Olaf Swenson
Encyclopedia
Olaf Swenson was a Seattle-based fur trader and adventurer active in Siberia
and Alaska
in the first third of the 20th century. His career intersected with activities of notable explorers of the period, and with the Russian civil war
. He is credited with leading the rescue of the Karluk survivors from Wrangel Island
in 1914. According to historian Thomas C. Owen, Swenson's "practicality and zest for adventure made him an ideal entrepreneur on the arctic frontier...".
Born and raised in Michigan, Swenson first reached the far north as a Nome prospector in 1901. The next year he signed on for a prospecting venture in Siberia, spending two summers and one winter on the Chukchi Peninsula. He returned to Siberia in 1905, this time with his wife and their infant son. His introduction to trading came when their ship was wrecked and he contracted to salvage cargo on a share basis. He continued to trade at Anadyr until 1911. In 1913, Swenson and C.L. Hibbard of Seattle formed the Hibbard-Swenson Company which operated trading schooners and steamers on the Siberian coast, buying furs and ivory
and trading a variety of general merchandise until 1921. Swenson continued this business as Olaf Swenson & Co. until 1923 when the Bolshevik victory led to seizure of his business. Two years of negotiations led to a contract with the Soviet government to supply goods on a cost-plus basis and buy furs. This arrangement persisted through 1930. The difficulties of getting furs and personnel out of the Siberian Arctic led to the first commercial flights across the Bering strait. The fourth such flight crashed in a Siberian winter storm, killing aviation pioneer Carl Ben Eielson and his mechanic in 1929. Swenson's memoir Northwest of the World contains observations on commerce, conditions, and native life in northeast Siberia and won critical praise for its direct style and vivid description.
, the second son of Nils and Amelia (née Peterson or Petersen) Swenson. Nils was a Swedish emigrant and a prosperous hotel and saloon keeper. Amelia died in childbirth when Olaf was six years old, and the baby died shortly afterward. Another sister died accidentally in childhood. Nils never remarried and the two boys were raised in the home of their grandmother.
in 1901 to prospect for gold. Finding little success, they signed on to help work a claim on shares. This was a paying proposition but nobody got rich, and Olaf and his father returned to Seattle for the winter. The next spring they returned to Nome and signed on for a prospecting expedition to the Chukchi Peninsula
of northeastern Siberia
sponsored by the Northeastern Siberian Company, Limited. They spent two summers and one winter in Siberia, mostly on the arctic coast, but found no exploitable gold and returned to Seattle in the fall of 1903. Returning Northeastern Siberian Company prospectors reported promising signs including colors in every stream panned
and graphite deposits. Some still thought exploitable placer gold would eventually be found. However the Deseret News quoted Nels [sic] and Olaf Swenson as expecting that the wealth would come from [gold-bearing] quartz deposits.
July 28, 1905 and the family reached shore by boat through heavy surf. The ship was subsequently re-floated and beached, and Swenson contracted to salvage the cargo in exchange for a share. Subsequently the group and their cargo were picked up and transported to Anadyr, where Swenson set up a trading station selling the salvaged supplies. These found a ready market since the Russo-Japanese War had disrupted normal supply channels.
Swenson is sometimes credited with the first discovery of gold in northeastern Siberia; he credits a group of prospectors headed by Luke Nadeau, part of the same expedition he was on. Swenson was dispatched to Nome with $8000 worth of gold in 1906. His family went with him. Swenson returned to Anadyr with more trade goods while Charlotte and their son returned “to civilization”.
Swenson's trading station of this period is described as lying on St. Nicholas Bay (not named on modern maps), 12 miles from Russian Spit (Russkaya Koshka
, the northern spit delimiting the outer Anadyr estuary) and 8 miles from mountains. Since there are no mountains sufficiently close on the south side of the estuary and no nearby bays north of the estuary, this puts the likely location on the northern mainland shore of the estuary. Swenson (though he does not explicitly say so) was presumably trading under the Northeastern Siberian Company concession. In 1908 the steamer Corwin landed freight and miners at the Northeastern Siberian Company's trading station on the north shore of Anadyr Bay; the current from the river was strong at this location. Swenson traveled by dogsled at least as far as Cape Navarin to trade. Trade goods were packed in parcels of roughly uniform value, sized to fit on Chukchi sleds. Swenson also brought some American-style retail practices including premiums and credit sales. The credit extended to trappers could take the form of both operating supplies and household goods against next year’s fur harvest or a later delivery. Swenson spent alternate winters in Anadyr through 1910-1911.
1910 was a year of transition for the Northeastern Siberian Company. The Russian government declined to renew its concession, its president resigned, and it was absorbed by a Russian-French partnership. Swenson went into a Montana cattle ranching venture with his father in 1911, but the venture did not last long; Olaf did not like ranching much and when his father died in 1912, he sold the ranch. Swenson made a short trading voyage to the Siberian coast in a chartered schooner in 1911 and a longer trip in 1912 in the motor schooner Polar Bear. This second voyage was a partnership with the Hibbard-Stewart company of Seattle and Captain L.L. Lane.
to the north coast of Siberia.
Operations in Kamchatka are described by Sten Bergman
, who was in Kamchatka 1920-1922: "Klutchi....is the seat of the Kamchatkan fur trade, and several fur-trading firms have their depots here. The biggest of them are the Hudson's Bay Company and the Olaf Swenson Company — the latter is the concern of a Swedish American of that name. His name is known and esteemed in every dwelling throughout the entire peninsula. Every spring Swenson comes over from Seattle with his steamer, which is laden with everything imaginable that Kamchatka can stand in need of."
Swenson described financing local agents prior to the Bolshevik
victory: “It had been our custom to pick out a local spot, put a good man in charge there, and finance him against the business he would do for us, letting him operate in his own name and extend credit according to his own judgment”. According to a Soviet source, Swenson had 16 personal agents and provided financing to an additional 14 independent traders, with a total annual turnover in excess of $1 million.
In the period before the Bolshevik victory, trade goods included “foodstuffs, canned milk, canned fruit, clothing of every kind (including frilly things for women), hardware of all kinds, toys for children, a great many luxuries which many of them had never known before”. Trade goods mentioned at other locations in Swenson’s narrative include flour, wieners (in barrels), oranges, sugar, tea, tobacco, pilot bread, eggs, calico, dishes, needles, thread, knives, pots, pans, chamber pots, firearms and ammunition, motor launches, gasoline, kerosene, Mackinaws and other waterproof clothing, boots, caps, heavy woolen clothing, and. corduroy breaches with laceings on the legs. Customers included Russians as well as natives. Alcohol is not mentioned in his lists of trade goods.
