The Harriman Alaska Expedition of 1899

Calling all scientists, artists, geologists, botanists, photographers, zoologists, and chefs! Want to go on an adventure? Alaska is waiting for you! The 1899 Harriman Expedition to Alaska is the primary subject of this painting displayed at McMenamins Kalama Harbor Lodge. But there is a Kalama connection, too. Artist Cleo Hehn’s colorful sampler of discoveries from the expedition surround the steamship, S.S. George W. Elder.

Edward Harriman was a railroad tycoon worth over sixty million dollars during the Gilded Age (a billionaire by today’s standards). What set him apart from many of his wealthy contemporaries was how he spent his fortune. Harriman had his mind set on scientific exploration and money was no object for him.

In 1899, Alaska (owned by the US but not yet an official territory) was still largely unexplored and Harriman was up for the challenge. He assembled an extraordinary team of top experts in a variety of academic fields. Their mission? To explore and document 9,000 miles of the Alaskan coast in two months. There were 126 passengers on board, including Harriman’s wife, Mary, and their young children. Mary was also a philanthropist and during her lifetime, she contributed to conservation efforts and the establishment of state parks.

The thought of an arctic expedition may sound like a difficult, uncomfortable journey, but the S.S. George W. Elder was nothing short of a luxury liner. This steamship was equipped with deluxe cabins and salons, multiple scientific laboratories, an extensive library, lecture rooms, and a horse stable. A chef prepared fine meals for all passengers aboard and the addition of a piano, organ, and even a gramophone ensured that everyone was entertained. Harriman spared no expense and personally financed the entire project.

When the Harriman Expedition set off from Seattle in May of 1899, crowds gathered to cheer and wave them “bon voyage.” Newspaper editorials of the time applauded Harriman for putting his millions to constructive use, and encouraged other wealthy magnates to follow his example.

The Kalama Connection

After the conclusion of the Alaska expedition, the S.S. George W. Elder’s good fortune and celebrity fell on hard times. New owners of the ship had put it in service in Washington, on the Columbia River. Then in 1905, just outside Kalama, the Elder hit a jagged rock and sunk under 16 feet of water. This drew the attention of a true character known as Lucky Jack Peterson. Lucky Jack proceeded to extricate the vessel from the Columbia, had necessary repairs made and then flipped it for a hefty profit. (Lucky Jack is featured in another painting at Kalama Harbor Lodge.)

One very unfortunate component of the expedition was the removal of tribal possessions. During the expedition, while anchored off the Alaskan coast at Cape Fox, the crew came upon a small village of the Tlingit tribe that was uninhabited and seemingly abandoned. Harriman and the other explorers took many native items, including large and ornate totem poles, some forty feet tall. Most of the research team regarded these as mere artifacts and felt entitled to haul them onto the ship. John Muir, the famed naturalist and member of the expedition, objected and considered this to be looting of tribal property without permission. While unable to convince his crewmates otherwise, Muir refused to pose for pictures with the stolen totem poles. After the voyage, many of these native pieces were sent for display at the Smithsonian and other prominent museums, including those at Harvard and the University of Washington.

In 2001, a group of scientists and descendants of the Harriman family recreated the Harriman Expedition and retraced their route along the Alaskan coast. With cooperation from these museums, the original native items which were illegally taken from the Tlingit village were given back to descendants of the indigenous tribe, in ceremony, with an acknowledgement of the theft.

On July 30, 1899, the S.S. George W. Elder docked at Seattle, marking the completion of the voyage. Harriman paid out of pocket

for the publication of all the scientific journals compiled from the study. It took researchers the next twelve years to evaluate and prepare thousands of reports, resulting in thirteen volumes of extensive scientific findings and valuable new information about the Alaskan coast. One botanist from the trip, De Alton Saunders, was nicknamed “Seaweed Saunders” by John Muir, as he discovered nine new species of algae. Travis Kincaid, the entomologist on board, documented 8,000 different insects and discovered hundreds of previously unknown species, including the glacial worm. Thousands of plant specimens, five thousand photographs and illustrations, taxidermy of previously unknown animal species, and other samples collected were donated to a variety of museums and academic institutions.

Even after all this extensive research, the Harriman Expedition was still merely a survey, as the Alaskan landscape is unbelievably vast and impossible to cover in a mere two months. Nevertheless, their meticulous work was invaluable to the explorers and scientists who followed and continued to discover “The Last Frontier.”