April 3, 2025 by Colleen Kelly

If you want to talk about Seward newspapers, no one speaks the language better than Bev Dunham, owner of the Seward Phoenix Log newspaper from 1966-1984. You could say that the printer’s ink runs in her veins.

She understands the critical role a local newspaper plays in the vitality of a small town. Before graduating from high school in 1951, she got a job at the Seward Seaport Record and began learning the newspaper business. Although the paper folded in 1955, Bev worked for its successor, the Petticoat Gazette, as a volunteer typesetter, which fit into her lifestyle as a mother of three young children.

The Petticoat Gazette had a policy of steering clear of anything that might be controversial or ruffle feathers. But after the 1964 Alaska Earthquake devastated the community, it became apparent that something more was needed.

Bev and her high school journalism teacher, Joanne Hoogland, thought it was time for a newspaper that could help lead the community on its road to recovery. They conferred with their husbands.

“Willard said, Oh well, what the hell. We already started broke when we first got married. I guess we didn’t mind if we lost more.”  

The first issue of the Seward Phoenix Log came out on Oct. 6, 1966. It took its name from the log book of the ship Phoenix, built in Resurrection Bay 200 years earlier by the Russians under Alexander Baranov.

Bev explained, “We got teased about the name a lot. They said people wouldn’t even know that it was the name of a newspaper. But it made people say: I wonder why they named it that? And we could give them the first bit of history about Seward.”

Bev is proud of the Log’s work. “Recovering from the earthquake took quite an effort. It took so much imagination, so much dedication, so much everything. I did something you’re not supposed to do. You’re not supposed to get involved in the political end of things, but when it came to lobbying for projects, I used it. It was necessary to use it.”

The whole family was involved. They knocked out a wall of their house to move a printing press into the basement.

“Our kids were very helpful, but they hated every minute of it,” said Bev, who joined them in folding by hand the hundreds of copies of the Log each week.

Willard had a full-time day job but took on the after-hours job of running the printing press. All were happy when the business moved to the log building downtown at Fourth and Adams. They got their home back.

Bev regrets getting out of the newspaper business. “Eighteen years after it was founded, we sold it in 1984. It’s bothered me ever since. I think it bothered Willard, too. He and the ones who were planning things for Seward liked getting the word out to the people.”

She looks with pride on those years. “I think we did some good – things that really needed to be done. We did take stands and they were not always popular.”