For a brief period in 1921 and 1922
, the White forces
were resurgent in the Russian Far East
and maintained a tenuous control along the coast. This development had its advantages and its disadvantages. As Swenson put it, Kamchatka was "full of Russians who had come up with the Whites" and they all wanted American clothing and gear. However, "the revolution didn't care much about the importance of the fur traffic and was constantly getting in our way" At one point Swenson's ship was required to evacuate ninety White troops, disarmed as Swenson's insistence, from Okhotsk
to Ola
. This period also let Swenson get to know several White officers including Colonels Bochkarov and Fielkovsky at Gizhiga. Some of these associations would cause him trouble later.
Hibbard-Swenson Company dissolved early in 1922. C.L. Hibbard withdrew from Asian ventures, but Swenson wanted to continue. He formed Olaf Swenson & Company in March 1922 to take over the assets and trading network. Backers included Bryner & Company of Vladivostok, a major trading house in the Russian Far East, Denbigh and Company of Japan and Vladivostok, which had interests in Kamchatka fishing, and other Russian firms. Swenson was President and Treasurer.
The Red Army
took Vladivostok
in October 1922, and the Soviet government began to consolidate its control of the Northeast . In early 1923 the Soviets seized four trading schooners at East Cape, Siberia, including one owned by Olaf Swenson & Company and one chartered to Swenson, on charges of trafficking alcohol. (The New York Times article suggested competition with the Hudson's Bay Company
could have been a factor since that company's country manager was the brother of the Soviet Governor). Swenson does not discuss this seizure or charge specifically. Later that year the Yakut Revolt
was suppressed and the last organized White force under Anatoly Pepelyayev
was defeated at Ayan
(a port village on the Sea of Okhotst) on June 17, 1923. In October 1923, G.G. Suddock, Agent for Olaf Swenson Co. at Ayan, arriving in Seattle from Ayan by way of Japan, confirmed to a reporter for the Prescott (AZ) Evening Courier that the Bolshevik victory was complete and there was no more White resistance.
The contract appears not to have been renewed after 1930. Swenson spent time in Russia in 1931, 1932, and 1933 settling accounts and winding up affairs.
's Canadian Arctic Expedition
to the transfer point at Herschel Island
. The expedition ship Karluk was frozen in about 25 miles offshore and subsequently was carried away by moving ice. The whaler Elvira under Captain C.T. Pedersen
was frozen in, damaged by the ice and further damaged in a storm, requiring her crew to transfer to the Belvedere. Swenson and Pedersen, accompanied by two natives (Enuk, a north-slope Eskimo, and Peter, an Indian from the Lake Chandler area) traveled to Circle City and then Fairbanks
by foot and dogsled to carry news and arrange relief supplies.
In 1914 Hibbard-Swenson Company chartered the newly built motor schooner King & Winge
to carry relief supplies to the Belvedere and complete the normal trading run. King & Winge became stuck in the ice near Point Barrow and bent her propeller. The ship was extricated by the revenue cutter Bear on August 22. They met the Belvedere at Point Barrow, delivered the supplies, took on some crewmen from the Elvira. and subsequently put into at Nome August 30. Bear arrived the same day and reported that its attempt to rescue the crew of the Karluk from Wrangel Island off the northeast Siberian coast had been thwarted by bad weather, ice and low fuel. Stefansson's former secretary Burt McConnell then requested that King & Winge attempt a rescue; this request was reiterated by Captain Bartlett of the Karluk. Swenson set out for Wrangel Island
in the King & Winge with A.P. Jochimsen as Master. They stopped at East Cape
, Siberia and picked up an umiak
and a party of natives to man it, in case they had to cross ice interspersed with open water. As they approached the beach in the umiak, the native crew was alarmed to see one of the Karluk survivors vigorously pumping a rifle, but Swenson reassured them in their language. They removed a total of twelve expedition survivors from two separate camps. The survivors included an Eskimo
couple and their two children. The survivors were later transferred to the Bear.
The H.W. McCurdy Marine History of the Pacific Northwest gives a somewhat different account, with Swenson returning to Seattle and C.L. Hibbard on the King & Winge with Jochimsen. McCurdy's does not list sources; the origin of this account is unknown. It conflicts with both contemporary and later sources listed for the preceding paragraph.
The Hibbard-Swenson company’s Japanese office was destroyed by fire the same night the Kamchatka was lost.
, which was served by the Trans-Siberian Railway
.
The first stage employed dogsleds, leaving North Cape October 19, 1928. The route proceeded along the coast, cutting inland on either side of Chaunskaya Bay
, to the Kolyma River
. Then the party went up the river to Srednekolymsk
, arriving December 4. They left Srednekolmysk cutting west overland on an old Government trail through flat, forested country dotted by lakes. They switched from dogsleds to reindeer sleds at a village he records as Solgutter.
Much of the ensuing leg of the trip employed an established relay network of reindeer teams and drivers. They crossed the Indigirka River
at Zashiversk
and then proceeded through Abbi (this is presumably Abyy but if so they seem to have taken a circuitous route) to reach Verkhoyansk
January 6, 1929. Heading south for Yakutsk
, they were asked to carry the mail; this improved their access to reindeer teams but involved traveling day and night. The route to Yakutsk went over Tukulan Pass with a spectacular descent into the valley of the Aldan River
. At the foot of the pass they switched to horse sleighs and proceeded to Yakutsk. They arrived in Yakutsk January 16. Swenson was held up in Yakutsk four days due to visa problems and then proceeded to Irkutsk, arriving February 9. A dispatch from Moscow to the New York Times, datelined March 5, reports his trip. The entire trek amounted to over 4300 miles.
The New York Times dispatch also disclosed plans for airplane service between Alaska and the Siberian coast, for which Swenson had just secured permission from the Soviet government. These plans were soon realized when Noel Wien
flew $150,000 in furs from the Elisif on March 8. Three further flights were planned but the Soviet government withdrew permission.
and taken to Nome.
to the United States. He was an enthusiastic dogsledder who regularly used sled dogs in his work and made at least two long treks. He wrote about selecting dogs for enthusiasm and stamina and about the characteristics of a good lead dog. It is not clear whether Swenson's favorite lead dog Billkoff ever reached the United States. There were Siberian sled dogs in Alaska since 1908 and the early importers are known. Swenson imported Chukchi dogs for Leonhard Seppala
in 1927 and for Seppala’s collaborator Elizabeth (Peg) Ricker in 1930. These dogs are believed to have been the last Siberian sled dogs exported for many years. The Ricker dogs were used a working team by the crew of the Nanuk in 1929-30.
Northwest of the World was published by Dodd Mead, New York, in 1944. An English
edition with different pagination was published by Hale, London in 1951. A French
edition was published under the title Au Pays du Renard Blanc in 1953 and 1957. There were also Swedish
and Norwegian
editions. The book has been cited by historians of Siberia and Alaska.
