alaskan-legacies.com

By DERMOT COLEKEN RANKIN took off work during the summers, most of the time without pay, so he could help kids in Fairbanks learn how to play baseball.

His decades of service to the community are to be recognized this evening when a baseball field next to Pioneer Park is to be named in his honor at about 5:50 p.m.

It is also to be “Ken Rankin Legacy Night” at Growden Memorial Park, with the Alaska Goldpanners playing the Mat-Su Miners. Rankin’s brother, Dale Rankin, is to throw out the first pitch. The ceremony honoring Rankin is to start at 6:45 p.m.

The Rankin family has a long tradition with youth baseball and the Alaska Goldpanners. General Manager Don Dennis said that Ken was his “unofficial adviser” and a reliable sounding board for many of the things Dennis did with the team, helping out on such decisions as the design of the uniforms.

“I think it’s hugely appropriate that he gets a field named after him,” said Dennis. “His interest went far beyond the baseball part into a very personal interest in each kid.”

Rankin, who coached baseball in Fairbanks for nearly four decades, died in 2002 at 73. He began coaching in 1959 with Jim Growden, the man who Growden Memorial Park is named for. Their team was first known as the Pan Am Jets and later became the Yankees. Rankin was a big fan of the New York Yankees and of pinstripes.

A lifelong bachelor, he was born in Knoxville, Iowa, and served four years in the Navy, then studied at Upper Iowa University before heading north. He worked at Clear Air Force Station as a member of Laborer’s Union Local 942 until his retirement.

As reliable as the midnight sun, he could be found in or near the ballparks every day in the summer, carefully tending the grounds and practicing with his players. He could never get enough practicing.

His players always tucked their shirts in and were asked to play the game and conduct themselves with pride. He went so far as to send instructions home to the moms on cleaning uniforms so they would stay bright after multiple cycles in the washing machine.

“He was a disciplinarian when he was coaching, but he was always a very gentle man,” said Jim Dieringer, whose children knew Rankin as a coach. “The kids that were on his team, they loved him.”

After the games, the parents would wait in the stands while Rankin engaged the kids with a lecture that could be a long one, hitting the high and low points as the kids drank soda pop.

Rankin donated thousands of hours of his time to tending the fields and used his own money to help buy equipment and uniforms.

He took personal responsibility for the condition of the baseball fields and could be found there at any time of the day, digging dandelions, painting the backstop, setting the sprinklers or kicking off those who didn’t belong.

In a News-Miner interview in 1990, Rankin had this to say about the value of programs for children: “I’m a firm believer if a kid starts with sports–and this goes for the glee club, drama club, band and all that–and sticks with it, by the time he gets out of school, he’s going to be a good, honest, smart kid.”

I got an e-mail from Neil Davis the other day. The son of homesteader Bon Davis, Neil is well-known in his own right, but his father is one of the reasons North Pole is North Pole.

He said that while it is true that investors Dahl and Gaske originated the idea of the name–thinking it would draw toy manufacturers to the area–and it is true that in 1952 Bon Davis petitioned the U.S. District Court to change the name from “Davis” to North Pole, there is more to the story.

“Dad did in fact apply for the name change to North Pole, but it was done under duress. He did not like the idea at all–thought it very hokey–but the buyers insisted he do it as part of the purchasing agreement,” Neil remembered.

I love the history of this area and it is immensely pleasurable in hearing it directly from the people who lived it. I greatly enjoyed Neil’s e-mail reminiscing about the old days and he has given me permission to share it. Due to its length, I have edited it a bit.

Neil said the only true farmer in the area in the early days was Harry Badger, who grew acres of strawberries.

“You may recall that the homesteading requirement in those days was that on a 160-acre homestead, a suitable house had to be built and lived in for three years and 20 acres put into cultivation,” he wrote. “However, if you were a military veteran, the only requirement was to build a house. As I recall it had to be 16 feet square or larger and you had to live in it for three to six months. But the significant thing was that the veteran did not have to put any land in cultivation. If they had to do that, some of them would not have homesteaded.”

When Bon Davis homesteaded in the spring of 1944, Neil said he believed there were only four other privately owned pieces of land in the area. Two had been taken out by Forbes Baker and fellow World War I veteran C.J. Woofter under veterans’ preference rules, which meant they didn’t have to be farmed and, Neil said, was merely a way to gain title to land.

Beyond the Davis homestead, an old Russian named Mike Bedoff had a homestead.

“I think he bought from somebody else quite a few years earlier,” Neil said. “He had a large garden but was not farming. To the best of my knowledge, these were the only privately owned lands in the area at that time.”

Around 1946, Harry Koonz homesteaded upstream on Piledriver Slough with the idea of farming hogs.

“I remember one hot summer day when he and his very cute 12-year-old daughter Anne showed up at our place (for me it was love at first sight) and he stated that they had just blazed the location for a new road that would extend the four miles from his place to ours. We thought he was crazy and that there never would be a road there, however Badger Road is now extended to North Pole, some of it exactly along the trail Koonz marked out,” Neil said.

Koonz would be surprised to see Badger Road today and Harry Badger would probably be astounded to know that not only was the road named after him, but a school also carries the same name.

Badger Road Elementary’s name

Speaking of the name Badger … I recalled vaguely the controversy over naming Badger Road Elementary School back in 1983. The naming committee suggested calling it Badger Road Elementary School but there was a bit of an outrage since Harry Badger was a dubious character.

I googled “Badger Road Elementary” and discovered the school history, which was written in 1989 by students in Dan File’s class and updated later by Kathy Ruppert’s class.

Here’s how they relay the school naming story:

“The task force was going to name the school Harry M. Badger Elementary School, but some people disagreed because Harry Badger didn’t exactly have a clean record. So then they named the school after Badger Road and they accepted that. Our school was named after Badger Road, which is named for Mr. Harry M. Badger.

“Mr. Badger was born in Minnesota. He came to Fairbanks in 1903. He was the first recorder. He held one of the first gold mines. He was also a realtor and a legislator when Alaska was a territory. In about 1917, Mr. Badger homesteaded some land south of Fairbanks near what is now the intersection of Badger and Bradway roads. He lived on his land until 1950 and sold the land before he died. He was also known as “The Strawberry King” because he had large strawberry fields on his homestead right across the road from where our school is now.”

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