The discovery of gold drew the first settlers to Hope in the late 1800’s. As national newspapers spread the word across the country of the gold found in Resurrection, Bear, and Palmer Creeks, and Six Mile River, long lines waited impatiently to book passage by any means to Turnigan Arm, in the Territory of Alaska. The tiny mining town slowly grew until in 1896, the Alaska Commercial Company began to build the community’s first general store. That store still stands on Main Street next to the Seaview Café. At the end of Main Street, Alaska Commercial Company built a dock where schooners and barges brought in the first freight shipped in from the outside world. Horses now graze green grasslands and grey tidal flats now line the mouth of Resurrection Creek where the docks once stood. In July of 1897, the federal government established the first United States post office in Hope. “Thus” according to Donna Grundman and Don Ohr, at the turn of the century, Hope City had two general stores, a U.S. Port Office, a dozen or so sturdy log structures, plus a number of tent-type dwellings and could be called a shipping point of sorts, with regular visits from a variety of boats carrying passengers, freight and mail during the summer when the waters were ice-free.”

The new century saw the construction of a one-room school house and a Social Hall in Hope. The Social Hall is still used for town meetings, weddings, and special events. The one-room school house is gone but the last school house built and used before the present day modern facility has been preserved. Converted into Hope’s present day library, local residents have a large selection of reading materials, audio tapes, and movies to choose from and tourists have free internet access.

John Hirshey came to Hope with the first group of men in 1895 on the UTOPIA. In 1911, he founded the Lucky Strike mine, located high up in the mountains overlooking Palmer Creek, which later became one of the best-known and best-paying mines of the times in the Hope Mining District. By 1931, the Herseys had a 5-stamp mill, an amalgamating plant and jaw crusher to mill the ore, and a 3,000 foot tramline that brought the ore from the mine to the mill.

“The Second World War closed down all but the smallest of placer mines” according to Donna Grundman and Don Ohr. “Some of the men were called into service. Others left to find work where they could. Many turned to fishing or went into Anchorage. Hope became a sleepy little settlement, the buildings acquiring a soft patina from time and weather . . . “