Bergman, Sten. (1927) Through Kamchatka by Dog Sled and Skis, London, Seeley, Service & Co., 1927 p 106. This book can be hard to find. The quotation was downloaded in pieces from Google searches and reassembled; it can be confirmed by searching overlapping phrases. Accessed April 20, 2009.
Boston Evening Transcript Sept 1, 1914, p 7. "Fails to get Karluk crew. Cutter Bear runs short of coal and is returning to Nome."
Bureau of Navigation, US Dept. of Commerce. Annual list of merchant vessels of the United States Loss of American Vessels Reported during Fiscal Year 1906, p 385.
Crow, John, Anastasia Yarzuktina, and Oksana Kolomiets "American traders and the native people of Chukotka in the early 20th Century" 2010 International Conference on Russian America, Sitka, AK August 18–22.
Deseret News, Oct 29, 1903 "Prospectors return from northeastern Siberia and report favorably on its minerals".
Duranty, Walter (1929) "Travels 4,375 miles in coldest Siberia" New York Times March 6 p 6. accessed May 2, 2009.
Forsyth, James (1994) A History of the Peoples of Siberia: Russia's North Asian Colony 1581-1990. Cambridge University Press, 1994 ISBN 0521477719
Galactic Central magazine database accessed April 2009, May 2011. This link goes out of date periodically as the database grows; see Swenson, Olaf in the site's author index.
Gray, David. Canada's little arctic navy. The ships of the CAE. Canadian Museum of Civilization
Hanford, Cornelius Holgate (1924) Seattle and environs, 1852–1924, v. 3 Pioneer Historical Pub. Co., 1924, p 541.
Hunt, William R. (1986) Stef: A Biography of Vilhjalmur Stefansson, Canadian Arctic Explorer University of British Columbia Press, 1986 ISBN 0774802472 accessed May 3, 2009.
Hunt, William R. (1975) Arctic Passage. The Turbulent History of the Land and People of the Bering Sea 1697-1975. Charles Scribner's Sons, NY.
Jones, Preston (2007) Empire's Edge: American Society in Nome, Alaska, 1898-1934. University of Alaska Press, 2007 ISBN 1889963895
Lofgren, Svante (1947) "Some Swedish business pioneers in Washington Yearbook American Swedish Historical Museum p65.
Marine Review v 52 May 1922 "From the Northwest" p 222
McConnell, Burt M. (1914) "Got Karluck's men as hope was dim", New York Times September 15 p 7. accessed April 29, 2009.
McKinlay, William Laird (1999) The last voyage of the Karluk: a Survivor's Memoir of Arctic Disaster Macmillan ISBN 0312206550.
Mills, William James (2003) Exploring Polar Frontiers: a Historical Encyclopedia ABC-CLIO, 2003 ISBN 1576074226 "Bartlett, Bob" pp67–70. Accessed April 29, 2009.
Minerals Management Service, U.S. Department of Interior. "Shipwrecks off Alaska's coast." accessed April 26, 2009 (a) query Elvira 1913 (b) query Kamchatka 1921
New York Times, July 28, 1902, "To mine gold in Siberia" p 1
New York Times, October 30, 1903. "Siberian mineral wealth" p 1
New York Times, March 13, 1916 "Goes to meet Stefansson; Captain Olaf Swenson will do some hunting in the arctic" p 3.
New York Times, June 22, 1920 "Trade post looter known. Mikoff, Reputed Leader of Anadyr Rising ..." p 7.
New York Times, July 24, 1921 "Gets fur concessions; American Skipper Says Siberian Soviet Government Has Granted Them" p2
New York Times, June 20, 1923 "3 American ships seized by Soviets"
New York Times, June 21, 1923 "Ships Soviets seized had liquor cargoes" p 30.
New York Times, July 31, 1923 "Report cruelty in Siberia; Crew of Released American..."
New York Times, August 14, 1929 "Crew taken off wrecked schooner" p47.
New York Times, March 9, 1930 "Tragedy of the arctic snows" (photo section; one photo shows Marion Swenson with her parents and sister).
New York Times, January 9, 1931 "Captain Jochimsen, arctic hero, dead" p 20. accessed April 29, 2009.
New York Times, August 25, 1938 "Arctic trader shot dead" p5.
Niven, Jennifer (2001) The Ice Master: The Doomed 1913 Voyage of the Karluk. Hyperion, ISBN 0786884460, pp336–350. accessed May 2, 2009
Owen, Thomas C. (2008) "Chukchi gold: American enterprise and Russian xenophobia in the Northeastern Siberia Company". Pacific Historical Review 77 (1), pp 49–85.
Prescot [AZ] Evening Courier Oct 31, 1923 "Last of Russ White forces are defeated" p 1.
Saul, Norman E. (2006) Friends or foes?: the United States and Soviet Russia, 1921-1941 University Press of Kansas, ISBN 0700614486 pp104–105
Stephan, John J. (1996) The Russian Far East: A History Stanford University Press, ISBN 0804727015, 9780804727013 p 168
Szurovy, Géza (2004) Bushplanes Zenith Press (MBI Publishing) St. Paul, MN.
Swenson, Olaf (1944) Northwest of the World. Dodd Mead, NY
Swenson, Marion "Eielson's throttle found wide open; height misjudged" New York Times January 28, 1930.
Tacoma Public Library (a), "Ships and Shipping Database"; query Elvira accessed April 28, 2009. This source quotes Gordon Newell, "Maritime Events of 1913," H.W. McCurdy Marine History of the Pacific Northwest, p. 230.
Tacoma Public Library (b), "Ships and Shipping Database"; query King & Winge accessed April 29, 2009. This source quotes Gordon Newell, "Maritime Events of 1914," H.W. McCurdy Marine History of the Pacific Northwest, pp 242–3.
Tacoma Public Library (c), "Ships and Shipping Database"; query Elisif accessed April 30, 2009. This source quotes Gordon Newell, "Maritime Events of 1929-1930," H.W. McCurdy Marine History of the Pacific Northwest, p. 403.
Tacoma Public Library (d), "Ships and Shipping Database"; query Nanuk accessed April 30, 2009. This source quotes Gordon Newell, "Maritime Events of 1933," H.W. McCurdy Marine History of the Pacific Northwest, p. 423.
The Polar Times "Swenson, '14 hero of arctic, is found slain"
Thomas, Bob. (2001) "Where did they come from and what did they look like? Part II" The International Siberian Husky Club, NEWS, September/October.
Thrapp, Dan L., (1991) "Eielson, Carl Ben(jamin)" Encyclopedia of Frontier Biography: A-F, U of Nebraska Press, ISBN 0803294182, p456.
