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RBHS Newsletter • _--
August 2014
Resurrection Bay Historical Society,PO Box 55,Seward,Alaska 99664 rblis1903@gmail.com
August meeting starts earlier Ray interpretive sign to replace one that went missing
The Resurrection Bay Historical Society will meet at 5:15 during road construction several years ago.
p.m. (give or take five minutes) Thursday, August 28 in The event is scheduled for 1:30 p.m.Tuesday,Aug.26 at
the Museum. the south Johnson Pass Trailhead(Mile 32.5)and will be
The reason for such an early start time? The meeting will attended by officials from the City of Seward,the Chugach
follow the Founders' Day festivities in the Community Forest Service,the KMTA National Heritage Area,a
Room(see story below). member of U.S. Sen.Lisa Murkowski's staff,and
members of the L.V.Ray family.The public is invited to
Celebrate Founders' Day on Aug. 28 attend.
There will be cake and light refreshments at next week's LeRoy Vincent Ray was a Seward lawyer and mining
celebration of Seward's Founders'Day—an annual event investor who was the city mayor three times and Senate
that recalls the establishment of a railroad town at the head president of the first Alaska Territorial Legislature.
of Resurrection Bay on Aug.28, 1903. Ray was born in Brookline,Mass.,in 1878.After studying
Resurrection Bay Historical Society invites the public to for the bar and spending a year working in Ketchikan,the
join the festivities marking the 111th anniversary of the 28-year-old Ray arrived in Seward for the first time in
arrival of the landing party from the Santa Ana steamship. January 1906.The town was booming with industry—
There will be a reception from 3-5 p.m. Thursday,Aug.28 shipping,fishing,mining and construction of the Alaska
in the Seward Community Library Museum at the corner Central Railway.Soon to come would be the opening of
of Sixth and Adams. the Iditarod trail and the establishment of the Chugach
National Forest.
There will also be free admission to the museum,where
visitors can look at displays recounting local history while Ray opened a law office in 1906 in the bank building
listening to Sue McClure who will play music on an organ downtown,and the following year he was appointed
once used by the Christian Science Church in Seward. assistant U.S.attorney for the Third Judicial Division.He
met and married young Hazel Sheldon in 1908.In 1912
The Ballaine brothers of Seattle—John and Frank—are Alaska became a territory,and in March 1913,Ray took
credited with the development of the Alaska Central his place as Senate president.The first act of this first
Railway,an ambitious project to build a railroad from the Alaska Legislature was to grant women in the territory the
ocean terminus of Seward to the Interior community of right to vote. (The 19th Amendment to the U.S.
Fairbanks. Constitution,giving all citizens the right to vote,would not
Although the Ballaine brothers weren't able to complete be passed for another seven years.
the venture,the townspeople celebrated two decades later In July 1923,during one of Ray's terms as mayor,
when in July 1923 President Warren Harding drove the President Warren G.Harding visited Seward on his way to
golden spike and people began travelling the full length of dedicate the completion of the Alaska Railroad.Mayor
the federally-owned Alaska Railroad. Ray was on hand to greet him
Dedicating new sign for L.V. Ray Peak L.V.Ray peak(elevation 4,911 feet)was named in his
"I'he Kenai Mountains-Turnagain Arm National Heritage honor and can be seen from the south Johnson Pass
Area in partnership with the Chugach Forest Services trailhead where the new commemorative sign is being
announces the dedication and installation of the new L.V. placed.
The objectives of the Resurrection Bay Historical Society are (1)to collect,preserve and make accessible to
the public materials that help establish and illustrate the history of the Seward area(2) to stimulate interest and
disseminate information about the history the Seward area (3) to encourage the preservation of historical
buildings, structures and sites in the Seward area.