Ralph Anderson Pioneer of Chugiak, Alaska
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RALPH MILTON ANDERSON
1931-1978
For those of us who grew up in Chugiak-Eagle River in the
50’s and 60’s, there are some legendary businesses that remain only in our childhood
memories; places like Swanny Slopes, Spring Creek Lodge, the Dairy Delight,
Moose Horn, Fire Lake Lodge, and Anderson’s Gas Station. These historic
cornerstones have been gone for decades, yet old-timers often refer to
them nostalgically, as if they were still in business today.
This story is about Ralph Anderson, the man who built one of
those landmarks: Anderson’s Gas Station, at mile 18 of the Old Glenn
Highway.
Ralph Milton Anderson and his identical twin brother Russell,
were born in Wisconsin on 5/8/1931;they were the youngest sons of John
Henry Anderson (a policeman) and Blanche Brown of Racine.
Twenty three
year old Ralph and his first wife, 18 year old Carol Ann Fogarette,
came to Alaska in 1954 with big dreams, very little money, and a two
ton truck. They got a lot done in those first years in Chugiak. They
bought 2½ acres of land, renovated an old house trailer
to live in, built a small gas station and garage and turned the truck
into a wrecker; "Anderson's Gas Station" was an instant success.
In 1958, Ralph and Carol wanted to visit relatives, so they
leased the gas station to one of their neighbors (Wade “Tiny” Gardner) and
spent that winter in Wisconsin. The next summer, they drove back to
Alaska with a five ton truck and big plans, but the stress of it all got
to the young couple and their marriage ended later that year; Carol stayed
in Alaska and Ralph went back to Wisconsin for a while.
In 1960, Ralph married Bernelda “Bernie” Mae Thorson, a nurses
aide in Racine; she had a young son named Daniel. Ralph and his new family
came back to Alaska later that spring, driving a semi-tractor and low-boy
loaded with Ralph’s International Carryall and a cement mixer destined
for their Chugiak neighbor Till Wallace.
I wonder what went through Bernie's mind when she first saw Ralph's primitive
homestead, but there was no time to worry about it since the Highway Department
immediately surprised the Anderson's with an order to move the gas station
150' back from the highway to accomodate future road improvements. The newlyweds
spent most of that summer complying with the order, even though the road
improvements never happened.
In 1963, Ralph built a small restaurant next to the gas station
and hired people to run it for him; he named it the Wheel-R-In. It
was never quite the success that he hoped for, but it was a popular eatery
for the locals.
There was a hillside of clean gravel on Anderson's 2½ acres which
he sold piecemeal, over the years, to a local excavator named James Polyefko.
Once the majority of the gravel hill was gone, he hired Ralph Doyle to level
the site. Next, he built a daylight basement, moved a small house onto it
and added several more rooms. Ralph and Bernie raised 8 children in that
house: Daniel, Ralph Jr.(nicknamed "Andy"), Polly, Patty, Paul, Peggy,
Wendy and David.
Ralph wanted to build a trailer court on his land and found out that one
of the requirements for a 6 place trailer court was a well that produced
7 gallons of water per minute. He took a gamble and proceeded with the trailer
court BEFORE he got the permit. The well drillers hit water at 90’ but
it produced less than required for the permit, so they drilled to 100’.
This time they hit sand and all of the water (that they got at 90’)
disappeared. They continued to drill and at 118’ they hit water again
AND lots more sand. The well driller pumped sand out of the well for
a full week and in the end, the well produced 70 gallons of water per minute.
Ralph’s gamble paid off; his first tenant moved in one week after the permit
was issued. A year later, the Anderson's bought some adjacent property
and put in 20 additional trailer court spaces.
Another example of Ralph’s “can do” attitude was his Arctic
Cat Panther snowmachine with a heated cab. His son, Dan, described
it this way: “It was running a 20 HP Wankel engine and it produced an
immense amount of heat; the exhaust pipe glowed cherry red; it had excellent
torque but terrible fuel economy. Arctic Cat gave us the machine
for a year and told us to ‘wear it out’. Dad raced it in the Midnight Sun
600, which is why he put the cab on it. The windshield was super sized so
he could easily sit upright and not be near the top. It had a light weight
metal frame with a light weight canvas cover. He would be riding around
when it was -20° with his snowsuit open, his gloves on his lap and
the back of the cab unzipped and waving in the breeze. We weren’t
allowed to modify the air system and it was severely restricted, still it
had excellent torque but no top end. At the end of the season, Arctic Cat
took the machine back; later they told us that we had put NO wear on the engine.”
Ralph’s ingenuity produced other successful business ventures
as well. He built a cesspool pumping truck that didn’t use a pump;
it used the vacuum from the truck manifold; Ralph called it the “IT”
Wagon. When he learned that there was a demand for winter cesspool pumping,
he used the trucks engine exhaust to blow heat onto the valve to keep it
from freezing, something none of his competitors were doing. Ralph was a
great trouble shooter and possessed the “can do” attitude of many Chugiak
pioneers; he certainly never let his 8th grade education slow him down.
Ralph, a charter member of the John Birch Society of Alaska,
was very politically conservative. He ran for public office twice.
The first time (1966) he ran as an Independent, from House District
8, but he lost to incumbent Ted Stevens. In 1970, Ralph ran for Governor
against Bill Egan and lost.
Although
Ralph knew he could not win the 1970 election, he campaigned actively,
trying to get enough votes to legally establish the American Independent
Party. His favorite quote was, “Government big enough to give you all
you need, is big enough to take all you have.”
His campaign promoted:
1. Work-oriented welfare programs
2. Expediting the construction of the pipeline
3. Relocating the State capital to a place accessible by
road
4. Extending territorial waters to protect the fishing industry
5. Unrestricted right to bear arms
6. Re-opening of Alaska to homesteading
Not everyone
was happy that Ralph was trying to legally establish a third party.
As it got closer to election day, he received death threats and a few
bullet holes in the cab of the truck that displayed his campaign signs,
but neither dissuaded him from finishing the race. On election day, he
wasn't able to garner the necessary 10% of the votes to establish the
American Independent Party in Alaska.
About a year later (1971), Ralph and Bernie sold their gas
station to William and Jeanette Knowlton and moved back to Wisconsin
for a while before settling permanently in Oklahoma. In the spring
of 1978, Ralph was killed in a head-on car collision on Oklahoma Highway
63; he was only 47.
Ralph's first wife Carol, married Ray Monroe in 1960 and passed
away in 1995 in Chugiak. His 2nd wife, Bernie died in 2003 in Muse,
Oklahoma; they had 14 grandchildren and 4 great grandchildren. Ralph's
twin brother, Russell Ruud Anderson, practiced law in California for
a while and was a veteran of the Korean War. He died in North Little
Rock, Arkansas in 2001; Ralph and Russell are buried next to each other
in Graceland Cemetery, Racine, Wisconsin, close to where they grew up.
Information sources:
Daniel Anderson
Ralph M. Anderson II ("Andy")
David Anderson
City Directory for Racine, Wisconsin 1954-1960
Graceland Cemetery Racine, Wisconsin
The Racine Journal-Times
Oklahoma Historical Society
Poteau News
Times Newspaper North Little Fork, Arkansas
Alaska DNR Recorders Office
Fairbanks Daily News-Miner
Anchorage Daily News
1920 U.S. Census
1930 U.S. Census
1940 U.S. Census