Rika's Landing Roadhouse
Encyclopedia
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
, off mile 274.5 of the Richardson Highway
in Big Delta
, in the Southeast Fairbanks Census Area
, Alaska
, United States
.
The roadhouse is named after Rika Wallen, who obtained 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, patronage declined. The roadhouse is in the Big Delta State Historical Park and was added to the National Register of Historic Places
in 1976.
, an important route through the Alaska Interior
that contributed significantly to development and settlement of the region it traversed, 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. 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 Fairbanks
' gold rush
in 1902, and the construction of a WAMCATS telegraph line along the trail in 1903 by the U.S. Army Signal Corps directed in part by then Lieutenant Billy Mitchell,
made the Valdez-to-Eagle trail, and its branch to Fairbanks, one of the most important access routes to the Alaska Interior
.
Many roadhouses, some 37 in all
and some now 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.
was one of the major rivers to be crossed 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 12 km (7.5 mi) 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 80 acres (32.4 ha), 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.
Jovo 'John' Hajdukovich, an enterpreneur 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, but 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 being instrumental in creating the Tetlin Reserve)
as well as the responsibilities of US Game Commissioner for the area,
and was not able to 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 in the process of being upgraded.
In 1907,
or certainly by 1910, the Alaska Road Commission
completed the upgrade, upgrading the trail to a wagon road. The head of the project was Major (later U.S. Army General) Wilds P. Richardson
, for whom the highway was later named. 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
, came to America. She first came to Minneapolis, Minnesota
with her sister in 1891 to join her brother Carl Jakobson, changing their last names to Wallen. After Carl died in an accident, the sisters moved to San Francisco, Rika taking a job as a cook for the Hills Brothers coffee family which lasted until the 1906 San Francisco earthquake
. In 1916 Rika traveled to Valdez
, it is said "because she thought Alaska would be like Sweden".
mine and for a Fairbanks boarding house
, Rika made her way to Big Delta, and in 1917, or 1918, John Hadukovich hired Rika Wallen to manage operations at the roadhouse, then still known as McCarty's.
Although John had many business interests he was not always solvent. For example, in later years he missed being paid for timber supplied to the ALCAN Highway project due to not keeping records, and in either 1918, or 1923, ownership of the roadhouse was transferred to Rika for "$10.00 and other considerations," presumably in lieu of back wages. Their friendship and partnership nevertheless continued for many years, although it was not clear exactly what their relationship was. The roadhouse was soon named Rika's following local custom.
At that time, the roadhouse had eleven bedrooms, a living room and a large kitchen/dining area.
By 1925, Rika had applied for US citizenship, and filed a homestead claim on an adjacent 160 acres (64.7 ha) where she began growing food and raising livestock, including sheep, chicken, and goats. Sheep provided wool that she wove, and goats that she raised provided milk, butter and cheese. She also raised silver fox, ducks, geese, rabbits and honeybees, as well as growing grain using a yoke of oxen for plowing.
Rika was a natural farmer who was able to successfully grow crops where others failed. She developed a heating and ventilation system for her stable to allow her livestock to successfully survive the harsh winters.
When Rika bought the roadhouse, it still had dirt floors and rough walls. In order to improve the interior, she scavenged random wallpaper, sometimes using different patterns on different walls of the same room, and made a hardwood parquet floor with wooden kerosene crates collected from the freighters and boatmen that patronized the roadhouse. Her ability to grow crops and to make a pleasant inn meant that travelers would see a table set with fresh milk and eggs, berries, fish, game, and produce picked from the garden and nearby orchard, before retiring to clean comfortable beds in the multistory building. A travelog of the Richardson Highway published in 1929 gave this description of Rika's: "a commodious roadhouse boasting of such luxuries as fresh milk and domestic fowls."
In 1926 or thereabouts, Rika added a wing which she used for additional living space, a liquor store, fur storage and the Big Delta (then known as Washburn) Post Office. She was the postmaster until 1946. Eventually Rika also homesteaded an adjoining piece of land, bringing her holdings to 320 acres (129.5 ha).
completed in 1922, and due to other factors such as the Great Depression
, freight traffic declined. In 1935, the Alaska Road Commission, in an attempt to force shippers to use the railroad, raised the toll at the Tanana ferry crossing to almost 10 dollars a ton. The truckers rebelled at this and a series of skirmishes and pirate ferry operations occurred, lasting until the start of World War II.
