Saturday, September 20, 2014

Point Agassiz

Point Agassiz was a little town, located about 12 miles North of Petersburg, across Fredrick Sound.  In 1931 there were 16 students enrolled in this little red schoolhouse in Point Agassiz.  There were 8 families living in the small town, and two of the families lived across a river and the kids had to row to school every day.  All of the children studied together with one teacher in the little red schoolhouse.  The the chief industry in Point Agassiz during this time was dairy farming and fur farming.  The small community thrived during the first part of the 20th century, but the families were forced by economic conditions to move to Petersburg in the early '50's.  Many of the families of the original homesteaders continue to maintain cabins on the family land in Point Agassiz .
The students attended school downstairs and the teacher lived upstairs.
(Picture and information from Pioneer Profiles, A History of Petersburg Settlers 1898-1959)
From Left to Right
Front:  Milton Ramstead, Dorothy Israelson (White), Arnold Isrealson, Elmer Swanson, Leif Loseth and Raymond Swanson.
Middle:  Mildred Israelson (Massy), Brita Ask (Bland), Delores Ramstead (Lund), teacher Honey Kelly (Archbold) and Dagney Loseth (Norman).
Back Row: Roy Swanson, Marvin Israelson, Spencer Israelson, Arne Ramstead and Verner Israelson.

This is the school house today.  It has been moved from it's original spot.  It is one of only about 2 original buildings still standing in Point Agassiz.  A Petersburg family owns it now.


 When we visited Point Agassiz, we anchored our boat just off of this beach.  It is like a 'down south' beach with warm, white sand.  It was a lovely place for a picnic lunch and a good book.
If you collect drift wood, you can see there is lot of it here. 
 There is nothing more beautiful than Southeast Alaska views on a sunny autumn day.





5 comments:

  1. What a beautiful building and great story, thank you for sharing it with us.

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    1. I happened upon the schoolhouse by chance while working in the forest about 30 years ago. What a surprise to see that in a place where there's nothing else

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  2. Awesome Photograph! Elmer Swanson aka Carl is my father. Really need to go visit that area sometime.

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  3. In 1978 i was thinning trees for reforestation and suddenly came upon the schoolhouse by chance. It had a large bell as i recall

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  4. This post is a couple yrs ago, but I'm a teacher so this schoolhouse story warms my heart. Since it's an older post, maybe you won't see my question, but here goes: I am considering buying a piece of land near there, but relying on satellite imagery boat landings are hard to see. Can you tell me where this boat landing was? Thank you!

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