The Army in Alaska saw a decline in activity from 1908 to 1939, with a brief surge during World War I. While Greely and his men struggled to complete the WAMCATS project, Richardson, on his third tour of duty in Alaska, headed the Alaska Road Commission, building garrisons and trails in south-central Alaska. Lieutenant William "Billy" Mitchell, another officer who would later achieve military fame, also worked on the four-year project. The project fell under the direction of Brigadier General Adolphus W. By 1903, the line stretched from Seattle to southeastern Alaska, Valdez, the interior, and Nome. The Washington-Alaska Military Cable and Telegraph System (WAMCATS) connected all the forts in the territory with Seattle. As more and more people came into Alaska and northwestern Canada, the need for better communications with the lower 48 states became critical. Richardson to study the situation, did not deem it necessary to send the Army into Alaska as peacekeepers. government, after sending Captain Patrick H. The Klondike Gold Rush in Yukon Territory, Canada, and later gold rushes in Alaska helped that expansion, as thousands of people poured into Alaska.Īlthough the Royal Canadian Mounted Police maintained law and order in the Yukon during the Gold Rush, the U.S. These expeditions into various parts of Alaska continued through the turn of the 20th Century, as mapmaking and road and bridge building expanded the frontier. The Signal Corps operated weather stations, and a number of officers led small geographic explorations to learn more about the territory. Treasury Department in 1877, but did not entirely leave the territory. The Army relinquished control of Alaska to the U.S. They also enforced regulations regarding the killing of fur seals, whose population had been severely depleted during the Russian reign. Paul Canal, Kodiak Island, and on the Kenai Peninsula. Elements of the 9th Infantry were on hand as the Russian Golden Eagle was lowered and the Stars and Stripes were raised in Sitka, which then became headquarters for the Alaska Military District.Ĭharged with maintaining law and order in the new territory, Soldiers helped quell uprisings and built new forts at Wrangell, St. Army's important history in the Great Land began at the very moment Alaska became American soil on October 18, 1867.
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