Russell Hyde Merrill arrived in Alaska in 1925. He lost his life in the wilderness he loved four years later. Courtesy University of Alaska Fairbanks
On Sunday, Sept. 25, 1932, the Russell Hyde Merrill Memorial Beacon was dedicated at Merrill Field. Bought with money raised by the Anchorage Women's Club, it was a memorial to a pioneer airman. Three years before, he had disappeared almost without a trace.
Merrill, a pivotal figure in Alaska's early aviation history, was honored with not only Anchorage's Merrill Field and memorial beacon but also the mountain pass he discovered, Merrill Pass. Born in Des Moines, Iowa, in 1894 to a prominent family, Merrill attended Cornell University before joining the U.S. Navy during World War I, where he became Naval Aviator No. 469 and eventually chief pilot at Cape May, New Jersey.
His adventure in Alaska began in 1925 when, with Roy Davis, he flew a Curtiss Model F Flying Boat from Portland, Oregon, to Ketchikan. This was among the first nonmilitary flights up the Pacific Coast to Alaska and included the first commercial crossing of the Gulf of Alaska and westward flight from Juneau.
Quickly, Merrill became a leading bush pilot, founding the Alaska-Washington Airplane Company and pioneering routes throughout the territory. In November 1927, while seeking a faster air route to the Kuskokwim region, Merrill discovered and crossed what became known as Merrill Pass – a discovery that halved travel time compared to the old Rainy Pass route, thus revolutionizing transit across the daunting Alaska Range.
Merrill also accomplished other firsts. That same year, he made the first night landing in Anchorage by safely bringing in a gravely wounded passenger. Residents improvised a runway on what now is the Park Strip using bonfires and car headlights – a feat marking a new era for Alaska air rescue and bush flying.
The pioneering aviator continued to break ground, flying the first commercial service to several remote communities – including Seldovia and Kodiak – and making the region's first commercial mail and cargo flights. For a time, he worked as chief pilot for Anchorage Air Transport, Anchorage's first airline.
In 1928, while on an expedition to Barrow for the Fox Film company, Merrill endured a harrowing brush with death. Trapped by fog north of the Brooks Range, he and his two passengers were forced down on a frozen pond. After a protracted rescue, he was found snow-blind, exhausted, and having survived on raw lemmings – an ordeal he barely survived.
By 1929, Merrill was an essential part of Alaska's growing commercial aviation scene. On September 15, after starting his day with flights to the Kenai Peninsula and Rainy Pass, Merrill embarked alone with heavy equipment bound for Sleetmute and Bethel but vanished without a trace. An intense search covering 10,000 miles yielded only a piece of fabric believed to be from his aircraft, found on a Cook Inlet beach. The act of cutting the fabric-possibly intended for use as a sail-added mystery to his disappearance. His fate remains unknown.
Before his disappearance, he and others had pushed for a permanent airfield for Anchorage, which became Aviation Field in East Anchorage that year. The name was changed to Merrill Field in 1930.
Merrill's courage and character remain emblematic of Alaska's earliest aviators. Fellow pilot Noel Wien named his son after Merrill, saying that if the boy could emulate Russell Merrill, it would be a source of pride for the family. Today, with a vital airport, a beacon, and a mountain pass all proudly bearing his name, Merrill's contributions endure in Alaska aviation.
This column features stories researched for Aunt Phil's Trunk, a five-book Alaska history series written by Laurel Downing Bill and her late aunt, Phyllis Downing Carlson. Along with Bill's latest book, "Pioneers From Alaska's Past," the books are available at bookstores and gift shops throughout Alaska, as well as online at www.auntphilstrunk.com and Amazon.
