'The Platinum King: Andrew Olson's Story'

When Andrew Olson first came to Alaska from Sweden, in February 1907, he had to hike the 400 miles from Valdez to Fairbanks. Mining pioneer David Strandberg paid Olson $7 a day to shovel dirt and gravel into sluice boxes and pan for gold. In 1938 his Goodnews Bay Mining Co. was handling more than a million cubic yards of dirt in a season and more than a million dollars worth of platinum. By the time Olson retired, in 1970, he could make the trip back to his homeland in just 24 hours.

Olson saw and contributed to all the technological advances of the 20th century, and his story is well worth telling. He and his second wife were the first people to drive a Buick up the Alcan Highway in 1946, and Allen Buick in Seattle didn't believe the car would make it, so the company annulled the warranty. When Olson returned without even a flat tire, Buick restored the warranty and offered to buy back the car and exhibit it all over the country. Olson said no, because he wasn't interested in publicity. He made a great deal of money from his mining company, but his real motivation in life was adventure.

Blend of genealogy, fiction

The authors of this book, Jan Lindström and Karen Olson, are both distant relatives of Andrew Olson (Karen by marriage).

Understandably they wanted to delve into their family history and commemorate Andrew's work. However, the book's blend of genealogy and fiction comes out rather like the platinum separation process: light grains of fiction are scattered on top of the heavy historical nuggets.

When there are gaps in the factual material, the authors fill them in with imaginary conversations, but when facts are known, they include far too much detail. The births, marriages and deaths of Olson's relatives weigh the book down at times. Most minor characters are not fleshed out enough for the reader to care about them. From a mining point of view, though, it is possible to sift through and find some gems. Andrew and his younger brother Edward were always inventing new equipment, and the descriptions of the fast-growing mining operation at the Squirrel Creek camp are very well researched.

In 1937 the parts for the 1,400-ton Yuba diesel-electric dredge arrived at Goodnews Bay on a freighter from San Francisco. The parts then had to be hauled 25 miles across the tundra to the camp. It took two months to assemble them. The company paid for the dredge with a $600,000 loan from the U.S. government's Reconstruction Finance Corporation, part of President Hoover's Emergency Relief Act.

World War II: platinum for aircraft parts

In World War II production increased once again. Instead of jewelry, the platinum was used for aircraft parts. Soldiers were assigned to guard the camp in winter and in 1944 they prevented the dredge from sinking when a mass of snow and ice threatened it.

The harsh conditions of domestic life in Sweden and Alaska contrast with the Olsons' considerably more bourgeois homes in Seattle and the Washington countryside. There is much humor here, particularly in the descriptions of food. On the voyage to America in 1905: "the S.S. Saxonia carried a huge cargo of onions, and the children were told to eat them like fruit. From then on, they maintained a strong aversion to onions."

In 1940 the wife of the company treasurer had trouble learning how to bake bread at the camp, so she tried to get rid of it by throwing it in the creek. "Eventually she did master the art of baking moist, tasty loaves, but that was after she had been asked to stop damming up the creek with her failed bread."

The book is illustrated with simple, somewhat childish line drawings and historical photographs, including some of Andrew's snapshots from his visit to Moscow in 1922. These two kinds of illustrations reflect the authors' inconsistent style, which might stem from the fact that Lindström originally wrote a novel in Swedish, published in 1993, and that book was translated and supplemented with additional work by Karen Olson. It is as filling as a hearty Swedish dinner of fish and potatoes, and preserves the memory of a great man in Alaska mining history.