Tichotsky, John (2000) Russia's diamond colony: the republic of Sakha Routledge, ISBN 9057024209 p 72
Washington digital archives. http://www.digitalarchives.wa.gov/ (a) query Washington death records, Olaf Swenson, 1938. (b) query Washington death records, Marion Ferguson, 1951. Accessed April 10, 2009. (c) query King County marriage records, Olaf Swenson, 1904, accessed Jan 21, 2010.
West, Ellsworth Luce (1965) as told to Eleanor Ransom Mayhew. Captain's papers: a log of whaling and other sea experiences; Barre Publishers, Barre, MA
By Robert J. Gleason;
Published by Alaska Northwest Pub. Co., 1977
ISBN 0882400673, 9780882400679
Siberia
Siberia is an extensive region constituting almost all of Northern Asia. Comprising the central and eastern portion of the Russian Federation, it was part of the Soviet Union from its beginning, as its predecessor states, the Tsardom of Russia and the Russian Empire, conquered it during the 16th...
and Alaska
Alaska
Alaska is the largest state in the United States by area. It is situated in the northwest extremity of the North American continent, with Canada to the east, the Arctic Ocean to the north, and the Pacific Ocean to the west and south, with Russia further west across the Bering Strait...
in the first third of the 20th century. His career intersected with activities of notable explorers of the period, and with the Russian civil war
Russian Civil War
The Russian Civil War was a multi-party war that occurred within the former Russian Empire after the Russian provisional government collapsed to the Soviets, under the domination of the Bolshevik party. Soviet forces first assumed power in Petrograd The Russian Civil War (1917–1923) was a...
. He is credited with leading the rescue of the Karluk survivors from Wrangel Island
Wrangel Island
Wrangel Island is an island in the Arctic Ocean, between the Chukchi Sea and East Siberian Sea. Wrangel Island lies astride the 180° meridian. The International Date Line is displaced eastwards at this latitude to avoid the island as well as the Chukchi Peninsula on the Russian mainland...
in 1914. According to historian Thomas C. Owen, Swenson's "practicality and zest for adventure made him an ideal entrepreneur on the arctic frontier...".
Born and raised in Michigan, Swenson first reached the far north as a Nome prospector in 1901. The next year he signed on for a prospecting venture in Siberia, spending two summers and one winter on the Chukchi Peninsula. He returned to Siberia in 1905, this time with his wife and their infant son. His introduction to trading came when their ship was wrecked and he contracted to salvage cargo on a share basis. He continued to trade at Anadyr until 1911. In 1913, Swenson and C.L. Hibbard of Seattle formed the Hibbard-Swenson Company which operated trading schooners and steamers on the Siberian coast, buying furs and ivory
Ivory trade
The ivory trade is the commercial, often illegal trade in the ivory tusks of the hippopotamus, walrus, narwhal, mammoth, and most commonly, Asian and African elephants....
and trading a variety of general merchandise until 1921. Swenson continued this business as Olaf Swenson & Co. until 1923 when the Bolshevik victory led to seizure of his business. Two years of negotiations led to a contract with the Soviet government to supply goods on a cost-plus basis and buy furs. This arrangement persisted through 1930. The difficulties of getting furs and personnel out of the Siberian Arctic led to the first commercial flights across the Bering strait. The fourth such flight crashed in a Siberian winter storm, killing aviation pioneer Carl Ben Eielson and his mechanic in 1929. Swenson's memoir Northwest of the World contains observations on commerce, conditions, and native life in northeast Siberia and won critical praise for its direct style and vivid description.
Early life
Olaf Swenson was born in Manistee, MichiganManistee, Michigan
Manistee is a city in the U.S. state of Michigan. As of the 2000 census, the city population was 6,586. It is the county seat of Manistee County. The name "Manistee" is from an Ojibwe word first applied to the principal river of the county. The derivation is not certain, but it may be from...
, the second son of Nils and Amelia (née Peterson or Petersen) Swenson. Nils was a Swedish emigrant and a prosperous hotel and saloon keeper. Amelia died in childbirth when Olaf was six years old, and the baby died shortly afterward. Another sister died accidentally in childhood. Nils never remarried and the two boys were raised in the home of their grandmother.
Prospecting for gold in Alaska and Siberia
Nils and Olaf went to Nome, AlaskaNome, Alaska
Nome is a city in the Nome Census Area in the Unorganized Borough of the U.S. state of Alaska, located on the southern Seward Peninsula coast on Norton Sound of the Bering Sea. According to the 2010 Census, the city population was 3,598. Nome was incorporated on April 9, 1901, and was once the...
in 1901 to prospect for gold. Finding little success, they signed on to help work a claim on shares. This was a paying proposition but nobody got rich, and Olaf and his father returned to Seattle for the winter. The next spring they returned to Nome and signed on for a prospecting expedition to the Chukchi Peninsula
Chukchi Peninsula
The Chukchi Peninsula, Chukotka Peninsula or Chukotski Peninsula , at about 66° N 172° W, is the northeastern extremity of Asia. Its eastern end is at Cape Dezhnev near the village of Uelen. It is bordered by the Chukchi Sea to the north, the Bering Sea to the south, and the Bering Strait to the...
of northeastern Siberia
Siberia
Siberia is an extensive region constituting almost all of Northern Asia. Comprising the central and eastern portion of the Russian Federation, it was part of the Soviet Union from its beginning, as its predecessor states, the Tsardom of Russia and the Russian Empire, conquered it during the 16th...
sponsored by the Northeastern Siberian Company, Limited. They spent two summers and one winter in Siberia, mostly on the arctic coast, but found no exploitable gold and returned to Seattle in the fall of 1903. Returning Northeastern Siberian Company prospectors reported promising signs including colors in every stream panned
Gold panning
Gold panning, or simply panning, is a form of placer mining that extracts gold from a placer deposit using a pan. The process is one of the simplest ways to extract gold, and is popular with geology enthusiasts because of its cheap cost and the relatively simple and easy process involved. It is the...
and graphite deposits. Some still thought exploitable placer gold would eventually be found. However the Deseret News quoted Nels [sic] and Olaf Swenson as expecting that the wealth would come from [gold-bearing] quartz deposits.
Family
After returning from Siberia, Swenson worked in Seattle for American Biscuit Company for a year and a half. In May 1904 he married Emma Charlotte Johnson in Seattle. They had at least one son and two daughters. Their son died in Nome Alaska in 1910 of diphtheria contracted on board ship from Seattle. Their daughter Marion was born about 1912 and Marguery or Margery was a little younger.Trading in the Anadyr region of Siberia
In 1905, Swenson set out on another prospecting expedition for the Northeastern Siberian Company, this time bringing along his wife and their six-month-old son. In Hanford's account, Swenson was the organizer and by implication the leader of this expedition. Their ship, the gasoline schooner Barbara Hernster, struck a reef near Providence Bay, SiberiaProvidence Bay, Siberia
Emma Harbor, Plover Bay, and Ureliki redirect hereProvidence Bay is a fjord in the southern coast of the Chukchi Peninsula of northeastern Siberia. It was a popular rendezvous, wintering spot, and provisioning spot for whalers and traders in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries...
