Town and waterfront with mountains, Seward, Alaska, 1941

About this postcard

Looking down over Seward, Alaska, from above the waterfront: wooden buildings and dirt streets line the shore, a tall spruce stands in the foreground, and boats sit at a pier and dock. Snow-capped mountains rise across the water. The sender, newly arrived and already at work, writes that his camp lies about three-quarters of a mile off the left edge of the view. In 1941 Seward was the southern terminus of the Alaska Railroad and an ice-free port, and crews and military units were building up Alaska's defenses in the weeks before Pearl Harbor.