Photo by Alaska Air Dunkle may have ended his life in financial difficulties but the legacy of his initial Star Air Services lives on in its direct descendant - Alaska Airlines.

A Clarendon man born in 1887 studied at Yale and then founded what became the predecessor of Alaska Airlines.

Talk about an opening paragraph that has some layers to it.

In full disclosure, I came across this story by accident.

When I was writing about the Clarendon Fire a while back, I kept finding different reports about that incident by varying my search terms. “Clarendon 1887” was one such example.

And there was Wesley Earl Dunkle.

Photo at right from amazon.com Dunkle, born in Clarendon and raised in Warren, rose to prominence in pre-World War II mining activities in Alaska.

Dunkle was the son of John Wesley and Susan Dunkle, according to an article on alaskahistory.org, and was born on March 4, 1887.

The family moved from Clarendon to Warren when Wesley’s father was elected to be the county’s attorney.

“Earl attended public schools in Warren and graduated with honors from Sheffield Scientific School of Yale University in 1908,” according to the Alaska Mining Hall of Fame. “Shortly after graduating, he read of the Guggenheim plans to build a railroad to tap rich copper deposits in Alaska’s Wrangell Mountains. He resolved to go to Alaska, and arrived in August 1910.”

The Guggenheim name should also ring a bell if you attended the Warren Players performance of Titanic – one of the Guggenheim’s heirs died aboard the ship.

But I digress…

Photo by Alaska Air Dunkle may have ended his life in financial difficulties but the legacy of his initial Star Air Services lives on in its direct descendant — Alaska Airlines.

According to the Hall of Fame, Dunkle’s first job in Alaska was at a Guggenheim mine and he continued to rise up the ladder of the mining industry well into the 1920s when he was sent to Africa to examine mining prospects for nearly a year, per alaskhistory.org.

He then opened up his own mine – the “Lucky Shot Mine” in 1930.

“The existing mine had been severely damaged in a fire and Dunkle supervised extensive renovations,” the alaskahistory.org article explained. “The mine commenced operations during the winter of 1930-1931. The lode was very rich and the mine produced about one hundred ounces of gold daily, making it the ‘second or third largest lode gold mine in Alaska and one of the largest in the United States.’ The Lucky Shot made Dunkle a moderately wealthy man.”

Per Alaskahistory.org, Dunkle first flew in 1928 and took flying lessons in Seattle in 1931-1932. He and three other pilots formed the Star Air Service in Alaska.

“By late 1932 Dunkle had his license and had purchased his first airplane, a Curtis-Wright Travel Air in New York. The flight west was harrowing: Dunkle crashed once in his hometown of Warren, Pennsylvania, disrupting a local football game, and nearly ran out of fuel several times while searching for airstrips on which to land. There were no charts (Dunkle followed road maps), often no landing lights and no radio. Dunk;e had the plane shipped to Anchorage, and used it for three years before hitting a tree while taking off from Lake Spenard. However dangerous, Dunkle found that using an airplane took days and weeks off traveling into the Bush to examine mining prospects. Dunkle became a very skilled (and very lucky) pilot.”

Dunkle and his partner’s Star Air Service flew their first commercial flight from Anchorage to Seattle in 1934.

“It took 17 hours of flying time spread over several days,” the article states. “However, most of Star’s service was in Alaska, in support of Dunkle’s various mining operations around the Territory.”

By 1936, the line has expanded to 16 planes and employed 75 people.

“By 1938,” the article states, “Star Air Service had become Star Airlines, which later morphed into present day Alaska Airlines.”

World War II damaged Dunkle’s mining career after a boom in the late 1930s when his wealth expanded.

According to the Hall of Fame, Dunkle’s gold mine was closed by order of the War Production Board. So he pivoted and opened a coal mine and shipped coal to the military bases in Anchorage.

After the war, he applied to be a candidate for appointment as territorial governor (which was not successful) and was considered too old to be the president of the University of Alaska. He also worked in his own mines after the war, a show of just how far his wealth had declined.

Per alaskahistory.org, he considered writing about his life and was pulled away by one last mining venture.

“He was last seen alive on September 29, 1957 at the Broad Pass station house, where he stopped before going to look for a spring to provide water for his coal processing plant. When he had not returned by the next day, a search was made and Dunkle’s body was found on October 4, 1957, where he had apparently collapsed and died of heart failure.”