July 28, 1905 and the family reached shore by boat through heavy surf. The ship was subsequently re-floated and beached, and Swenson contracted to salvage the cargo in exchange for a share. Subsequently the group and their cargo were picked up and transported to Anadyr, where Swenson set up a trading station selling the salvaged supplies. These found a ready market since the Russo-Japanese War had disrupted normal supply channels.
Swenson is sometimes credited with the first discovery of gold in northeastern Siberia; he credits a group of prospectors headed by Luke Nadeau, part of the same expedition he was on. Swenson was dispatched to Nome with $8000 worth of gold in 1906. His family went with him. Swenson returned to Anadyr with more trade goods while Charlotte and their son returned “to civilization”.
Swenson's trading station of this period is described as lying on St. Nicholas Bay (not named on modern maps), 12 miles from Russian Spit (Russkaya Koshka
Russkaya Koshka
Russkaya Koshka is a spit that divides the Anadyr Estuary from the Gulf of Anadyr. The name literally translates as "the Russian cat"; but in fact koshka is the dialectal word for "sand spit". The spit is 16 km long and up to 2 km wide. It has an average elevation of 3 to 4 meters....
, the northern spit delimiting the outer Anadyr estuary) and 8 miles from mountains. Since there are no mountains sufficiently close on the south side of the estuary and no nearby bays north of the estuary, this puts the likely location on the northern mainland shore of the estuary. Swenson (though he does not explicitly say so) was presumably trading under the Northeastern Siberian Company concession. In 1908 the steamer Corwin landed freight and miners at the Northeastern Siberian Company's trading station on the north shore of Anadyr Bay; the current from the river was strong at this location. Swenson traveled by dogsled at least as far as Cape Navarin to trade. Trade goods were packed in parcels of roughly uniform value, sized to fit on Chukchi sleds. Swenson also brought some American-style retail practices including premiums and credit sales. The credit extended to trappers could take the form of both operating supplies and household goods against next year’s fur harvest or a later delivery. Swenson spent alternate winters in Anadyr through 1910-1911.
1910 was a year of transition for the Northeastern Siberian Company. The Russian government declined to renew its concession, its president resigned, and it was absorbed by a Russian-French partnership. Swenson went into a Montana cattle ranching venture with his father in 1911, but the venture did not last long; Olaf did not like ranching much and when his father died in 1912, he sold the ranch. Swenson made a short trading voyage to the Siberian coast in a chartered schooner in 1911 and a longer trip in 1912 in the motor schooner Polar Bear. This second voyage was a partnership with the Hibbard-Stewart company of Seattle and Captain L.L. Lane.
Hibbard-Swenson Company
This partnership was formed in 1913 with the purchase of the steam bark Belvedere (formerly an arctic whaler) and lasted through 1921. It eventually expanded to include multiple ships trading from the Sea of OkhotskSea of Okhotsk
The Sea of Okhotsk is a marginal sea of the western Pacific Ocean, lying between the Kamchatka Peninsula on the east, the Kuril Islands on the southeast, the island of Hokkaidō to the far south, the island of Sakhalin along the west, and a long stretch of eastern Siberian coast along the west and...
to the north coast of Siberia.
Operations
The Hibbard-Swenson company bought furs, whalebone, and walrus and mammoth ivory for cash as well as barter; furs included squirrel, ermine, sable, red fox, white fox, cross fox, wolf, wolverine, deer, hair seal, brown bear, and polar bear. The pattern of the trade was to spend the winter purchasing and packaging trade goods. April through August was spent picking up furs on the Siberian coast. The fall included walrus hunting and sometimes whaling, and miscellaneous shipping with stops in Alaska and Siberia.Operations in Kamchatka are described by Sten Bergman
Sten Bergman
Sten Bergman was a Swedish zoologist, who visited Korea, Kamchatka, Papua New Guinea, and many other places.- Bergman's bear :...
, who was in Kamchatka 1920-1922: "Klutchi....is the seat of the Kamchatkan fur trade, and several fur-trading firms have their depots here. The biggest of them are the Hudson's Bay Company and the Olaf Swenson Company — the latter is the concern of a Swedish American of that name. His name is known and esteemed in every dwelling throughout the entire peninsula. Every spring Swenson comes over from Seattle with his steamer, which is laden with everything imaginable that Kamchatka can stand in need of."
Swenson described financing local agents prior to the Bolshevik
Bolshevik
The Bolsheviks, originally also Bolshevists , derived from bol'shinstvo, "majority") were a faction of the Marxist Russian Social Democratic Labour Party which split apart from the Menshevik faction at the Second Party Congress in 1903....
victory: “It had been our custom to pick out a local spot, put a good man in charge there, and finance him against the business he would do for us, letting him operate in his own name and extend credit according to his own judgment”. According to a Soviet source, Swenson had 16 personal agents and provided financing to an additional 14 independent traders, with a total annual turnover in excess of $1 million.
In the period before the Bolshevik victory, trade goods included “foodstuffs, canned milk, canned fruit, clothing of every kind (including frilly things for women), hardware of all kinds, toys for children, a great many luxuries which many of them had never known before”. Trade goods mentioned at other locations in Swenson’s narrative include flour, wieners (in barrels), oranges, sugar, tea, tobacco, pilot bread, eggs, calico, dishes, needles, thread, knives, pots, pans, chamber pots, firearms and ammunition, motor launches, gasoline, kerosene, Mackinaws and other waterproof clothing, boots, caps, heavy woolen clothing, and. corduroy breaches with laceings on the legs. Customers included Russians as well as natives. Alcohol is not mentioned in his lists of trade goods.
Impact of the Russian revolution and civil war
In January 1920 Bolshevik partisans attacked, seized, and looted the Anadyr post of the Hibbard-Swenson Company; the leader of the Anadyr Bolsheviks was reputed to be a former Seattle seaman named Mikoff.For a brief period in 1921 and 1922
Provisional Priamurye Government
The Provisional Priamurye Government existed in the Siberian region of Priamurye, Russia, between May 27, 1921 and October 25, 1922...
