THE BUILDER JANUARY 1925

The Fellowship of Masonry in Alaska

BY BRO. CHARLES E. NAGHEL
SECRETARY, MT. JUNEAU LODGE, No. 147, ALASKA

THE Territory of Alaska is within the jurisdiction of the M. W.
Grand Lodge of Masons of the State of Washington. The list given
herewith of Alaska lodges shows the number of Master Masons on the
respective rolls at the end of 1924:
                                                     Master
Lodge                              Location          Masons
White Pass Lodge, No. 113 . . .    Skagway, Alaska   119
Gastineaux Lodge, No. 124.....Douglas                104
Anvil Lodge, No. 140 .........Nome                   165
Mt. Juneau Lodge, No. 147.....Juneau                 195
Ketchikan Lodge, No. 159......Ketchikan              128
Tanana Lodge, No. 162 ........Fairbanks              203
(The farthest north lodge)
Valdez Lodge, No. 168 ........Valdez                  97
Mt. McKinley Lodge, No. 183 . . . Cordova            111
Seward Lodge, No. 219.........Seward                  82
Anchorage Lodge, No. 221......Anchorage              219
Petersburg, U. D .............Petersburg              20


There are small active Masonic clubs at Hanies and Sitka, Alaska.
The brethren at the latter place have applied for dispensation, but
still lack two dimits of having the requisite fifteen to obtain
favorable action on their petition.

At Juneau, Alaska, are located the following Scottish Rite bodies:
Alaska Lodge of Perfection, No. 1; Alaska Chapter of Rose Croix,
No. 1; Alaska Council of Kadosh, No. 1, and Alaska Consistory, No.
1.

There is an active Scottish Rite club located at Ketchikan, Alaska,
and active Shrine clubs are located in all the larger cities of the
territory.

A chapter of Royal Arch Masons is located in Nome, and commanderies
at Anchorage and Fairbanks.

The several lodges and clubs throughout the territory have always
been active in carrying on the work of the Fraternity and
maintaining its high principles.

The various lodges are visited by sojourning Masons from
jurisdictions scattered throughout the world, and it is not
uncommon to find a dozen or more Masonic jurisdictions, including
a number of foreign countries, represented at our small Masonic
meetings. Oftentimes two or more brethren will meet and make
themselves known to each other in the most unexpected manner and in
remote places, as while out on hunting or prospecting trips, and
these meetings out in the vast researches of an undeveloped
territory are quite illustrative of the universality of
Freemasonry, for often the brother whom you meet thus unexpectedly
hails from a lodge in some distant foreign country.

I have experienced the pleasure of such meetings in a small way
myself while out on hunting trips. In 1916 I accepted an invitation
from an acquaintance, whom I had met occasionally in Juneau when he
was here on his infrequent visits to the city, to have my hunting
trip with him that fall. I had been informed that he was a Mason
and, after making part of the journey by the mail boat and
finishing it by traveling in a row boat, I arrived at his little
cabin where, by due examination, we established our fraternal
relationship, and afterward he climbed up to the attic of the cabin
and brought down his Knight Templar's uniform and sword, which he
told me had not been out of their cases for many years. He held
membership in a lodge and commandery in Idaho. However, we were not
on common ground beyond the Blue Lodge, having traveled different
routes.

SOME PERSONAL EXPERIENCES

Several years later, while hunting with this brother, we were
camped on the beach on the shore of a large inlet filled with
reefs, rocks and small islands. We had finished the day's hunt, and
just as night was falling, after we had washed the supper dishes
and were cleaning up the arsenal of small arms in the tent, we
heard the "put, put" of a small gas boat approaching the camp. I
stepped outside the tent and called out to the boat's occupant the
directions for making the anchorage in our small sheltered bay, but
it was not until he had pulled almost to the shore in his tender
that I recognized him as a Mason from Ukiah, Cal., whom I had sat
in lodge with several times years previously in Juneau. He had been
informed at a small settlement some miles away of my being in the
inlet, and he searched about in his little launch until nearly dark
before he located our camp. We had an enjoyable and interesting
fraternal session in the tent until late into the night, disturbed
by no sound outside the tent except the occasional call of a loon,
duck or goose, which is music to the hunter; and often the volume
of sound from the feathered tribe at night would prompt us to
venture the prediction that wing shooting on the morrow would be
more attractive than seeking the more toothsome venison.

The very nature of our surroundings in Alaska brings members of the
Fraternity together in a closer bond than is the case in the more
thickly populated communities, I believe. If you ever have the
leisure and inclination you should spend a few weeks on one of the
most fascinating journeys to be had throughout the world, a trip to
our Northland during the summer, and see our wonderful scenery,
which has sufficient variety throughout the territory to always be
pleasing to the eye as one journeys along. The trip can be made
without much expense during the summer tourist season, which time
is most attractive to many people, although I always maintain that
winter is the most productive of beautiful sights, although not a
good time for travel or to make good connections along the route.
You would enjoy a visit to Alaska, viewing its attractive scenery
and meeting the people that make this land their home. Besides, you
would go back to your home with the knowledge that Alaska is a
different land than you had conceived it to be at long range.

