Blanket toss, Anchorage, Alaska circa 1960

A blanket toss during the Fur Rendezvous Festival (aka Fur Rondy) in Anchorage, Alaska, c. 1960. Near the SW corner of 4th Avenue and E Street, in front of the old City Hall. The blanket toss was traditionally employed by Alaska's Iñupiat and Yup'ik peoples to raise hunters into the air, when looking for game.

Category:

Travel & Events

Tags:

• AMIPA
• Alaska
• archive
• history
• 8mm
• Kodachrome
• film
• Alaska Natives

[Rono49]

This blanket toss event was filmed near the NE corner of 4th Ave. & "E" St., not the SW corner as stated above. The merry-go-round was set up right on the corner. It's very nostalgic.

[AlaskaMovingImage]

@Rono49 Thanks for the feedback. However, it's pretty clear that the location is the SW corner of 4th and E. In the background is visible the south side of the Anchorage Hotel (on the NW corner of the intersection), including the bright orange Rexall Drug sign. The NE corner, at the time, was still fully occupied by the Bevers & Pfeil Building (aka "Hewitt's Drug Store"), just visible in some frames of this film clip.

[AlaskaMovingImage]

@Rono49 Also, be sure and check out the mural in the Anchorage Museum's Imaginarium, made from one of Steve McCutcheon's B&W stills--possibly on the same day he shot this footage.

[Rono49]

My bonehead mistake. Sorry. I was thinking of the location within that *block*, bounded by 4th & 5th Ave. and "E" & "F" St. I know the area well, and may have been at that blanket toss with my parents. Steve McCutcheon was a fine photographer. He & Ward Wells account for a tremendous chunk of the photo archive of Anchorage history.