What is the history of Pelican, Alaska?
According to legend many years ago when Russian ships roamed Alaska waters one foundered in the uncharted waters of Cross Sound. Survivors rowed their lifeboat up an inlet that would later be known as Lisianski. In a sheltered cove they founded a settlement. They cleared and planted gardens, trapped and hunted game. The story goes that a shipyard was built and a ship constructed. This allowed them to returned to their homeland. The story most likely should have read Native Americans, who while gathering winter food found them and returned them to a settlement, perhaps, Sitka. When the Russian settlement died, the land again reverted to wilderness. Early hunters and trappers noticed the clearing in the woods, and found iron and copper tools along with sunken graves. They named the abandoned settlement “Sunnyside.” By 1938 the Russians were long forgotten and Lisianski Inlet had become home to gold miners. Hjalmor Mork, Jack Ronning and the older of the Mork family boys operated the Mork
