All photos courtesy of the Swalling family
Al Swalling (left) with Major Burgoyne, military representative present for the construction of the Anderson Tunnel, docks and rail line. Photo is circa 1942 and A is wearing a beaver fur hat which was in popular localized fashion in the early 1940's.
By Ted Spencer
Special to the Turnagain Times
Albert C. Swalling arrived in the Territory of Alaska well prepared for the rigors of pioneering. His dad had operated a roof shingle mill in the Pacific Northwest before taking his family to the wide-open spaces of Montana.
The Swalling Family homesteaded there, building a two-story house with barns, chicken coops and other building with hand tools and talent. Food for the family and the animals was grown on the ranch; heat light and water was all gathered with additional hand labor.
By the time Al was six years old, he was assisting in the gathering of the hay crop and administering to the horse team in the field. His father, a Norwegian immigrant, taught himself English and gave myriad instruction to his children in all manner of farm mechanics, carpentry, logging, milling, digging wells and farming. It was hard work but it honed young Al into a sturdy, self-reliant jack-of-all-trades with a “can do” attitude.
In the United States the Great Depression was descending on the land. “Wages” work and money was scarce. The Swallings returned to the Seattle area after lightning burned down their house. Young Al by now was a well-accomplished handy man carpenter. He took a job in a local sawmill but decided after awhile that line of work held no future for him.
A friend of his told him about a job in Alaska at a cannery near Cordova. Al applied and was hired, soon finding himself under the spell of the Great North.
Arriving at the cannery in April of 1929 Al completed about all of the carpentry jobs that the cannery had to offer and then some. Out of work he went to Cordova to hunt work. Being a skilled carpenter with the a well equipped tool box Al was hired as a hand on the Copper River and Northwestern Railroad serving the giant Kennicott Copper Mine.
Al and Minnie Swalling bose before their new home in Whittier. The house was built up against the hillside behind where the Begich Towers Building stands today.
Al Swalling became a long standing resident of Cordova, working as a carpenter, a business property owner and even served a term on the city council.
He met and wooed the love of his life Minnie Helena Dooley. Minnie worked at the soda fountain at Rosswogs Store in downtown Cordova. After a lengthy courtship and a lot of ice cream, Al and Minnie were married in 1938.
Al continued his vocation in construction and became recognized as a skilled and competent leader of large construction projects. In May of 1941 he was hired by the Green Construction Company to lead a vanguard team of men to Portage Bay to establish a tent camp in the wilderness of what today is Whittier. The tent camp evolved into buildings, a deep-water port, a two and half-mile tunnel through Maynard Mountain and a busy rail line into the Interior of Alaska. The rest is history.
By 1942 Al Swalling was the dock construction supervisor at Whittier. The only drawback was that he deeply missed his wife. Minnie Swalling was still working at a drugstore in Cordova, 100 miles away by airplane and even further by boat. Al decided to ask her to come with him to the construction camp at Whittier, even though there were no families there, or for that matter, any other women. Minnie said, “Yes.”
Al built a 12' x 30' cabin on the beach of Portage Bay with the help of a friend. Once the beachfront cabin was completed, Minnie traveled to the new town to join Al, and they became the first family of Whittier.
“We had a kerosene cooking range, an oil fired heater, a folding card table and four nail kegs for kitchen furniture; a sink (no running water) daveno bed, a rocking chair, chest of drawers and a couple of end tables,” described Al Swalling. “Lighting was by lantern and candle light. The view from our 4' x 5' bay windows was great on days when visibility was good. There were big grizzly bears in the alders in back and they would wander around in front of the place at night. They really got active when we were cooking steaks.”
The Swallings
The Swalling family went on to create one of the most prominent and well respected construction companies in Alaska. Their contributions to the building of Alaska's massive infrastructure spans decades.
The A. C. Swalling Construction Co. family has provided a livelihood to thousands of Alaska in the process and still does today.
Alaska can be justifiably proud of its 20th century legacy of the “first family of Whittier.”
Ted Spencer it the Executive Director of the Prince William Sound Museum in Whittier.
