Guide to the Melvin Reed Mower papers
1942-1943
Collection number: HMC-1298.
Creator: Mower, Melvin Reed.
Title: Melvin Reed Mower papers.
Dates: 1942-1943.
Volume of collection: 0.01 cubic feet.
Language of materials: Materials in this collection are in English.
Collection summary: Mostly photographs of a man who worked on the Whittier Tunnel and on Rugged Island in Resurrection Bay.
Biographical note:
Melvin Reed Mower was born in 1907 in Fairview, Utah. In 1942, he took a job to work on the construction of the Whittier Tunnel and moved to Alaska in June or July. Mower first worked as a chuck tender and then as a truck driver. In December 1942, he moved back to Utah, but in February 1943, he decided to move back to Alaska. He worked on Rugged Island, in Resurrection Bay, building defense structures and placing guns for coastal defense. Mower returned to Utah in the summer of 1943. He lived and worked on a family farm until 1967, and then moved to Salt Lake City where he worked as a security guard at the University of Utah. Mower died in 1995.
Collection description:
The collection contains photographs and the personal account of Melvin Reed Mower. Subjects of the photographs include Portage Lake and Glacier, Rugged Island, Whittier, a fishery, a hike Mower and others went on where they found and buried the body of Jack O’Brian, and the construction of the road at Bear Valley, Portage.
Arrangement: The collection is arranged in the order in which it arrived at the Archives.
Digitized copies: Selected images have been digitized and are available on Alaska’s Digital Archives. For information about obtaining digital copies, please contact Archives and Special Collections.
Rights note: Archives and Special Collection holds copyright to materials created by Melvin Reed Mower.
Preferred citation: Melvin Reed Mower papers, Archives and Special Collections, Consortium Library, University of Alaska Anchorage.
Works used in preparation of inventory: Biographical information was provided by the donor, Kenneth Lougee, as well as Melvin Reed Mower’s personal account which is available in the collection.
Acquisition note: The collection was donated to the Archives by Kenneth Lougee in 2018. Lougee signed a deed of gift at the time of donation.
Processing information: This collection was described by Veronica Denison in 2018.