EXCURSION INLET P.O.W CAMP CANTEEN SCRIP

The only Prisoner of War camp in Alaska was located at Excursion Inlet, in southeast Alaska near Gustavus. German prisoners of war were brought there in 1945 to dismantle the Alaska Barge Terminal, built at an expense of $18 million. Its purpose was to provide transhipping facilities for war supplies sent to Alaska. The supplies would come up the protected Inside Passage. They would them be loaded on other vessels for transit to the Aleutians.

The facility was completed by November 1943, but by that time the Japanese had been driven from the Aleutians and the Alaska Barge Terminal was obsolete. The base was declared surplus less than a year after construction. It took two years to decide what to do with it.

In July of 1945, 700 German prisoners of war were shipped to Excursion Inlet to dismantle the facility, and salvage any materials that were of use. The task took until November. Many POW camps issued scrip and chits during the war, so it is not surprising that chits were used at Excursion Inlet. The piece above appeared in 2013, and is the first (and I think only) example of Excursion Inlet chits.

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Wayne Homren, Editor

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