With the coming of the war, and the construction of the ALCAN Highway which connected to the Richardson south of Big Delta, traffic waned further. The ferry crossing was replaced by a wooden bridge, and then later, a larger steel bridge some distance downriver, and thus the highway was rerouted away from the roadhouse. Rika operated the roadhouse through the 1940s and early 1950s although in later years guests were by invitation only. John Hajdukovich died in 1965 and Rika Wallen died four years later in 1969.
Rika's Roadhouse and the adjacent outbuildings and property are now the Big Delta State Historical Park. In 1976 the roadhouse was placed on the National Register of Historic Places. The structure was restored in 1984 by Stanton and Stanton Construction on a new foundation using original timbers, and with a restoration of the packing crate floor in some areas.. It now functions as a museum and some rooms have been fitted with 1920s-1930s period furniture and accessories donated by local residents. The property also has a food service facility called the "Packhouse Pavilion" operated by a local concessionaire.
Roadhouse (facility)
A roadhouse is a commercial establishment typically built on a major road or highway, to service passing travellers. Its meaning varies slightly by country.-USA:...
located at a historically important crossing of the Tanana River
Tanana River
The Tanana River is a tributary of the Yukon River in the U.S. state of Alaska. According to linguist and anthropologist William Bright, the name is from the Koyukon tene no, tenene, literally "trail river"....
, off mile 274.5 of the Richardson Highway
Richardson Highway
The Richardson Highway is a highway in the U.S. state of Alaska, running 368 miles from Valdez to Fairbanks. It is marked as Alaska Route 4 from Valdez to Delta Junction and as Alaska Route 2 from there to Fairbanks. It is also connects segments of Alaska Route 1 between the Glenn Highway and the...
in Big Delta
Big Delta, Alaska
Big Delta is a census-designated place in Southeast Fairbanks Census Area, Alaska, United States. The population was 749 at the 2000 census...
, in the Southeast Fairbanks Census Area
Southeast Fairbanks Census Area, Alaska
Southeast Fairbanks Census Area is a census area located in the state of Alaska, United States. As of the 2000 census, the population was 6,174. It is part of the unorganized borough and therefore has no borough seat...
, Alaska
Alaska
Alaska is the largest state in the United States by area. It is situated in the northwest extremity of the North American continent, with Canada to the east, the Arctic Ocean to the north, and the Pacific Ocean to the west and south, with Russia further west across the Bering Strait...
, United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
.
The roadhouse is named after Rika Wallen, who obtained 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, patronage declined. The roadhouse is in the Big Delta State Historical Park and was added to the National Register of Historic Places
National Register of Historic Places
The National Register of Historic Places is the United States government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures, and objects deemed worthy of preservation...
in 1976.
Background
The Richardson HighwayRichardson Highway
The Richardson Highway is a highway in the U.S. state of Alaska, running 368 miles from Valdez to Fairbanks. It is marked as Alaska Route 4 from Valdez to Delta Junction and as Alaska Route 2 from there to Fairbanks. It is also connects segments of Alaska Route 1 between the Glenn Highway and the...
, an important route through the Alaska Interior
Alaska Interior
The Alaska Interior covers most of the U.S. state's territory. It is largely wilderness. Mountains include Mount McKinley in the Alaska Range, the Wrangell Mountains, and the Ray Mountains....
that contributed significantly to development and settlement of the region it traversed, began as a pack trail from the port at Valdez
Valdez, Alaska
Valdez is a city in Valdez-Cordova Census Area in the U.S. state of Alaska. According to 2005 Census Bureau estimates, the population of the city is 4,020. The city is one of the most important ports in Alaska. The port of Valdez was named in 1790 after the Spanish naval officer Antonio Valdés y...
to Eagle
Eagle, Alaska
Eagle is a city located along the United States-Canada border in the Southeast Fairbanks Census Area, Alaska, United States. It includes Eagle Historic District, a U.S. National Historic Landmark. The population was 129 at the 2000 census...
, downstream on the Yukon River
Yukon River
The Yukon River is a major watercourse of northwestern North America. The source of the river is located in British Columbia, Canada. The next portion lies in, and gives its name to Yukon Territory. The lower half of the river lies in the U.S. state of Alaska. The river is long and empties into...
from Dawson
Dawson
-People:*Dawson Roger Dawson, author of Secrets of Power NegotiatingFictional characters*Dawson, in Thomas the Tank Engine and Friends*Dawson Leery, on the TV show Dawson's Creek...
