History · Platinum · established 1975

Platinum’s history is mostly unwritten

The public archives hold only 2 old photos of Platinum. The rest are in attics, shoeboxes and the historical society. Help start the collection.

1975established

2old photos & papers

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From Platinum’s archive · credits on each photo

What stands out about Platinum’s past

Read from the archive, the National Register and the record. The page puts what stands out first.

A history waiting to be writtenOnly 2 old photos are in the public archives. The rest are in attics and albums.

★ What stands out · Help out

Start Platinum’s collection

The first neighbors to add old photos shape how Platinum’s history is told.

Decades since 1900 with photos

00s10s20s30s40s50s60s70s80s90s

2 of 10 decades. The empty ones are waiting for someone’s album.

Retake an old viewTheb1934 - Flickr - NOAA Photo Library: stand where they stood+15 Share a family photoSign in to add one+10

The story

How Platinum came to be

From Wikipedia’s history of Platinum.

Read it all →

Platinum was named in the 1930s due to the platinum ore found in the area. The site was a mining boomtown by 1937 boasting a roadhouse, two trading posts and a population of 50. A post office had been established in 1935. An earlier Inuit village called Arviq had been abandoned. The town was incorporated as a city in 1975.

Ray Petersen Flying Service was awarded the exclusive contract in 1937 to fly for the Goodnews Bay platinum and iridium mine, hauling miners and company supplies out of his base at Bethel, Alaska.

During World War II, the Alaska Territorial Guard served to safeguard it against Japanese attack as it was the only source of the strategic metal platinum in the Western Hemisphere.

Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.

Timeline

Platinum, 1939 to 1975

Woven from the archive, the National Register and the people born here.

20th century
1939In the archivePlatinum Alaska geologic map
1948In the archiveTheb1934 - Flickr - NOAA Photo Library
1975
FoundingPlatinum is established

By decade

Platinum, decade by decade

2 decades in the archive, from the 1930s to the 1940s. Scroll each row; tap a photo for its story.

1930s–1940s2 items

1939Platinum Alaska geologic mapMap

1948Theb1934 - Flickr - NOAA Photo Library

1950s–1990snothing yet

Nothing in the archives for these yearsWeddings on Main Street, storms, parades, school pictures, the old store. If it’s in your family album, it belongs here.

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Then & now

Stand where they stood

No then-and-now pairs yet. Take a photo from the same spot as an old one and they appear here side by side.

Retake this viewTheb1934 - Flickr - NOAA Photo Library, 1948

Find the spot, match the angle, and add your photo. It becomes the first then-and-now pair on Platinum’s page.

Retake this view · +15

Memory lane

What the archives can’t tell you, neighbors can.

Town Square →

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Your answer becomes a post in Town Square.

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From Wikimedia Commons (2) and Wikipedia. Archive images are copied here with their credits and licenses, shown on each photo’s page. Refreshed monthly.