, the White forces
White movement
The White movement and its military arm the White Army - known as the White Guard or the Whites - was a loose confederation of Anti-Communist forces.The movement comprised one of the politico-military Russian forces who fought...
were resurgent in the Russian Far East
Russian Far East
Russian Far East is a term that refers to the Russian part of the Far East, i.e., extreme east parts of Russia, between Lake Baikal in Eastern Siberia and the Pacific Ocean...
and maintained a tenuous control along the coast. This development had its advantages and its disadvantages. As Swenson put it, Kamchatka was "full of Russians who had come up with the Whites" and they all wanted American clothing and gear. However, "the revolution didn't care much about the importance of the fur traffic and was constantly getting in our way" At one point Swenson's ship was required to evacuate ninety White troops, disarmed as Swenson's insistence, from Okhotsk
Okhotsk
Okhotsk is an urban locality and a seaport at the mouth of the Okhota River on the Sea of Okhotsk, in Okhotsky District, Khabarovsk Krai, Russia. Population: 4,470 ;...
to Ola
Ola, Russia
Ola is an urban-type settlement in Magadan Oblast, Russia, located on the Ola River on the shore of the Sea of Okhotsk, east of Magadan. It is the administrative center of Olsky District. Population: 6,842 ; 10,122 ....
. This period also let Swenson get to know several White officers including Colonels Bochkarov and Fielkovsky at Gizhiga. Some of these associations would cause him trouble later.
Hibbard-Swenson Company dissolved early in 1922. C.L. Hibbard withdrew from Asian ventures, but Swenson wanted to continue. He formed Olaf Swenson & Company in March 1922 to take over the assets and trading network. Backers included Bryner & Company of Vladivostok, a major trading house in the Russian Far East, Denbigh and Company of Japan and Vladivostok, which had interests in Kamchatka fishing, and other Russian firms. Swenson was President and Treasurer.
The Red Army
Red Army
The Workers' and Peasants' Red Army started out as the Soviet Union's revolutionary communist combat groups during the Russian Civil War of 1918-1922. It grew into the national army of the Soviet Union. By the 1930s the Red Army was among the largest armies in history.The "Red Army" name refers to...
took Vladivostok
Vladivostok
The city is located in the southern extremity of Muravyov-Amursky Peninsula, which is about 30 km long and approximately 12 km wide.The highest point is Mount Kholodilnik, the height of which is 257 m...
in October 1922, and the Soviet government began to consolidate its control of the Northeast . In early 1923 the Soviets seized four trading schooners at East Cape, Siberia, including one owned by Olaf Swenson & Company and one chartered to Swenson, on charges of trafficking alcohol. (The New York Times article suggested competition with the Hudson's Bay Company
Hudson's Bay Company
The Hudson's Bay Company , abbreviated HBC, or "The Bay" is the oldest commercial corporation in North America and one of the oldest in the world. A fur trading business for much of its existence, today Hudson's Bay Company owns and operates retail stores throughout Canada...
could have been a factor since that company's country manager was the brother of the Soviet Governor). Swenson does not discuss this seizure or charge specifically. Later that year the Yakut Revolt
Yakut Revolt
The Yakut Revolt or the Yakut Expedition was the last episode of the Russian Civil War. The hostilities took place between September 1921 and June 1923 and were centred on the Ayano-Maysky District of the Russian Far East.A formidable rising flared up in this part of Yakutia in September 1921...
was suppressed and the last organized White force under Anatoly Pepelyayev
Anatoly Pepelyayev
Anatoly Nikolayevich Pepelyayev was a White Russian general who led the Siberian armies of Admiral Kolchak during the Russian Civil War. His elder brother Viktor Pepelyayev served as Prime Minister in Kolchak's government.-Trans-Siberian march:...
was defeated at Ayan
Ayan
Ayan is a rural locality and the administrative center of Ayano-Maysky District of Khabarovsk Krai, Russia, located on the shore of a well-protected bay of the Sea of Okhotsk, from Khabarovsk and by sea from Nikolayevsk-on-Amur...
(a port village on the Sea of Okhotst) on June 17, 1923. In October 1923, G.G. Suddock, Agent for Olaf Swenson Co. at Ayan, arriving in Seattle from Ayan by way of Japan, confirmed to a reporter for the Prescott (AZ) Evening Courier that the Bolshevik victory was complete and there was no more White resistance.
Adapting to the Bolshevik victory
With the Bolshevik victory, Swenson found not just two schooners but his entire Siberian business and stock impounded and a warrant out for his arrest. The issues besides alcohol (if that was really an issue) were taxes and his perceived close association with the Whites. He briefly discusses allegations of selling guns to the Whites, suggesting they were inflated, and attributes some allegations to disgruntled competitors. (Hunting arms and ammunition were, of course, a regular part of his business.) He does not mention an allegation of a check for $500,000 found in the pocket of an executed White officer. Swenson reports he declined an offer from a former White officer to raid the coast and recover the furs by force. Instead he and R.S Pollister (Vice President of Olaf Swenson & Co.) went to China to obtain a Soviet visa and began a long slow process of negotiation to release the furs, trading stock, and books. The ultimate resolution was a contract entered in 1925 to deliver goods in Siberia to Moscow’s specification on a cost-plus basis and export furs. This contract was renewed for five years in 1926 and expanded in 1928 after negotiations with the head of the Soviet fur trust in London. Other associates in this venture were Maurice Cantor and Irving W. Herskovits of New York. In this period, the business name often appears as Swenson Trading Company or Swenson Fur Trading Company. Local trade was handled by a Soviet government trading organization which specified the goods and set fur prices. Swenson reports prices paid to the trappers were reduced in this period and the range of trade goods narrowed to necessities.The contract appears not to have been renewed after 1930. Swenson spent time in Russia in 1931, 1932, and 1933 settling accounts and winding up affairs.
Karluk rescue 1913-1914
Belvedere, with Stephen Cottle as her captain and Olaf Swenson on board, became stuck in the ice off the north coast of Alaska in the fall of 1913 while carrying supplies for Vilhjalmur StefanssonVilhjalmur Stefansson
Vilhjalmur Stefansson was a Canadian Arctic explorer and ethnologist.-Early life:Stefansson, born William Stephenson, was born at Gimli, Manitoba, Canada, in 1879. His parents had emigrated from Iceland to Manitoba two years earlier...
's Canadian Arctic Expedition
Canadian Arctic Expedition 1913-1916
The Canadian Arctic Expedition 1913–1916 was organized and led by Vilhjalmur Stefansson. The expedition was divided into a Northern Party led by Stefansson, and a Southern Party led by R M. Anderson. The objective of the Northern Party was to explore for new land north and west of the known lands...
to the transfer point at Herschel Island
Herschel Island
Herschel Island is an island in the Beaufort Sea , which lies off the coast of the Yukon Territories in Canada, of which it is administratively a part...
. The expedition ship Karluk was frozen in about 25 miles offshore and subsequently was carried away by moving ice. The whaler Elvira under Captain C.T. Pedersen
Christian Theodore Pedersen
Christian Theodore Pedersen was a Norwegian-American seaman, whaling captain and fur trader active in Alaska, Canada, and the northern Pacific from the 1890s to the 1930s...
was frozen in, damaged by the ice and further damaged in a storm, requiring her crew to transfer to the Belvedere. Swenson and Pedersen, accompanied by two natives (Enuk, a north-slope Eskimo, and Peter, an Indian from the Lake Chandler area) traveled to Circle City and then Fairbanks
Fairbanks
Fairbanks may refer to:Places in the United States*Fairbanks, Alaska, city*Fairbanks, California, unincorporated community in El Dorado County*Fairbanks, Mendocino County, California, former settlement*Fairbanks, Indiana, unincorporated community...
by foot and dogsled to carry news and arrange relief supplies.
