By CIRI Historian Alexandra J. McClanahan

Seward's history as a community can be traced back to a tenacious Alaska Native woman in the late 1880s whose history remains somewhat mysterious and who was persuaded to sell all of her land for what ultimately would become the city of Seward. It is believed the area that would become the town of Seward on Resurrection Bay was used at different times in pre-history by various Alaska Native groups, including Alutiiqs and Dena'ina Athabascans, according to archaeologist Michael R. Yarborough.

Mary Lowell is shown with three of her children at the Lowell Cabin. Photo courtesy of Resurrecton Bay Historical Society

Mary J. Barry has written a three-volume history of Seward and discussed the early years in her 1986 book "Seward, Alaska, A History of the Gateway City, Volume 1: Prehistory to 1914."

"At one time in the past, Eskimo-type people apparently inhabited all of the Kenai Peninsula . . . not long before the Russians entered the Alaskan scene, Athabascan Indians moved onto the Kenai and Alaska Peninsula and took up residence there," Barry wrote. "The Lowells were the first family to reside at Resurrection Bay after the departure of the aboriginal villagers."

Yarborough's company, Cultural Resource Consultants, recently undertook research in the area for the Alaska SeaLife Center. He authored a report that included a discussion of the first recorded settlers to the region, Frank and Mary (Forgal) Lowell. Frank was born in 1848 and died in 1923, and Mary was born in 1855 and died in 1906.

"They set up housekeeping just west of the Alaska SeaLife Center," Yarborough said. He noted that Frank Lowell was a trader from New England, possibly related to the Lowells who founded Lowell, Mass. He would buy supplies at the Alaska Commercial Company store in English Bay (now known as Nanwalek) and then would trade the supplies with Alaska Native people throughout the region for furs. He essentially acted as an intermediary between Native hunters and the AC Co. and the Western Fur and Trading Co.

Yarborough said Lowell settled at Resurrection Bay in the late 1880s with Mary. Little is known about Mary, Yarborough said.

Barry indicated that Mary Lowell had a Russian father and an Eskimo or Aleut mother. On the other hand, Yarborough said a geologist for the U.S. Geological Survey wrote in 1911 that she was "half Russian and half Knik Indian." According to Barry, the 1890 census showed that Frank and Mary and their nine children lived in Resurrection Bay. The census taker listed Mary as "mixed race," and the children and Frank as "white," according to Barry.

Frank Lowell may have moved to Resurrection Bay in advance of his family to establish a saltery, and Mary and their children may have settled there as early as 1884, according to Yarborough. Her homestead filing indicates that she settled on her claim on August 15, 1888, he said.

Yarborough said that he is fascinated by Mary and has come to admire her greatly because when her husband abandoned her in 1893, she continued to raise her nine children on her own. Mary and the children were virtually cut off from much of the world, but they apparently lived a very prosperous subsistence lifestyle, building several homes and outbuildings in the area. Unfortunately, although she survived the abandonment by her husband, who divorced her in 1895, by 1903 she had sold to the railroad developers all of her holdings for $4,000 and 37 lots in the town.

"Mary Lowell was basically overrun by civilization," Yarborough said. She died in 1906 from tuberculosis. A number of landmarks carry the family name, including Lowell Canyon, Lowell Creek, Lowell Point and Lowell Glacier. According to Barry, Mt. Marathon is one peak on the former Lowell Mountain.

Additionally, Mt. Alice and Mt. Eva are named for two of the Lowell daughters, according to Lee Poleske. Poleske, president of the Resurrection Bay Historical Society, noted that Mt. Alice is the most prominent mountain directly across the bay from Seward, and Mt. Eva is the peak directly to the north of Mt. Alice.

"She owned nearly all of the land that became the town, then wound up with virtually nothing," Yarborough said. He pointed out that the family's isolation ended with the Cook Inlet gold rush of 1896 when miners and others were drawn into the area. Lt. H.G. Learnard and geologist Walter Mendenhall, part of an Army expedition, visited Mary Lowell in the summer of 1898. By 1900, the Alaska Central Railroad Co. began efforts to build a railroad from the gulf coast into the Interior.

Yarborough's report notes that Seward's "birth date" is considered to be Aug. 28, 1903, when John Ballaine arrived to build the railroad. Not long after, Mary Lowell was paid $4,000 for her land. Although the Alaska Central Railroad went bankrupt in 1904, eventually the U.S. government became the owner of the Alaska Railroad.

"Despite the fact that her husband left her, she survived and prospered with her family for 10 years after," Yarborough said. He said it's sad that there is so little left of her contribution to the town, but that his admiration for her continues to grow the more he is able to learn about her.

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