Kenai Conversation: The Brief, Awkward History of Fort Kenay

Kenai Peninsula historian Shana Loshbaugh struck historian gold in being the first person to request to peruse a trove of documents donated to the University of Alaska Archives from the descendants of Medorum Crawford Jr., a career military officer in the late 1800s. In letters and interviews after his retirement, Crawford recollected his two years of service in Alaska, including at Fort Kenay, the first official U.S. government presence on the central Kenai Peninsula. That led Loshbaugh on a wider hunt for information about how the fort came to be, and ceased to be. What resulted is her research project, "The Brief Awkward History of Fort Kenay," which she presented at the Kenai Chamber of Commerce and Visitor Center on Nov. 13.