. It was built in 1898 by the U.S. Army to provide an "all-American
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
" route to the Klondike
Klondike Gold Rush
The Klondike Gold Rush, also called the Yukon Gold Rush, the Alaska Gold Rush and the Last Great Gold Rush, was an attempt by an estimated 100,000 people to travel to the Klondike region the Yukon in north-western Canada between 1897 and 1899 in the hope of successfully prospecting for gold...
gold fields. After the rush ended, the Army kept the trail open in order to connect its posts at Fort Liscum
Fort Liscum
Fort Liscum was a United States Army post in the Alaska Territory on the south shore of Valdez Bay, across from the modern site of Valdez, Alaska. It operated from 1900 to 1922.-History:...
, in Valdez, and Fort Egbert
Fort Egbert
-History:Fort Egbert was established in 1899, during the Klondike Gold Rush, as U.S. Army headquarters in the District of Alaska. It was named by U.S. President William McKinley in honor of Colonel Harry C...
, in Eagle. The Fairbanks
Fairbanks, Alaska
Fairbanks is a home rule city in and the borough seat of the Fairbanks North Star Borough in the U.S. state of Alaska.Fairbanks is the largest city in the Interior region of Alaska, and second largest in the state behind Anchorage...
' gold rush
Fairbanks Gold Rush
The Fairbanks Gold Rush was a gold rush that took place in Fairbanks, Alaska in the early 1900s. Fairbanks was a city largely built on Gold Rush fervor at the beginning of the 20th century. Discovery and exploration continue to thrive in and around modern-day Fairbanks.- History :Felix Pedro spent...
in 1902, and the construction of a WAMCATS telegraph line along the trail in 1903 by the U.S. Army Signal Corps directed in part by then Lieutenant Billy Mitchell,
made the Valdez-to-Eagle trail, and its branch to Fairbanks, one of the most important access routes to the Alaska Interior
Alaska Interior
The Alaska Interior covers most of the U.S. state's territory. It is largely wilderness. Mountains include Mount McKinley in the Alaska Range, the Wrangell Mountains, and the Ray Mountains....
.
Many roadhouses, some 37 in all
and some now on the National Register of Historic Places
National Register of Historic Places
The National Register of Historic Places is the United States government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures, and objects deemed worthy of preservation...
, 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 RiverTanana River
The Tanana River is a tributary of the Yukon River in the U.S. state of Alaska. According to linguist and anthropologist William Bright, the name is from the Koyukon tene no, tenene, literally "trail river"....
was one of the major rivers to be crossed along the Valdez-Eagle trail. A ferry was established just upriver of the Tanana's confluence with the Delta River
Delta River
The Delta River is a tributary of the Tanana River, which in turn is a tributary of the Yukon River in Alaska in the United States....
, at a location then called Bates Landing. Bates Landing was about 12 km (7.5 mi) 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 80 acres (32.4 ha), but Bennett sold the post and land to Daniel G. McCarty in April 1905. However since E.T. Barnette
E.T. Barnette
Elbridge Truman Barnette , Yukon riverboat captain, banker, and swindler, founded the city of Fairbanks, Alaska and served as its first mayor.-Biography:...
, 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, an enterpreneur who had come to Alaska from Montenegro
Montenegro
Montenegro Montenegrin: Crna Gora Црна Гора , meaning "Black Mountain") is a country located in Southeastern Europe. It has a coast on the Adriatic Sea to the south-west and is bordered by Croatia to the west, Bosnia and Herzegovina to the northwest, Serbia to the northeast and Albania to the...
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, but 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
Granite Mountains (Alaska)
The Granite Mountains is a small mountain range in the Southeast Fairbanks Census Area of the U.S. state of Alaska....
, and trading with, and advocating for, the Athabaskan natives,
(later being instrumental in creating the Tetlin Reserve)
as well as the responsibilities of US Game Commissioner for the area,
and was not able to 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 in the process of being upgraded.