In 1914 Hibbard-Swenson Company chartered the newly built motor schooner King & Winge
King & Winge (fishing schooner)
The King & Winge was one of the most famous ships ever built in Seattle, Washington, United States. Built in 1914, in the next 80 years she had participated in a famous Arctic rescue, been present at a great maritime tragedy, and been employed as a halibut schooner, a rum runner, a pilot boat, a...
to carry relief supplies to the Belvedere and complete the normal trading run. King & Winge became stuck in the ice near Point Barrow and bent her propeller. The ship was extricated by the revenue cutter Bear on August 22. They met the Belvedere at Point Barrow, delivered the supplies, took on some crewmen from the Elvira. and subsequently put into at Nome August 30. Bear arrived the same day and reported that its attempt to rescue the crew of the Karluk from Wrangel Island off the northeast Siberian coast had been thwarted by bad weather, ice and low fuel. Stefansson's former secretary Burt McConnell then requested that King & Winge attempt a rescue; this request was reiterated by Captain Bartlett of the Karluk. Swenson set out for Wrangel Island
Wrangel Island
Wrangel Island is an island in the Arctic Ocean, between the Chukchi Sea and East Siberian Sea. Wrangel Island lies astride the 180° meridian. The International Date Line is displaced eastwards at this latitude to avoid the island as well as the Chukchi Peninsula on the Russian mainland...
in the King & Winge with A.P. Jochimsen as Master. They stopped at East Cape
Cape Dezhnev
Cape Dezhnyov or Cape Dezhnev is a cape that forms the eastmost mainland point of Eurasia. It is located on the Chukchi Peninsula in the very thinly populated Chukotka Autonomous Okrug of Russia. This cape is located between the Bering Sea and the Chukchi Sea, across from Cape Prince of Wales in...
, Siberia and picked up an umiak
Umiak
The umiak, umialak, umiaq, umiac, oomiac or oomiak is a type of boat used by Eskimo people, both Yupik and Inuit, and was originally found in all coastal areas from Siberia to Greenland. First arising in Thule times, it has traditionally been used in summer to move people and possessions to...
and a party of natives to man it, in case they had to cross ice interspersed with open water. As they approached the beach in the umiak, the native crew was alarmed to see one of the Karluk survivors vigorously pumping a rifle, but Swenson reassured them in their language. They removed a total of twelve expedition survivors from two separate camps. The survivors included an Eskimo
Eskimo
Eskimos or Inuit–Yupik peoples are indigenous peoples who have traditionally inhabited the circumpolar region from eastern Siberia , across Alaska , Canada, and Greenland....
couple and their two children. The survivors were later transferred to the Bear.
The H.W. McCurdy Marine History of the Pacific Northwest gives a somewhat different account, with Swenson returning to Seattle and C.L. Hibbard on the King & Winge with Jochimsen. McCurdy's does not list sources; the origin of this account is unknown. It conflicts with both contemporary and later sources listed for the preceding paragraph.
Loss of the Kamchatka 1921
The Hibbard-Swenson Company diesel auxiliary schooner Kamchatka (formerly the whaling bark Thrasher) was lost to fire in the Bering Sea April 14, 1921. The crew, including Swenson, escaped without loss of life and reached Alaska in a motor launch and a whaleboat. They had no water and subsisted on wieners and oranges from the cargo, running the launch's engine on distillate due to a lack of gasoline.The Hibbard-Swenson company’s Japanese office was destroyed by fire the same night the Kamchatka was lost.
North Cape to Irkutsk trek 1928-9
In the fall of 1928, Swenson was frozen in off North Cape, Siberia (now Cape Schmidt) in the M.S. Elisif, Captained by Edwin Larson. Impatient to get back to Seattle and hungry for adventure, Swenson decided on an overland trek to IrkutskIrkutsk
Irkutsk is a city and the administrative center of Irkutsk Oblast, Russia, one of the largest cities in Siberia. Population: .-History:In 1652, Ivan Pokhabov built a zimovye near the site of Irkutsk for gold trading and for the collection of fur taxes from the Buryats. In 1661, Yakov Pokhabov...
, which was served by the Trans-Siberian Railway
Trans-Siberian Railway
The Trans-Siberian Railway is a network of railways connecting Moscow with the Russian Far East and the Sea of Japan. It is the longest railway in the world...
.
The first stage employed dogsleds, leaving North Cape October 19, 1928. The route proceeded along the coast, cutting inland on either side of Chaunskaya Bay
Chaunskaya Bay
The Chaunskaya Bay or Chaun Bay is an Arctic bay in the East Siberian Sea, in the Chaunsky District of Chukotka, northeast Siberia.The bay is open to the north and is 140 km in length. Its maximum width is 110 km. Its mouth is defined by Cape Shelagsky to the east and an unnamed part of...
, to the Kolyma River
Kolyma River
The Kolyma River is a river in northeastern Siberia, whose basin covers parts of the Sakha Republic, Chukotka Autonomous Okrug, and Magadan Oblast of Russia. Itrises in the mountains north of Okhotsk and Magadan, in the area of and...
. Then the party went up the river to Srednekolymsk
Srednekolymsk
Srednekolymsk is a town and the administrative center of Srednekolymsky District of the Sakha Republic, Russia, located northeast of Yakutsk on the left bank of the Kolyma River. Population: -History:...
, arriving December 4. They left Srednekolmysk cutting west overland on an old Government trail through flat, forested country dotted by lakes. They switched from dogsleds to reindeer sleds at a village he records as Solgutter.
Much of the ensuing leg of the trip employed an established relay network of reindeer teams and drivers. They crossed the Indigirka River
Indigirka River
The Indigirka River is a river in the Sakha Republic in Russia between the Yana River and the Kolyma River. It is in length. The area of its basin is 360,000 km²...
at Zashiversk
Zashiversk
Zashiversk was a town north of the arctic circle in what is now the Sakha Republic , Russia. It was located on the right bank of the Indigirka River where the river makes a sharp bend around the town-site. It was founded in 1639. It served as a fortress town and then as an administrative center....
and then proceeded through Abbi (this is presumably Abyy but if so they seem to have taken a circuitous route) to reach Verkhoyansk
Verkhoyansk
Verkhoyansk is a town in Verkhoyansky District of the Sakha Republic, Russia, situated on the Yana River, near the Arctic Circle, from Yakutsk. Population: There is a river port, an airport, a fur-collecting depot, and the center of a reindeer-raising area....
