Digital Bob Archive

Jim Huscroft was sometimes described as a hermit and a recluse. This was because he lived, alone much of the time, on an island in Lituya Bay. But to those who knew him he was both sociable and hospitable, although perhaps something of a mystery. The mystery was because not a whole lot was known about him. In earlier days in Alaska it was not only impolite but occasionally even dangerous to ask a man too many questions about his antecedents. So far as I know, that was not true of Huscroft, but few people got around to asking him and to many he remained an enigma.

Actually, his full name was James Todd Huscroft and he was born in Ohio, somewhere near Steubenville on the eastern edge of the state, in July, 1872. His father was William W. Huscroft and the name appears to be of Scottish origin. Jim had two brothers and two sisters.

Just when he came to Alaska is unknown, but he once mentioned that he had made three fortunes and lost them, so he may have been in the Klondike or other gold diggings. A search of directories and newspapers of the gold rush areas has failed to turn up his name, but many of the goldseekers left few traces.

We first pick up Jim's trail in 1914-15 when he was living at Treadwell and was listed as a miner, which almost certainly means that he worked in one of the mines that flooded in April, 1917. That would have put him out of work, along with hundreds of other miners. At that time there was still some placer mining on the beaches near Lituya Bay and Huscroft was said to have named 1917 as the year he landed there. Why he stayed is anybody's guess; perhaps it was lethargy and he found it easier to stay than to move on.

Jim did a little mining, and some hunting and trapping. There were runs of salmon in some of the streams, and he built up a sizeable vegetable garden. For a time he raised foxes with a partner, Ernie Rognan, on Cenotaph Island where he made his home. There were times when he was alone, but there was company, too: fishermen and mountain climbers in the summers, trappers in the winters.

Huscroft's annual trips to Juneau were marred by the fact that he got seasick easily, and perhaps was fearful of the ocean portion of the voyage, but he enjoyed his stays in town immensely. At the Elks Club they saved the daily paper for him; he took them back to the island with him and, according to one report, carefully read only one issue each day.

Jim Huscroft died at Elfin Cove on March 23, 1939, while enroute to Juneau for medical attention. He was buried on Long Island, a short distance from Hoonah. The following year some of his mountaineering friends had a bronze memorial plaque placed near his former home on Cenotaph Island.

Many other details about Jim Huscroft, Lituya Bay and that part of the outer coast are in the book \"Land of the Ocean Mists\" by Frank Caldwell, who fishes the boat Donna C. out of Sitka. The book is published by the Alaska Northwest Publishing Company.