Digest>Archives> Mar/Apr 2015

Mysterious Alaskan Disappearance

By Timothy Harrison

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If you look closely at this undated historic ...

If you watch any of the reality programs about Alaska that seem to be everywhere on television these days, you might get a good idea of why most of them call Alaska “The Last Frontier.” While some of these programs are somewhat over dramatic or even staged for the ratings, the one that stands out above the others is Buying Alaska that appears on the Destination America channel, especially episodes that include buying a home in a remote off-the-grid area of the 49th state. However, while these people may be living the rugged off-the-grid life, they still have many conveniences of modern technology that were not afforded to the early lighthouse keepers, especially those who lived at many of Alaska’s lighthouses, such as the Point Sherman Lighthouse.

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In 1912 when the last lighthouse keeper, David ...

Very little has been recorded or written about the short-lived Point Sherman Lighthouse Station that was one of several lights built to help guide vessels along the Lynn Canal, which is not a real canal but is an inlet into the mainland of southeast Alaska, about 38 miles from the state capitol of Juneau. Established in 1908, other keepers, at some of the tall lighthouses around the United States, might have considered the six-foot tall lighthouse at Point Sherman a joke of sorts, especially if they had seen it in person. In fact, the Point Sherman Lighthouse resembles many lighthouses that dot the lawns of many homes around the world.

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Three unidentified lighthouse keepers and two ...

Life at the lighthouse must have been extreme for the families that lived there, even with the supplies that were brought to them by the regular visits of the crews of the lighthouse tender. To supplement their food supply, the keepers tried, with some success, to grow fruit and vegetables and probably spent more time tending to the crops than to lighthouse keeping. The government even shipped them some apple trees to be planted. No mention is made of bears at the lighthouse, although they must have been a threat to the keepers and their families.

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Eldred Rock Lighthouse keeper Nils Adamson and ...

But thorough recorded memories of life at the lighthouse seem to be nonexistent, and photos of the keepers who served here also seem to have been lost to time, yet to be rediscovered, perhaps in an attic somewhere. If it were not for the tragic loss of life of two keepers from another lighthouse who were last seen at Point Sherman Lighthouse, stories about Point Sherman would be much less than what they are today.

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Although a lighthouse keeper had not lived at the ...

At 5:15 am on March 26, 1910, the two assistant keepers of Eldred Rock Lighthouse, John Selander and Scottie Currie, set out by boat to visit the Point Sherman Lighthouse. Part of their job as keepers at Eldred Rock Lighthouse was to tend to minor lights in the area. Some accounts state that was what they were going to do at Point Sherman, but the Point Sherman Lighthouse still had a keeper living there at that time; it would be deactivated several years later. Perhaps the keeper was on leave. Whatever the case, the two assistant keepers never returned.

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This 1998 aerial view of the Point Sherman ...
Photo by: Bob and Sandra Shanklin

It was later written by Nils Peter Adamson, the head keeper of the Eldred Rock Lighthouse, that the assistant keepers Selander and Currie had departed the Point Sherman Lighthouse at 4:00 PM on March 27, 1910. Exactly how Adamson came up with the 4:00 PM time is unclear. Perhaps the time was written in the log book of the Point Sherman Lighthouse or the information was conveyed to him by the keeper at Point Sherman, or perhaps as reported to him by a passing vessel. Although it was reported that snow had been falling, the water was calm when the men left Point Sherman Lighthouse. Two days later their boat was found, but the men and their gear were gone. Adamson later wrote, “I myself am unable to account for any accident that could have happened to them, as there was no wind to speak of and a smooth sea and in my opinion they could have reached home easily by 8 PM, though they had an ebb tide to contend with.” Naturally, there were numerous theories, but that’s all they were - theories and speculation. The disappearance and deaths of his two assistants, who, more importantly, were also his friends, greatly affected Adamson. Whenever he could, he would launch the station’s boat and search for the men or any sign of what might have happened to them. It was reported that he suffered nightmares about the men’s disappearance, nightmares that affected him for the rest of his life. Finally, he had enough of Eldred Rock Lighthouse and on January 11, 1911, he left the lighthouse for good. He later became the lighthouse keeper at the Cape Arago Lighthouse in Coos Bay, Oregon. In 1912 the keepers were removed from the Point Sherman Lighthouse and, although the property was maintained for a number of years, it was eventually discontinued and left to the elements. In 1932 ownership of the property was conveyed to U.S. Forest Service, which could care less about historic preservation.

This story appeared in the Mar/Apr 2015 edition of Lighthouse Digest Magazine. The print edition contains more stories than our internet edition, and each story generally contains more photographs - often many more - in the print edition. For subscription information about the print edition, click here.

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