January 6, 1929. Heading south for Yakutsk
Yakutsk
With a subarctic climate , Yakutsk is the coldest city, though not the coldest inhabited place, on Earth. Average monthly temperatures range from in July to in January. The coldest temperatures ever recorded on the planet outside Antarctica occurred in the basin of the Yana River to the northeast...
, they were asked to carry the mail; this improved their access to reindeer teams but involved traveling day and night. The route to Yakutsk went over Tukulan Pass with a spectacular descent into the valley of the Aldan River
Aldan River
The Aldan River is the second-longest tributary of the Lena River in the Sakha Republic in eastern Siberia. The river is 2,273 km long, of which around 1,600 km is navigable. It was part of the River Route to Okhotsk...
. At the foot of the pass they switched to horse sleighs and proceeded to Yakutsk. They arrived in Yakutsk January 16. Swenson was held up in Yakutsk four days due to visa problems and then proceeded to Irkutsk, arriving February 9. A dispatch from Moscow to the New York Times, datelined March 5, reports his trip. The entire trek amounted to over 4300 miles.
The New York Times dispatch also disclosed plans for airplane service between Alaska and the Siberian coast, for which Swenson had just secured permission from the Soviet government. These plans were soon realized when Noel Wien
Noel Wien
Noel Wien was an American pioneer aviator. He was the founder of Wien Air Alaska, Alaska's first airline.-Biography:...
flew $150,000 in furs from the Elisif on March 8. Three further flights were planned but the Soviet government withdrew permission.
Loss of the
Elisif 1929 The Elisif was resupplied by the Nanuk in 1929 and attempted to reach Kolyma with R.S. Pollister aboard as supercargo and A.P. Jochimsen as ice pilot. Though freed from the ice, it was punctured by floating ice and beached to prevent sinking. The ship's company reached Nome, crossing the Bering Sea in boats and surviving a fierce storm. According to McCurdy's Marine History they reached Little Diomede Island by boat and were picked up by the Coast Guard cutter NorthlandUSCGC Northland (WPG-49)
The Coast Guard cutter Northland, WPG-49, a cruising class of gunboat especially designed for Arctic operations, served in World War II, and served in the Israeli navy.-Design:...
and taken to Nome.
Eielson plane crash near North Cape
The Nanuk was frozen in for the winter of 1929-30 at North Cape, with Swenson and his 17 year old daughter Marion aboard. Swenson contracted with Alaskan Airways, headed by the noted arctic flyer and explorer Carl Ben Eielson, to fly out furs and crew members. After one successful round trip, Eielson was delayed by a search for a downed plane in Alaska. Resuming after the delay, Eielson and his mechanic Frank Borland flew into a fierce storm over the Siberian coast and crashed, flying into terrain with the throttle wide open. A faulty altimeter may have been a contributing factor. A major search ensued using both aircraft and dogsleds. The fate of both the plane and the ship (with a high-school girl aboard) captured the public's imagination. The New York Times arranged for Marion Swenson to send regular dispatches on the progress of the search. The downed plane was found January 24, 1930 and the bodies of the crew were recovered February 19. Swenson and his daughter were flown out February 7 by T.M. (Pat) Reid. The Nanuk returned successfully to Nome and then Seattle, arriving in early August 1930.Sled dogs
Swenson is sometimes erroneously credited with introducing the Siberian HuskySiberian Husky
The Siberian Husky is a medium-size, dense-coat working dog breed that originated in north-eastern Siberia. The breed belongs to the Spitz genetic family...
to the United States. He was an enthusiastic dogsledder who regularly used sled dogs in his work and made at least two long treks. He wrote about selecting dogs for enthusiasm and stamina and about the characteristics of a good lead dog. It is not clear whether Swenson's favorite lead dog Billkoff ever reached the United States. There were Siberian sled dogs in Alaska since 1908 and the early importers are known. Swenson imported Chukchi dogs for Leonhard Seppala
Leonhard Seppala
Leonhard Seppala was a Norwegian born American Sled dog racer who participated the 1932 Winter Olympics. Seppala is considered the founder of the Siberian Husky breed. -Background:...
in 1927 and for Seppala’s collaborator Elizabeth (Peg) Ricker in 1930. These dogs are believed to have been the last Siberian sled dogs exported for many years. The Ricker dogs were used a working team by the crew of the Nanuk in 1929-30.
Death
Swenson died August 23, 1938 (age 54) in Seattle of a self-inflicted gunshot wound. The reports in the New York Times and the Polar Times mentioned the possibility of an accident while cleaning the newly purchased gun.Writings
Four short nonfiction pieces by Olaf Swenson in Blue Book magazine 1938-39 are listed a web database.Northwest of the World was published by Dodd Mead, New York, in 1944. An English
English language
English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...
edition with different pagination was published by Hale, London in 1951. A French
French language
French is a Romance language spoken as a first language in France, the Romandy region in Switzerland, Wallonia and Brussels in Belgium, Monaco, the regions of Quebec and Acadia in Canada, and by various communities elsewhere. Second-language speakers of French are distributed throughout many parts...
edition was published under the title Au Pays du Renard Blanc in 1953 and 1957. There were also Swedish
Swedish language
Swedish is a North Germanic language, spoken by approximately 10 million people, predominantly in Sweden and parts of Finland, especially along its coast and on the Åland islands. It is largely mutually intelligible with Norwegian and Danish...
and Norwegian
Norwegian language
Norwegian is a North Germanic language spoken primarily in Norway, where it is the official language. Together with Swedish and Danish, Norwegian forms a continuum of more or less mutually intelligible local and regional variants .These Scandinavian languages together with the Faroese language...
editions. The book has been cited by historians of Siberia and Alaska.
Sources
- Associated Press. "Home From the Arctic Wastes" Photograph showing Olaf and Marion Swenson being greeted by family members on their return from the Arctic; the caption identifies Mrs Swenson and Marion's younger sister Marguery (in some papers including the New London Day, Mar 6, 1930 p 16) or Margery (in the Hartford Courant Mar 6, 1930 p3).
- Bartlett, Robert A. and Hale, Ralph T. (1916)
Further reading
Icebound in the Siberian Arctic: The Story of the Last Cruise of the Fur Schooner Nanuk and the International Search for Famous Arctic Pilot Carl Ben EielsonBy Robert J. Gleason;
Published by Alaska Northwest Pub. Co., 1977
ISBN 0882400673, 9780882400679
External links
- Alaska archives photo of Marion and Olaf Swenson, North Cape, 1930 The accompanying caption lists this as March 1930 but it is either earlier or not at North Cape. The New York Times has Marion Swenson back in Seattle March 1.
- Maps useful in identifying locations in Northwest of the World: