Barnett Family Donates Photos of the Golden North Hotel

On May 15, 2018, the Valdez Museum received a wonderful and large donation of photographs and ephemera from the family of Hal Barnett, donated care of Fayrene Sherritt of Hope, Alaska. The materials, which date to the late 1940s, concern the Barnett family’s interests at the Golden North Hotel, in Valdez, and various locations around the town of Chitina. Fayrene writes, “While packing and sorting our parents’ belongings, we found items from the old Valdez days when our father grew up in the Valdez area. His parents, Ed and Opal Barnett, owned the Golden North Hotel until it burned in 1947 or so. They returned to Texas. In 1969 while moving back, Opal passed away at age 67 in Santa Rosa, CA at their daughter’s home…It is our hope that these items and photos will be a nice addition to your museum.” And indeed they are – the collection totals over 200 items, including:

• 140 loose photographs
• A photograph album containing 43 photographs
• Four school awards to Hal Barnett
• Two letters with bank statements
• One book, “Civil Engineer’s Pocket-Book” (1909) with several inserts
• A First Bank of Valdez checkbook
• One “Ekonomik” check register with checks from the First Bank of Valdez
• One Cordova Air Service promotional card
• One Alaska Steamship Company passenger identification, plus baggage claim ticket
• A 1943 Valdez High School commencement program
• One book, “The Saga of Alaska” (1949)
• Two stock certificates from the Yellow Band Gold Mines
• One UAF catalogue, 1957-58
• One Alaska magazine/travel guide, dated April 1979

A big public thank-you to Fayrene and the Barnett family for this wealth of historical materials!

Golden North Hotel, Valdez, Alaska circa 1946

Golden North Hotel, Valdez Alaska, circa 1946