Austin E. Lathrop

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Austin Eugene "Cap" Lathrop (1865-1950) was an industrialist and outspoken opponent of Alaska statehood. He has been called "Alaska's first home-grown millionaire."

"Cap" Lathrop was born in 1865 in Lapeer County, Michigan to Eugene Lathrop and Susan Miriah Parsons Lathrop. He was expelled from school in the ninth grade for damages caused when he tampered with a water heater.

After the Great Seattle Fire of 1889, Lathrop moved to that city and worked for a time as a contractor. He made plans to settle in Anacortes, but the Panic of 1893 disrupted his business and he was forced to return to Seattle.

In 1895, he purchased a steam ship, the L.J. Perry, and embarked on a new venture, transporting goods to the Territory of Alaska. Once the Klondike Gold Rush started, business picked up, and soon he was transporting both prospectors and the goods that they required.

In 1901, Lathrop married a widow, Mrs. Cosby McDowell of Seattle. The ceremony took place in Valdez, Alaska, where Lathrop had taken up residence. The marriage did not last, however, and within a year Mrs. McDowell Lathrop and her daughter relocated to Seattle.

In 1902, Lathrop's California-Alaska Mining and Development Company set up a camp at the mouth of the Kluvesna River, and in 1903, Lathrop drilled unsuccessfully for oil in Cold Bay.

Lathrop moved to Cordova, where in 1911, he was elected mayor. In 1916, he converted a clothing store into a movie theater, The Empress. He went on to construct an Empress movie theater in Anchorage (1916) and Fairbanks (1927), as well as the Lacey Street Theater (Fairbanks, 1936-1940) and the Fourth Avenue Theater (Anchorage, 1947).

From 1920-1922, Lathrop served in the Alaska Territory House of Representatives.

In 1924, he produced The Chechahcos, the first feature-length film shot entirely in Alaska.

Lathrop moved to Fairbanks, and in 1929, purchased the Fairbanks Daily News-Miner. In 1937, he began work on the building that would house KFAR, Alaska’s first radio station. The call-letters formed an acronym for "Key for Alaska’s Riches". KFAR made its inaugural broadcase on October 1, 1939. In 1948, Lathrop opened Alaska's second radio station, KENI in Anchorage.

Lathrop feared that Alaska statehood would entail taxes and regulations that would harm business, and the Daily News-Miner took a stance challenging pro-statehood Territorial Governor Ernest Gruening.

On July 26, 1950, Lathrop was killed in an accident when he was struck by railroad car in the yard of his Suntrana coal plant.

[edit] Legacy

Lathrop High School was constructed in Fairbanks in 1955, and named to honor the late Fairbanks resident.

Austin Lathrop is said to have been the model for the Zeb "Czar" Kennedy character in Edna Ferber's 1958 novel, The Ice Palace. Kennedy was played by Richard Burton in the 1960 film adaptation.

The Austin E. Lathrop Residence Hall of the University of Alaska, Fairbanks was opened in 1962.

In 1988, Alaska Business Monthly nominated Lathrop to the Alaska Business Hall of Fame.

[edit] References

[edit] Bibliography

  • Tower, Elizabeth A. Mining, Media, Movies: Cap Lathrop’s Keys for Alaska’s Riches 1991
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