September 11, 2025 Seward Folly

Written by the Seward Community Library Association (SCLA, a.k.a. Friends of the Seward Library)

We hope you can join us this Saturday, September 13, from 2:00 to 5:00 p.m. at the Seward Community Library & Museum to celebrate Seward’s WWII History and the Legacy of Fort McGilvray.  Then continue the 1940s energy with a themed 3-Course 1940s dinner at the Flamingo Lounge (5 p.m. onward). 

These fundraising events will support the new Friends of Caines Head State Recreation Area nonprofit that aims to help with the continued conservation of our local state park trails, education of our natural, historical, and cultural resources and the preservation of our WWII sites. 

Here is the schedule of events:

• 2:00 p.m. – A showing of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ “Secret” Silent Film of the building of Fort McGilvray in 1941. 
• 2:30 p.m. – Jack Sinclair, Retired Alaska State Parks Superintendent, shares about developing Caines Head State Recreation Area, and uncovering Fort McGilvray.
• 3:00 p.m. – Kendra Warlow, Alaska State Parks Volunteer, presents: “We Take Dares,” the story of the 267th Coast Artillery Battalion and Fort McGilvray.
• Also included:
  • The launch of the new Alaska State Park’s interactive and educational map of Fort McGilvray: Walk the Fort Trail, and learn about what was there. 
  • Showing of the South Beach Sourdough newsletters from 1942-1943.
• 5:00 p.m.-onward: 3-course 1940s-themed dinner at the Flamingo Lounge. 

Finally, meet the driving force behind this event and the founder of the new Friends of Caines Head State Recreation Area nonprofit, Kendra Warlow!

Kendra arrived in Seward, Alaska, in early summer and almost immediately came to the museum. Stepping in and introducing herself to the museum curator Allison Stacey, she asked about researching Seward’s Fort McGilvray.

Allie (Allison) referred her to SCLA’s archives that has an extensive historic newspaper collection. Soon she had in her hands copies of the Southbeach Sourdough newsletters, a whole year of published Fort McGilvray papers from the ’40s. To say Kendra was overjoyed is understating her reaction.

In her own words: 

Born in Pennsylvania, Kendra Earl Warlow’s appreciation of history and World War II started early, growing up in a house full of stories with a garage full of antique cars. 

Her passion project arrived this past summer while volunteering with Alaska State Parks, telling the story of the 250th & 267th Coast Artillery Battalion. Over the course of the summer she has collected historical documents, photographs, letters, films and more to bring the story of the building and manning of Fort McGilvray to life. Her works includes:

• An interactive map of the grounds of Fort McGilvray along with a timeline of the building of the fort and history of the 250th and 267th Coast Artillery Battalions. 
• Digitizing the South Beach Sourdough weekly newspapers, printing at the South Beach Cantonment where the boys were stationed and deployed across Resurrection Bay (these will be available for the public to read on Sept. 13) 
• Starting a new nonprofit, Friends of Caines Head State Recreation Area, to help with the continued conservation of our local state park trails, education of our natural, historical, and cultural resources and the preservation of our WWII sites.
• Researching, creating, and placing new educational signs along the Fort Trail and inside Battery 293.

The culmination of her work this summer is our event on September 13!