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Fort Gibbon, Tanana, Alaska, on the Yukon River |
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Private 1st Class Vern McAninch, U.S. Army Signal Corps, was stationed at Fort Gibbon, Alaska, |
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for two years, June / July 1910 to June 1912, including two severe winters in the Alaskan interior. |
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Tanana was an established native village and central trading location long before the Russians |
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and Americans came to Alaska. Located in the geographic center of Alaska, on the north bank of |
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the main Yukon River, where the Tanana River comes in from the south [Note 21.d. (topo maps)], |
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and close to the Koyukuk River on the north, which flows south out of the ‘Gates of the Arctic’ |
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and the Brooks Range mountains, Tanana had been a center of native commerce and trade for |
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hundreds of years before the various ‘Gold Rush’(s). The Army built Fort Gibbon at Tanana in |
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1900, taking advantage of the central location, and the established facilities on the Yukon River. |
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There is quite a bit of historical material archived and available for Fort Gibbon, Tanana, and the |
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Yukon River area, including a lot of photographs that were taken at about the same time that Vern |
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was stationed there, photographs that show the area as he would have seen it [Note 16.b. (pictures), |
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Note 20.a.,b. (pictures), 21.c. (pictures), 21.d. (topo maps), 22. a.,b. (pictures), 23. a.,b.,c.(pictures), |
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Note 24. a.,b. (pictures), 27. (pictures), 28. (pictures), 29. (pictures), and 30. (pictures)]. |
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Unfortunately, there are no known photographs of Vern in Alaska. Also, only a few of the Army |
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post records survive [Note 32 ‘Alaska Post Records’ (extracts transcribed in Appendix A.), and |
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Note 33, ‘Fort Gibbon Military Records’ (extracts transcribed in Appendix B.)]. In general, these |
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Army records only show the names of the officers, along with the number of enlisted servicemen |
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in different categories (including ‘Present and Fit for Duty’, ‘Arrest and Confinement’ and ‘Sick’). |
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Local Tanana newspaper accounts report Signal Corps personnel arriving at Fort Gibbon on |
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July 14th, 1910, and Vern would likely have been with this group [Note 25.a.]. The 16th Infantry |
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came in August, and that is probably when Major Farnsworth assumed command of Fort Gibbon |
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[Note 25.b., Farnsworth Note 31]. |
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Signal Corps Capt. A. C. Knowles was appointed Sept. 27th [Note 33, App. B., Sept. 27, 1910] |
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and arrived at Fort Gibbon in October [Note 32, App. A., A.7]. Capt. Knowles, who would have |
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been Vern’s commanding officer, was in command of Signal Corps Company ‘K’ at Fort Gibbon |
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for a full two-year assignment; the appointment of his successor was announced in April 1912 |
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[Note 26.a., and Note 32, App. A., June 1912, A.13, A.14], although he could not actually leave |
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the Fort until June 1912, after spring ‘break up’ on the Yukon River [Note 32, App. A, A.13, A.14]. |
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Alden C. Knowles was a career Infantry officer who was assigned to the Signal Corps for 3 years. |
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He served in Cuba during the Spanish-American War, and was wounded there in 1898. Knowles |
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had a distinguished Army career, rising through Infantry assignments to become a full Colonel, |
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who commanded the 315th Infantry in France during the trench warfare of World War I [Note 36]. |
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_________________________________________________________________________ |
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McAninch Family History NL v.XX n.3 / July 2012 / Frank McAninch, Editor / page 2012-23 |