{"id":766,"date":"2010-10-26T04:47:14","date_gmt":"2010-10-26T00:47:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.clarissarizal.com\/blogblog\/?p=766"},"modified":"2010-10-31T09:55:48","modified_gmt":"2010-10-31T05:55:48","slug":"mark-whitman-provides-definition-of-willoughby-avenue","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.clarissarizal.com\/blog\/2010\/10\/mark-whitman-provides-definition-of-willoughby-avenue\/","title":{"rendered":"Mark Whitman Provides Definition of Willoughby Avenue"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Poster designed by Paul Gardenier and Jackie Manning<\/p><\/div>\n

The Juneau names of streets are like any in other American towns.\u00a0 We\u2019ve numbered streets, the Main street, and Front street.\u00a0 Then as the town expanded, the streets were named after prominent figures in the community like Egan Drive and \u00a0Willoughby Avenue.\u00a0 As many of you know, Egan Drive was named after Governor Bill Egan who I believe served 2 terms from the late 60’s into the mid 70’s.\u00a0 I wondered about Willoughby; I thought he too was a political figurehead from the turn of the century:\u00a0 not!<\/p>\n

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Local librarian, independent historian and storyteller, Mark Whitman<\/p><\/div>\n

Richard \u201cDick\u201d Willoughby was a gold prospector originally from Missouri.\u00a0 Gold panning his way up the West Coast from California through Vancouver Island area, he arrived in Juneau in the late 1800s and made his fortunes.\u00a0 Who was this character?\u00a0 There is no one alive today who knew this character; he died in 1902.\u00a0 However, through the research of local historian, librarian and storyteller Mark Whitman, Juneauites were treated to Mark\u2019s several years\u00a0 of researching factual accounts about Willoughby compiled into 2 hours of historical, fascinating and sometimes comical, storytelling.<\/p>\n

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A photo of Juneau' waterfront in the late 1800's shows where Willoughby's home was located <\/p><\/div>\n

Mark\u2019s presentation left the audience hanging at the end of each sentence \u2013 I literally experienced sitting at the edge of my seat.\u00a0 He accompanied his storytelling with a display of Willoughby\u2019s banjo, a few invented percussion instruments, a compiled document listing all of Willoughby\u2019s mining claims along the West Coast on up to Juneau, and a fascinating Power Point Presentation of archival images of Willoughby\u2019s family images from Missouri, his West Coast mining claims and photos of his home in early Juneau (at the base of Telephone Hill in almost the exact spot of Dan DeRoux\u2019s recent art installation at the new public transportation facility).\u00a0 We discovered this man was not just a miner, he was also a musician and storyteller who could bamboozle his audiences with first-hand experiences and tall tales.<\/p>\n

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Mark Whitman presents a document listing all of Willoughby's mining claims<\/p><\/div>\n

Mark touched upon the subject of the social\/political effects of the non-Native miners who \u201cmarried\u201d Tlingit women (until the non-Native women arrived, and then some of the miner\u2019s \u201creturned\u201d to their \u201cown kind\u201d as Willoughby eventually had).\u00a0 This was a very interesting aspect to his presentation because my maternal grandmother\u2019s older sister was married to Joe Juneau\u2019s partner, Richard Harris.\u00a0\u00a0 Did you know that Juneau was once named Harrisburg?\u00a0 I surmise because Harris was married to a Native woman, a T\u2019akDeinTaan clan member from Hoonah, he lost his credentials to his own people.\u00a0 The locals could not support the town\u2019s name being Harrisburg because this would acknowledge Harris\u2019 \u201chalf breed\u201d children who would have equal rights and privileges, and back then, this was unheard of, and definitely unacceptable. \u00a0\u00a0Of course, to appear as though there was ever any discrimination in the town\u2019s image that it wants to portray, there is probably another explanation of why this town\u2019s name was changed from Harrisburg to Juneau.\u00a0 The name change in itself probably has many a tall tale to tell; it\u2019s part of \u00a0Juneau\u2019s \u201ccolor.\u201d<\/p>\n

Understand I appreciate the \u201cgood works\u201d of the bureaucratic approach to solve the \u201cproblems\u201d of Juneau, yet Juneau has lost its public display of \u201ccolorful\u201d characters.\u00a0 We have been \u201ctempered\u201d and seduced into a certain image.\u00a0 Have we have lost touch with a truth about our image as a whole.; or has it just shifted into something else?<\/p>\n

