A hidden manuscript leads into Thomas Bay legends and the stories people keep buried.
Harry Douglas Culp spent more than half a century working in Petersburg, then died with an imaginative manuscript his wife and children had never known existed.
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In their own words
Each episode, we dive into the history of Wrangell, Alaska. One of Alaska's earliest settlements, Wrangell plays an important role in Alaska Native history and the development of the state of Alaska. Drawing on information from the historical record, we piece together long-lost stories from Wrangell's past.
Why you'd press play
A customs deputy chops wood as a prisoner; your appetite for crooked frontier politics has a case file.
Press play if you want
- to see a gold rush turn liquor enforcement into a power struggle
- to trace how a Kushtaka story changes in later retellings
Talks about
Best episodes of Wrangell History Unlocked
Short reviews from the PlayNext desk, based on the episodes we processed.
A family recording brings the Star of Bengal's final tow close, dangerous, and deeply human.
Wrangell History Unlocked's bonus episode turns the loss of the Star of Bengal into taut maritime oral history. Bill Taylor recalls being aboard the Hattie Gage as rough water, dragging anchors, and the reef near Coronation pushed the tow out of the crew's hands.
A Fort Wrangell liquor case becomes a focused contest between military power, legal authority, and the protection around John Carr.
Fort Wrangell's liquor trade becomes a compact study of power in Alaska, with the Army, the courts, and political influence all pressing for control.
A frozen-river gold rush shows how fast law can lose its grip on Fort Wrangell.
Fort Wrangell becomes a pressure point where a gold rush, a frozen river, and a thin federal presence all collide. The episode follows prospectors onto the Stikine, then settles around John Carr's appointment as Deputy Collector of Customs, a post that carries more weight than…
A fugitive's aliases lead from a California killing to corruption in Fort Wrangell.
Oroville's wide, dusty front street gives this episode its first hard turn: Deputy Sheriff John Lyons stabs Juan Fernandez, disappears, and later resurfaces under the names John Molson and John Carr during the 1874 peak of the Cassiar Gold Rush around Fort Wrangell.
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Episodes
- 1
Inside the Strangest Story Ever Sold
Hidden gemWrangell History Unlocked follows Harry Culp's Thomas Bay manuscript, later published by Virginia Culp in 1953 as The Strangest Story Ever Told.
Oct 21, 2025·48m·3 clips - 2
Star of Bengal Bonus: The Taylors' Version
Hidden gemWrangell History Unlocked Presents A Star of Bengal Bonus: The Taylor's Version uses Bill Taylor's oral history to revisit the Star of Bengal wreck from Wrangell, Alaska.
Jul 30, 2024·41m·2 clips - 3
Strange Customs, Part III: With Justice for All
Hidden gemFort Wrangell's prisoners spent 102 days under army custody before Judge Matthew Deedy cut through the detention case.
Feb 29, 2024·51m·3 clips - 4
Strange Customs, Part II: Fools Rush In
Hidden gem["Wrangell History Unlocked Presents Strange Customs, Part 2, opens on April 24, 1874, when the Stikine River broke up and 300 passengers on the steamship California pushed Fort Wrangell into Cassiar Gold Rush chaos.", "Ronan Rooney centers John Carr, the new Deputy Collector of Customs for the U.S.
Feb 22, 2024·47m·3 clips - 5
Strange Customs, Part I: The Ring of Corruption
Hidden gemJohn Malson, born in Kentucky in 1833, becomes John Lyons in California after debt problems, a killing in Oroville, and then a new identity as John Carr.
Feb 15, 2024·47m·3 clips - 6
Strange Customs: Sneak Peek
Feb 9, 2024·3m - 7
Star of Bengal Bonus: The James Kennedy Tapes
Jan 29, 2024·23m - 8
Wrangell Votes for President
Nov 5, 2023·15m - 9
The Illuminating Life of Private Palmer
May 26, 2023·50m - 10
Guest Episode: "The Other Routes to the Klondike" (Klondike Gold Rush History Podcast)
Feb 24, 2023·23m - 11
The Mystery of Deadmans Island
Jan 16, 2023·53m - 12
Rise & Fall of the Star of Bengal V: The Captain's Daughter
Sep 30, 2022·50m - 13
Rise & Fall of the Star of Bengal IV: Accusations
Sep 23, 2022·50m - 14
Rise & Fall of the Star of Bengal III: Survival
Sep 16, 2022·50m - 15
Rise & Fall of the Star of Bengal II: Farewell
Sep 9, 2022·50m - 16
Rise & Fall of the Star of Bengal I: A Star is Born
Sep 2, 2022·50m - 17
Rise & Fall of the Star of Bengal: Coming Soon
Aug 22, 2022·7m - 18
John Muir and the Fire on the Mountain
Aug 28, 2021·44m - 19
The Trial of John Boyd for the Murder of Thomas O'Brien
May 13, 2021·25m - 20
Reading Wrangell Historians
Mar 10, 2021·22m - 21
Reverend Corser's Rebellion
Feb 6, 2021·34m - 22
The Christmas Bombardment: Part II
Dec 21, 2020·1h - 23
The Christmas Bombardment: Part I
Dec 19, 2020·1h - 24
Tillie Paul Tamaree & The Right to Vote
This episode recounts the 1922 arrest of Tlingit elders Charlie Jones and Tilly Paul Tamarie for attempting to vote, highlighting the struggle for Native voting rights in Wrangell, Alaska.
Oct 24, 2020·42m - 25
The Murder of Harry Nakamoto
This episode recounts the 1921 murder of Harry Nakamoto in Wrangell, Alaska, and the subsequent trial of Charles Lynch, exploring the town's history and Asian immigrant experience.
Sep 26, 2020·35m - 26
King Lear of Wrangell
This episode tells the story of William King Lear, a legendary figure who bought Fort Wrangell and became a frontier king in Alaska.
Sep 2, 2020·37m