In 1907,
or certainly by 1910, the Alaska Road Commission
Alaska Road Commission
The Board of Road Commissioners for Alaska, more commonly known as the Alaska Road Commission or ARC, was created in 1905 as a board of the U.S. War Department...
completed the upgrade, upgrading the trail to a wagon road. The head of the project was Major (later U.S. Army General) Wilds P. Richardson
Wilds P. Richardson
Wilds Preston Richardson was an officer of the United States Army notable for being an explorer and geographer of Alaska in the early decades of the 20th century...
, for whom the highway was later named. 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
Örebro
-Sites of interest:Örebro's old town Wadköping is located on the banks of Svartån . It contains many 18th and 19th century wooden houses, along with museums and exhibitions....
Sweden
Sweden
Sweden , officially the Kingdom of Sweden , is a Nordic country on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. Sweden borders with Norway and Finland and is connected to Denmark by a bridge-tunnel across the Öresund....
, came to America. She first came to Minneapolis, Minnesota
Minnesota
Minnesota is a U.S. state located in the Midwestern United States. The twelfth largest state of the U.S., it is the twenty-first most populous, with 5.3 million residents. Minnesota was carved out of the eastern half of the Minnesota Territory and admitted to the Union as the thirty-second state...
with her sister in 1891 to join her brother Carl Jakobson, changing their last names to Wallen. After Carl died in an accident, the sisters moved to San Francisco, Rika taking a job as a cook for the Hills Brothers coffee family which lasted until the 1906 San Francisco earthquake
1906 San Francisco earthquake
The San Francisco earthquake of 1906 was a major earthquake that struck San Francisco, California, and the coast of Northern California at 5:12 a.m. on Wednesday, April 18, 1906. The most widely accepted estimate for the magnitude of the earthquake is a moment magnitude of 7.9; however, other...
. In 1916 Rika traveled to Valdez
Valdez, Alaska
Valdez is a city in Valdez-Cordova Census Area in the U.S. state of Alaska. According to 2005 Census Bureau estimates, the population of the city is 4,020. The city is one of the most important ports in Alaska. The port of Valdez was named in 1790 after the Spanish naval officer Antonio Valdés y...
, it is said "because she thought Alaska would be like Sweden".
Rika takes over the Roadhouse
After jobs cooking at the Kennecott copperCopper
Copper is a chemical element with the symbol Cu and atomic number 29. It is a ductile metal with very high thermal and electrical conductivity. Pure copper is soft and malleable; an exposed surface has a reddish-orange tarnish...
mine and for a Fairbanks boarding house
Boarding house
A boarding house, is a house in which lodgers rent one or more rooms for one or more nights, and sometimes for extended periods of weeks, months and years. The common parts of the house are maintained, and some services, such as laundry and cleaning, may be supplied. They normally provide "bed...
, Rika made her way to Big Delta, and in 1917, or 1918, John Hadukovich hired Rika Wallen to manage operations at the roadhouse, then still known as McCarty's.
Although John had many business interests he was not always solvent. For example, in later years he missed being paid for timber supplied to the ALCAN Highway project due to not keeping records, and in either 1918, or 1923, ownership of the roadhouse was transferred to Rika for "$10.00 and other considerations," presumably in lieu of back wages. Their friendship and partnership nevertheless continued for many years, although it was not clear exactly what their relationship was. The roadhouse was soon named Rika's following local custom.
At that time, the roadhouse had eleven bedrooms, a living room and a large kitchen/dining area.
By 1925, Rika had applied for US citizenship, and filed a homestead claim on an adjacent 160 acres (64.7 ha) where she began growing food and raising livestock, including sheep, chicken, and goats. Sheep provided wool that she wove, and goats that she raised provided milk, butter and cheese. She also raised silver fox, ducks, geese, rabbits and honeybees, as well as growing grain using a yoke of oxen for plowing.
Rika was a natural farmer who was able to successfully grow crops where others failed. She developed a heating and ventilation system for her stable to allow her livestock to successfully survive the harsh winters.
When Rika bought the roadhouse, it still had dirt floors and rough walls. In order to improve the interior, she scavenged random wallpaper, sometimes using different patterns on different walls of the same room, and made a hardwood parquet floor with wooden kerosene crates collected from the freighters and boatmen that patronized the roadhouse. Her ability to grow crops and to make a pleasant inn meant that travelers would see a table set with fresh milk and eggs, berries, fish, game, and produce picked from the garden and nearby orchard, before retiring to clean comfortable beds in the multistory building. A travelog of the Richardson Highway published in 1929 gave this description of Rika's: "a commodious roadhouse boasting of such luxuries as fresh milk and domestic fowls."
