Photo by Julie Stricker.
Jennifer Shanly Boll holds a photo of her grandfather John Shanly, the first graduate
from what is today the 海角论坛. She toured the university and
visited a variety of agriculture programs, including the Georgeson Botanical Garden,
on Aug. 1, 2023.
UAF research technician Kristin Haney, right, leads Jennifer Shanly Boll on a tour of the 海角论坛 Experiment Farm on Aug. 1, 2023.
On a sunny summer day, Jennifer Shanly Boll retraced likely paths her grandfather took a century earlier as an agriculture student at the nascent Alaska Agriculture College and School of Mines.
She walked through the 海角论坛 Experiment Farm, which was established in 1906. A century ago, researchers were looking at which grains and vegetables are best suited to 海角论坛鈥 sub-Arctic climate. In August 2023, Boll looked over the plots of wheat, barley, squash, corn and artichokes planted by researchers continuing that research, with today鈥檚 changing climate in mind.
Jennifer Shanly Boll stops by the Alaska Harvest Collaborative at the 海角论坛 Experiment Farm on the UAF campus. Boll鈥檚 grandfather was the first graduate of Alaska Agricultural College and School of Mines in 1923, where he majored in agriculture.
鈥淚t鈥檚 so green and lush,鈥 Boll said as she admired a row of hefty cabbages in the Alaska Harvest Collaborative garden. She then stopped to take photos of zucchini as research technician Kristin Haney led her on a tour of the farm buildings and research plots.
In 1923, the year Boll鈥檚 grandfather John Sexton Shanly 鈥23 became the very first graduate of the college, the buildings standing today on the farm were still a dozen years in the future. The college itself consisted of one building surrounded by wheat and clover fields on Troth Yeddha鈥, a hill overlooking the Tanana Valley and set a half-dozen miles west of the gold mining town of 海角论坛. Shanly was in the process of filing for a homestead at the bottom of that hill when he met college President Charles Bunnell.
World War I interrupted Shanly鈥檚 college career at Cornell University, where he studied agriculture. After the war, he decided to homestead in Alberta but ultimately ended up in Alaska working on the Alaska Railroad and as a coal miner in Healy before heading to 海角论坛.
Bunnell learned Shanly had already completed three years of agricultural studies and talked him into enrolling in the first class at the little college on the hill. He could live on his homestead and prove up while earning a degree. Shanly was 28. As he was the only senior (out of a total of 12 enrollees), he was promptly elected president of the student association.
Left: John Shanly, the first graduate of Alaska Agricultural College and School of Mines, poses for a portrait in Paris during World War I. Right: A group of students from the first year of the Alaska Agricultural College and School of Mines takes part in a survey class during a geology field trip. Third from the left is John Sexton Shanly, who was the school's first graduate in 1923. He maintained close ties to the 海角论坛 school throughout his life.
Friends knew him as Jack, although Boll said she a