In each issue of The Alaska Miner, we interview an outstanding leader in and member of our industry. This time we are talking with Roger Burggraf, who has spent decades in Alaska mining and resource development and recently celebrated his 90th birthday. Faces of Mining
Roger Burggraf Happy Hill Mining Company
BY LEE LESCHPER When Roger Burggraf celebrated his 90th birthday ear- lier this summer in Fairbanks, he had a bit of birthday cake with some friends, then did what he does every day. He went back to work. For most of 70 years, Roger has worked and explored and built and mined in Alaska. He has had enough adven- tures for ten lifetimes. And he’s not done yet. Along the way, he has dedicated his life in Alaska to causes he believes in, everything from training sled dogs to mining, resource development and lowering energy costs. Growing up in New York State, he had been on his own since age 14, and worked on farms and ranches from Up- state New York to Wyoming. A love of wild things and ad- venture and a desire for knowledge led him to the opportu- nity to attend college at Cornell University. “It was a great experience, and I made many lifelong friends there.” While going to college he made the best of his time seek- ing adventure and work. He traveled to Alaska the first time and found work in Tom Morgan’s lumber mill. After the mill shut down, he worked const ruction setting power lines going to the airport and residential area north of Juneau. Roger loved playing sports and played 150-pound foot-
ball and lacrosse while at Cornell. He joined a small frater- nity and waited tables and washed dishes to help pay his way through while at the fraternity. His primary major was wildlife management, and geology and agriculture. During his second year at Cornell, he spent the summer months working in Alaska. “I lived with a family and
got a job with Smith Dairy working in the milk plant. The family I lived with loved it because I was able to bring home free milk, ice cream and other dairy products. His next summer job was for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service as a “fisheries aide,” more correctly a stream guard, protecting spawning salmon from poachers. There, his ad- ventures really began. “First thing was they asked if I was afraid of bears. I said I’d been around them and knew to respect them. And they said ‘we’ve got just the spot for you! So, they handed me an old Enfield .30/06 and dropped me off in Glacier Bay.” Provisions were meager so he quickly began living off the land, which he relished, except for the bugs. “Lot of times mosquitoes were so bad I would take the boat out in the middle of the bay. A seal popped his head out of the water, and I was hungry for meat, so I shot the seal. I got to shore, cut off a piece and put it in the frying pan. And it smelled awful! Next, I cut out the liver, fried it and boy it was good!” He had crafted a primitive cooler, kept stocked with ice from passing icebergs and kept his provisions cold. “Besides the seal liver and fish, I feasted on Dunge - ness crabs and clams, and t he blueberries and strawberries which were abundant.” With no neighbors and a job guarding the creek full of salmon, he reveled in the wilderness. “They gave me a boat and motor and tent and orders to not let any fishermen fish out the creek. I did stream sur - veys too. It was like a paid vacation!” “I’d go upstream, catch dollies, smoke the small ones and eat them like candy when out in the field.” The brown bears who also came to fish provided adven - tures as well. “I had a couple of close calls when working around brown bears. “When I came to Alaska I couldn’t afford a modern pis - tol, but I felt better packing a pistol, so I had an old Civil War cap-and-ball revolver that I had gotten from my step- father.” For clarification, a cap-and-ball pistol uses black pow - der and when fired, produces lots of white smoke.
Photo Courtesy Roger Burggraf A young Roger during his U.S. Fish and Wildlife days, with a sow brown bear he had to shoot in self-defense.
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The Alaska Miner
Fall 2022
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