Artifact of the Month: October 2025

An Alaska Adventure: Rollin Bissette's Story

Rollin Bissette left Brandon, Vermont in April 1906 for Alaska, where he worked for eight months at a remote marble quarry on Prince of Wales Island. The deposit at Marble Creek, located roughly 92 miles northwest of Ketchikan, was identified in 1896. A group of businessmen from North Dakota later purchased the claims and formed the Alaska Marble Company in 1901. The company assessed a number of sites on the claim over the ensuing years before settling on a hillside with commercially viable marble. By the end of 1905, Alaska Marble Company was ready to put the quarry into full production. For the first official season the following year, they brought in seasoned quarrymen like Rollin from the marble-rich state of Vermont. It was a grueling experience. Rollin worked an average of 60-hour weeks setting up and adjusting machinery, often in adverse weather.

In the early 1900s, photography was becoming more accessible to the average person. Before leaving Vermont, Rollin acquired a Kodak No. 3A folding pocket camera capable of taking postcard size photos. The camera was a luxury item, costing $30 or roughly a month's salary then (equivalent to $1,080 in 2025). By any metric, Rollin was an inexperienced amateur photographer, with some photos being out of focus or blurred by falling rain, some having exposure issues, and some damaged from being stored in an attic susceptible to temperature and humidity fluctuations. Nevertheless, the photos offer a rare view of the formative season at Marble Creek, its operations, and the people who worked there. After returning to Vermont in December 1906 Rollin resumed working at a local quarry and almost never picked up the camera again. Rollin died in 1959 leaving behind a treasure trove of prints, negatives, and a short journal that detailed his time in Alaska.

This month's feature is a 51-page photo essay entitled, "An Alaskan Adventure." The essay was written in 2020 by Dr. Philip A. Bell, a retired research scientist and married to one of Rollin's granddaughters. The essay combines Rollin's experience mixed with photos documenting quarry activities, camp life, and recreation. During their downtime, the quarry crew routinely visited the Tlingit village of Shix’áan (Shakan), which was only a three-mile boat ride from the quarry. As a result, the village features prominently in the photos. The photos also show important sites in Ketchikan and Wrangell taken while Rollin was transiting to and from Prince of Wales Island. Along with the essay, Dr. Bell generously donated digital copies of 82 photos and postcards from Rollin's time in Alaska.


Object ID #: RC 2021.0.10