Peter Johnson Ruby, Alaska

The seller obtained this button hook at an auction in the Chicago area years ago. Peter Johnson was first listed in business in 1911. This is only the second hook I've ever seen from Alaska and it cost me a pretty penny. Included below is a street view of Ruby from the same time period.

Following a gold stampede to Ruby in 1910 came the business's to provide the miner's wants and needs. By 1911 wood frame buildings were going up at a rapid pace replacing the tents that first housed the outfitters, saloons and stores. Two sawmills provided the large amount of lumber needed to build a town. By 1912 Ruby was a busy community. Reports of new gold strikes seemed to be occurring constantly. More men were coming into the area to search for gold or work for wages on the claims.

For the next five years Ruby's businesses thrived. Though the mines were thirty to fifty miles away and the small towns of Long and Poorman had sprung up near them Ruby had the logistic position of being on the Yukon River. Men, supplies and equipment came in by river on sternwheeler or barge and the gold was shipped out the same way.

By 1918 Many of Ruby's men had left to fight in WWI. Then in the fall of that year many of the businessmen from the community perished in the sinking of the Princess Sophia. Ruby would never be the same.

A fire in 1929 destroyed much of the Ruby business district. A flood in 1931 destroyed most of the buildings on the waterfront area that were left after the fire. Today Ruby's businesses consist primarily of a general store and a fuel station.

Dates given here indicate the first verification of a businesses existence or the date of a picture or reference though it may have been in existence previously. The roads refered to as Front Street and First Avenue in Ruby appear to be the same street.