Uncle Fred's Ring

Will Rogers and Wiley Post crash site outside Barrow, AK, that took the lives of America's Best Loved Humorist and Record-setting Globetrotting Pilot.

Do NOT remove from Alaska until I have achieved my Mission... I am now in Alaska thanks to Northern Trekker.

Buddy B's Great Uncle Fred and Aunt Nan were Presbyterian Missionaries. They were stationed in Barrow, Alaska, from 1936 or 37, shortly after the infamous plane crash, until 1945. My favorite family story is of a ring that was made from a piece of the wreakage by the Eskimos and given by Uncle Fred to my Grandfather. The ring disappeared in the family, but the memory lives on...

7/28/05 - Uncle Fred Update: There was an article about the flurry of activity in Pt. Barrow due to all the recording of the global warming evidence in the region. The article was generally lighthearted in terms of how much it had changed the lives of people living there. All the top scientists in there fields were often on site and intermixing much to the delight of some of the neophytes who had a chance to meet with the best in the fields. If one wanted to know about a condition of a certain snow, the person he asked would often say, "Why don't you just ask George over that at the buffet table in the cafeteria. He's the best there is."

The article also gave credit to "A missionary (undesignated) who had been there in the 1960s for having gotten much done in getting the language down, a problem since it was a dialect that was not yet recorded as such." Of course that was Fred (and Nan). One of the old time natives was reminiscing about that period on his early life and what a bleak existence it had been, and how much it had now changed with all the scientists clustering around. Even the airport get mentioned--the Post/Rogers airfield. Mention was made that it was a time of high tension since it was the Cold War Years and the "missionary" was part of the effort to maintain a listening post in that very exposed position. So Fred and Nan were pulled back and went off to Iran. Frying pan to the fire...

3/13/05 - Thanks to M&M for bringing to and photographing Uncle Fred and his ring at the Will Rogers-Wiley Post Memorial Seaplane Base in Renton Washington. It was here, in 1935 that the fateful trip around the world began. 5/18/09 - Woo! Hoo!! After nearly five years thanks for rmachida for bringing Uncle Fred to Barrow to meet its original goal!!!