The BLM recently completed a five-year restoration project on the noncommissioned officers' quarters at Fort Egbert. Funded in part by a $50,000 Save America’s Treasures matching grant received from the National Park Service, carpenters and restoration experts repaired damage to original materials such as doors, floors, and wood trim. The original wallpapers, badly damaged by water and sun, were replicated and installed by an Eagle resident under contract. The NCO quarters is one of five remaining fort buildings visited by thousands of tourists each year. 

Two engines like this powered the wireless station in Eagle.

Engines that once powered one of Interior Alaska’s first radio stations will be the centerpiece of a new display at Fort Egbert. The two 15-horsepower Fairbanks Morse Type “N” Special Electric Oil Engines, each capable of generating five kilowatts of power, ran on gasoline and have flywheels five and a half feet in diameter. Under a new agreement between the BLM, the Alaska Office of History and Archaeology, University of Alaska Museum of the North, and the Eagle Historical Society and Museums, the State of Alaska placed the engines on long-term loan to BLM so they could be moved in August 2007 from the remains of Fort Egbert radio station, located on a hill outside Eagle, to a new display constructed at the fort. In their new home at the fort, the engines and displayed information should increase public understanding of the important role that the fort played in the American settlement and development of Alaska.

 

Read more about the Morse engines and their unique role in Alaska history by downloading the article "Engines of Change" (PDF, 689 KB) from the Summer 2007 edition of BLM's Fortymile News.