Rika's Landing Roadhouse

Rika's Landing Roadhouse, also known as Rika's Landing Site or the McCarty Roadhouse, is a roadhouse located at a historically important crossing of the Tanana River, in the Southeast Fairbanks Area, Alaska, United States. It is off mile 274.5 of the Richardson Highway in Big Delta.

The roadhouse is named after Rika Wallen, who acquired it from John Hajdukovich and operated it for many years. It became a hub of activity in that region of the interior. With the construction of the ALCAN (now Alaska) Highway and the replacement of the ferry with a bridge downstream, traffic moved away and patronage declined. The roadhouse was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1976, and is now a centerpiece of Big Delta State Historical Park, also listed on the National Register.

Background

The Richardson Highway, an important route through the Alaska Interior that contributed significantly to development and settlement of the region, began as a pack trail from the port at Valdez to Eagle, downstream on the Yukon River from Dawson. It was built in 1898 by the U.S. Army to provide an "all-American" route to the Klondike gold fields during the gold rush.
After the rush ended, the Army kept the trail open in order to connect its posts at Fort Liscum in Valdez, and Fort Egbert in Eagle. The Valdez-to-Eagle trail, and its branch to Fairbanks, became one of the most important access routes to the Alaska Interior during the Fairbanks' gold rush of 1902, and the 1903 construction of a WAMCATS telegraph line along the trail. This was accomplished by men of the U.S. Army Signal Corps, directed in part by then-Lieutenant Billy Mitchell, who later rose to the rank of general.

Many roadhouses, some 37 in all
and some now listed on the National Register of Historic Places, were built along this trail for the convenience of travelers. These roadhouses offered meals, sleeping quarters, and supplies. They were typically located about 15 to 20 miles apart.

Early activity

The Tanana River was one of the major rivers to be crossed by travelers along the Valdez-Eagle trail. A ferry was established just upriver of the Tanana's confluence with the Delta River, at a location then called Bates Landing. Bates Landing was about north of the current settlement of Delta Junction, in the area known now as Big Delta. The government collected a ferry toll on the south side from all those traveling northbound.

The WAMCATS telegraph line was relocated to parallel the trail after a fire. McCarty Station was established at the line's crossing of the Tanana in 1907 to maintain the telegraph. Several log cabins housed the telegraph office, a dispatcher, two repairmen and their supplies.

A trading post was constructed on the south bank of the Tanana, at Bates Landing in April 1904 by a prospector named Ben Bennett on his claim of , but Bennett sold the post and land to Daniel G. McCarty in April 1905. However, since E.T. Barnette, the founder of Fairbanks, and McCarty's former employer, had financed the goods in the post, Barnette retained ownership of them. The post property, now being used as a roadhouse, soon became known as McCarty's. Another prospector named Alonzo Maxey, and a friend, built Bradley's Roadhouse to compete with McCarty's and by 1907, McCarty's had been transferred to Maxey.

Hajdukovich era

In 1906, or perhaps sometime after,

Jovo 'John' Hajdukovich ( cnr, Jovo Hajduković, Јово Хајдуковић), an entrepreneur who had come to Alaska from Montenegro in 1903,

sensed a business opportunity and purchased the trading post and roadhouse from Maxey. Hajdukovich built a new and bigger roadhouse in 1909 using logs floated downriver. He continued to use the old trading post to store his gear.

Hadukovich had other business interests, including prospecting, freighting, acting as a hunting guide by taking hunting parties into the nearby Granite Mountains, and trading with, and advocating for, the Athabaskan natives.

(Later he was instrumental in founding the Tetlin Reserve.as mentioned in the review at
) After he was appointed as US Game Commissioner for the area,
he could no longer personally operate the roadhouse full-time. As with many informally managed roadhouses, Hadukovich asked travelers to "make themselves at home and leave some money on the table" for what they used. Despite this informality, the operations prospered.

Starting in 1904, the trail was improved and upgraded.
In 1907,

By 1910, the Alaska Road Commission completed the upgrade, making the trail usable as a wagon road. Major Wilds P. Richardson led the project and later became the namesake for the highway. He was promoted to general later in his career.) Stages plied the road, using horse-drawn sledges in winter and wagons in summer. By 1913 the roadhouse was a local center of activity for gold prospectors, local hunters, traders, and freighters.

Meanwhile, Erika 'Rika' Wallen, born Lovisa Erika Jakobson in 1874 on a farm near Örebro Sweden, immigrated with her sister in 1891 to the United States. They traveled to Minneapolis, Minnesota to join their brother Carl Jakobson. There they changed their last name to Wallen to distinguish themselves from the many other Jacobsons and Jakobsons. After Carl died in an accident, the sisters moved to San Francisco, which they heard was booming. Rika took a job as a cook for the Hills Brothers coffee family, which lasted until the 1906 San Francisco earthquake.

In 1916 Rika Wallen traveled to Valdez, reportedly "because she thought Alaska would be like Sweden".

Rika Wallen takes over the Roadhouse

After jobs cooking at the Kennecott copper mine and for a Fairbanks boarding house, Rika Wallen made her way to Big Delta. In 1917, or 1918, she was hired by Hadukovich to manage operations at his roadhouse, then still known as McCarty's.

Although Hadukovich had many business interests, he was not always solvent. For example, in later years he failed to be paid for timber he supplied to the ALCAN Highway