In my lifetime, I remember certain characters who once graced our town with their interesting personalities\u00a0 (those of us who are at least 40+ years may also remember them.)\u00a0 We no longer have characters like town drunk, Henry, nor the legless, Tlingit Horace Marks, the brilliant, eccentric politician Belle Blue, the elderly walking couple of Mr. & Mrs. Cashen, the Alaska Home-Health Aide Service director, Dove Kull or the Admiralty Island bear man, Stan Price. (Even our Governor Bill Egan was a commoner with the locals at the Triangle Bar). \u00a0I could say not one of these characters were harmful to the general public.\u00a0 As children, we weren’t afraid of these folks; their characters and the very fact that they were amongst us were accepted as the norm.\u00a0 Their obvious tragedies and\/or accomplishments added to the human aspects of our society; they each contributed to the \u201cAlaskan\u201d experience in their own special way.\u00a0 Their multi-faceted characters were out in the open; this dynamic lent itself to the very human quality and character of Juneau.<\/p>\n

For almost 40 years I lived in downtown Juneau.\u00a0 I no longer live downtown, but I still do business at the downtown stores, restaurants and banks.\u00a0 During my walks through town, I cannot say I am aware of any real \u201ccharacters.\u201d\u00a0 On occasion I\u2019ll recognize someone.\u00a0 On occasion there will be someone getting thrown out of a bar.\u00a0 Yet, there are no longer \u201cconsistent\u201d contributions to our unique, Alaskan society.\u00a0 All seems so bland.\u00a0 \u00a0How come we have seemingly become sterile?<\/p>\n

Recalling the early years following the oil money in the mid to late 70’s,\u00a0 local politicians wanted to create a certain \u201cclean\u201d image for the arrival of the thousands of tourists they were anticipating from the increasing number of enormous tour ships.\u00a0 Politicians proposed to \u201cclean up the act\u201d and erase the \u201cunsightly\u201d aspects of downtown; to name a few such as \u201cWino Alley\u201d, moved the lower class from downtown and provided \u201clow income housing\u201d near the Juneau Garbage Dump\/Land Fill and created the Glory Hole for the homeless.\u00a0 During the \u201ctourist season\u201d we now have a sterile downtown Juneau – flowery, painted and paved – alive and bustling for 5 months of the year with strangers from around the world, to dull and lifeless for 7 months (especially the South end of South Franklin Street!). \u00a0\u00a0Maybe I am the only one with this perspective; maybe I\u2019m the only one wearing dull, lifeless glasses.\u00a0 Maybe all our characters are indoors watching other characters on YouTube.<\/p>\n

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Local musicians Bob Banghart on fiddle, and Jack Fontanella on banjo were the live \u201csoundtrack\u201d for Mark Whitman\u2019s presentation.\u00a0 This production was held at and sponsored by, the Alaska State Museum in Juneau.\u00a0 This is the same location where the Alaska Folk Festival began its musical roots almost 37 years ago in 1974.\u00a0 There is no comparison between the number of musicians in this country to the number of performing storytellers, yet wouldn\u2019t it be a fine thing to help promote the art of storytelling by the creation of an Alaskan storytelling festival?\u00a0 The stories could be told by a one-man show, or various theatrical styles (mime, speaking actors, etc.), with a live \u201csound track\u201d by a musician or an entire orchestra.\u00a0\u00a0 The evening of stories could be held in a variety of venues (starting at the Alaska State Museum?), indoors in a coffee shop, outdoors around a fire, hosted in someone\u2019s large living room?\u00a0\u00a0 (Can you tell Mark Whitman\u2019s presentation on Willoughby was an inspiration?)<\/p>\n

Alaska still has a unique character; could it be that we\u2019ve been molded, shaped, and evolved into a more \u201ccontrolled\u201d society reflecting a change – a transition from individually-known characters to group-characters that reflect the diverse nature of each individual town?\u00a0 We have groups that never existed 40 or even 30 years ago \u00a0such as the Montessori School, the Alaska Folk Festival, Juneau-Jazz and Classics, Arts & Humanities Councils, Juneau Dance Unlimited, Habitat for Humanities, Alaskans for Life, and the Raptor Center to name a few.\u00a0 Why we could add another group character called the Alaskan Storytelling Festival?\u00a0 Maybe Alaska\u2019s colorful history is now defined in organized groups outnumbering the more colorful, outstanding, characters of today such as Sarah Palin?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Juneau names of streets are like any in other American towns.\u00a0 We\u2019ve numbered streets, the Main street, and Front street.\u00a0 Then as the town expanded, the streets were named after prominent figures in the community like Egan Drive and \u00a0Willoughby Avenue.\u00a0 As many of you know, Egan Drive was named after Governor Bill Egan […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[45,19,23],"tags":[89],"class_list":["post-766","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-concerts-and-plays","category-honoring-others","category-photo-essays-of-alaska","tag-juneau-alaska"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.clarissarizal.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/766","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.clarissarizal.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.clarissarizal.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.clarissarizal.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.clarissarizal.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=766"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.clarissarizal.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/766\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":773,"href":"https:\/\/www.clarissarizal.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/766\/revisions\/773"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.clarissarizal.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=766"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.clarissarizal.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=766"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.clarissarizal.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=766"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}