drawn at 4 p.m., and attendees can join an archaeological dig at the Knik town site. Volunteers are encouraged to bring a dish to share.
Come visit the museum
• Visitors unable to attend the 100th anniversary picnic can visit the museum from 1 to 6 p.m. Thursday through Sunday. General admission is $5, seniors pay $3 and families can enter for $10.
In addition to gold rush-era items and Native artifacts, the museum is home to the Iditarod Musher's Hall of Fame and various mushing memorabilia, including the sled that Joe Redington and Susan Butcher used on their 1979 dogsled summit of Mount McKinley.
By RINDI WHITE
rwhite@adn.com