Alaskan History
Orr Stage on winter sled rails leaving for a trip from Valdez to Fairbanks. Signs in view, including “Copper Block and Dr. F. R. Chaney, Physician, suggest a date circa 1906. [Postcard from a photograph, published by Portland Post Card Co., Portland & Seattle]
The Edward S. Orr Stage Company In 1910 a Mr. Hallock C. Bundy undertook the compiling and publication of a traveller’s guidebook to a large portion of Alaska. Grandiously titling his book The Valdez-Fairbanks trail : the story of a great highway : the Tanana Valley - Valdez, the gateway to an empire : a guide for the Alaska traveler, Mr. Bundy set about chronicling the routes to the territory’s towns and major settlements, and included chapters by several men of prominence, such as Governor Walter E. Clarke, Judge James Wickersham, Major Wilds P. Richardson, C. C. Georgeson, and John P. Clum. With splendid historic photographs and advertising from dozens of the era’s best-known businesses, the guidebook is a rich storehouse of Alaskan history. Among the more interesting advertisements are those promoting the stage services provided by Edward S. Orr, proudly claiming “Eight day service between Valdez and Fairbanks, a distance of 364 miles,” and “All stages equipped with abundance of fur robes and carbon-heated foot warmers.”
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