In 1926 or thereabouts, Rika added a wing which she used for additional living space, a liquor store, fur storage and the Big Delta (then known as Washburn) Post Office. She was the postmaster until 1946. Eventually Rika also homesteaded an adjoining piece of land, bringing her holdings to 320 acres (129.5 ha).
End of an era
In the 1930s, with the construction of the Alaska RailroadAlaska Railroad
The Alaska Railroad is a Class II railroad which extends from Seward and Whittier, in the south of the state of Alaska, in the United States, to Fairbanks , and beyond to Eielson Air Force Base and Fort Wainwright in the interior of that state...
completed in 1922, and due to other factors such as the Great Depression
Great Depression
The Great Depression was a severe worldwide economic depression in the decade preceding World War II. The timing of the Great Depression varied across nations, but in most countries it started in about 1929 and lasted until the late 1930s or early 1940s...
, freight traffic declined. In 1935, the Alaska Road Commission, in an attempt to force shippers to use the railroad, raised the toll at the Tanana ferry crossing to almost 10 dollars a ton. The truckers rebelled at this and a series of skirmishes and pirate ferry operations occurred, lasting until the start of World War II.
With the coming of the war, and the construction of the ALCAN Highway which connected to the Richardson south of Big Delta, traffic waned further. The ferry crossing was replaced by a wooden bridge, and then later, a larger steel bridge some distance downriver, and thus the highway was rerouted away from the roadhouse. Rika operated the roadhouse through the 1940s and early 1950s although in later years guests were by invitation only. John Hajdukovich died in 1965 and Rika Wallen died four years later in 1969.
Big Delta State Historical Park
According to Judy Ferguson in Parallel Destinies, a biography of John and Rika:- "For fifty years, Rika was a stake in the ground for the roaming John. While John traded and prospected, Rika ran the hub of the Upper Tanana's cross-roads. Her establishment was "town" to the three hundred people who walked the trails to the Alaskan-Canadian border. John and Rika were the history of the Upper Tanana Valley."
Rika's Roadhouse and the adjacent outbuildings and property are now the Big Delta State Historical Park. In 1976 the roadhouse was placed on the National Register of Historic Places. The structure was restored in 1984 by Stanton and Stanton Construction on a new foundation using original timbers, and with a restoration of the packing crate floor in some areas.. It now functions as a museum and some rooms have been fitted with 1920s-1930s period furniture and accessories donated by local residents. The property also has a food service facility called the "Packhouse Pavilion" operated by a local concessionaire.
See also
- National Register of Historic Places listings in Southeast Fairbanks Census Area, AlaskaNational Register of Historic Places listings in Southeast Fairbanks Census Area, AlaskaThis is a list of the National Register of Historic Places listings in Southeast Fairbanks Census Area, Alaska.This is intended to be a complete list of the properties and districts on the National Register of Historic Places in Southeast Fairbanks Census Area, Alaska, United States...
Further reading
- Ferguson, Judy (2002). Parallel Destinies. Glas Publishing, ISBN 978-0971604407. (A biography of Rika Wallen and John Hajdukovich, written by a resident of Big Delta).
External links
- Big Delta State Historical Park - official site
- NRHP listing for Southeast Fairbanks, including Rika's
- NRHP document (placeholder, not yet scanned by the NRHP, but the doc will be at this URL when it is per their system)
- Big Delta State Historical Park information page
- A pictorial tour of the Big Delta State Historical Park
- Big Delta from the Alaska Department of Commerce Community Information Database
- Itinerary of a mid 1920s visit to Alaska including a stay at Rika's
- Going Places Alaska And The Yukon For Families, by Nancy Thalia Reynolds at Google Books
- Alaska Off the Beaten Path, 6th edition, by Melissa Devaughn, Deb Vanasse at Google Books
- Four pioneers photo of John, Rika, and two other pioneers late in life
- Still image of current ferry at McCarty (use of that name dates it as older than the next two images)
- Another still image of ferry crossing the Tanana, 1930, Rika's visible in background. (from Digital Alaska)
- Video clip of ferry crossing the Tanana, 1935–36, Rika's visible in background. (from Digital Alaska)