John W. Heaton - Outlaw Tales of Alaska: True Stories Of The Last Frontiers Most Infamous Crooks, Culprits, And Cutthroats

John W. Heaton is an associate professor of history at the University of Alaska Fairbanks. As a graduate student he specialized in American Indian history and the History of the American West, and earned an MA from Utah State University and a PhD from Arizona State University. He has lived in Fairbanks since 2000 and now considers himself an expert on snow, subfreezing temperatures, winter darkness, and changing flat tires at 40 below. He is the author of The Shoshone-Bannocks: Culture and Commerce at Fort Hall, 18701940, and scholarly articles on Native Americans. His current project focuses on the history of Athabascan communities in the Alaskan Interior.

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One would not ordinarily consider Fairbanks, Alaska, to be a desert environment, but the Alaskan Interior receives only about fifteen inches of precipitation annually. It also can get quite warm during the summer. In June 1905, on one of these hot Interior Alaska days, an old man came into Fairbanks from the north trail. The mosquitoes molested him fiercely as he tramped across the bridge into the boomtown. Not too many men were on the streets, but the dazed old man stopped the first passerby he saw to announce that he had just been held up, by the Blue Parka Bandit! This news quickly spread through the dirt streets. Men streamed out of saloons, stores, and tents to learn more. There had recently been a string of holdups that spring, and people were on edge. As they crowded around the old man to get the details, he simply said that the bandit did not take any of his money; rather, he had given the old man money to buy a drink, and that is exactly what he intended to do! There was some laughter and a few grunts of disbelief, but the crowd was now intrigued, and probed him for more of the story.

The old man, a little defensive now, sipped on his drink and recounted his story. He had been coming down the trail from Pedro Dome where it wound through the woods. As he hiked through a thick spruce stand the Blue Parka Bandit suddenly appeared on the trail. The old man did not notice him until he heard the bandit tell him to give him his gold. Startled, the old man looked up and saw the mans steely eyes and a rifle resting like a baby in his big arms. He reflexively complied and reached into his pocket for his poke without resistance or complaint. The big man in the blue parka seemed an intimidating figure of authority at that moment. Compliance came naturally. As the old man considered his predicament, his heart began to race. In an instant, he had lost control of his own destiny to a man in a blue parka carrying a .30-30 rifle! The old man tossed his money over to the bandit. Within seconds the highwayman realized that there was only ten dollars to be had from this traveler. The bandit chuckled and asked if there was anything else of value in the old mans pockets. The old man said that was all he had on him. Having a rifle barrel pointed straight at your heart acts like a truth serum. The bandit knew the old-timer spoke without guile. So, he returned the money to the poke, threw it to the old man, and instructed him to put it back in his pocket. Then, to the consternation and maybe even admiration of everyone listening to the story, the Blue Parka Bandit reached into his own pocket, pulled out some coins, and tossed them to the old man. He told the old-timer to buy himself a drink when he got to the next saloon. Then he stepped back into the trees and vanished.

Fairbanks, Alaska, is located in the geographic center of the state. This fact, coupled with its historical significance as a major gold-mining center in the Far North, resulted in residents declaring their city to be the Golden Heart of Alaska. The city sits against the backdrop of the Tanana Hills in the north, a cluster of rolling hills that do not reach more than 2,000 feet in elevation. Follow the streets leading south long enough and one reaches the Tanana Flats, a wide valley draining the river of that name. These muskeg flats, notoriously boggy and mosquito-infested in the summer and frozen solid in the winter, stretch for about 50 miles or so until they connect with the Alaska Range. Denali, or Mount McKinley, the tallest mountain in North America, is the most significant mountain in this spectacular range. A small river, the Chena, meanders through the town on its way to the confluence with the mighty Tanana River 10 miles below Fairbanks. The Tanana flows several hundred more miles until it feeds the more famous Yukon River. These rivers were crucial for the Athabascan Indians who lived in this region of the vast Alaskan Interior, but they also served as early transportation routes taken by military explorers and later by entrepreneurs, fur trappers, and gold seekers. Initially, all traffic into Fairbanks, founded in 1902 after the discovery of gold in the vicinity, came on these rivers.