Captain Cook and Kermit Roosevelt: Alaska's Untold History

Jenn: 00:00:00

An explorer from England, and he sets out to map the land areas of the world. How does Anchorage get its name?

If you add all the land area of all the west coast bases together, it doesn't even equal the land area of the base in Anchorage, Atlanta.

Scott: 00:00:18

And that's how far north you are going. And that's why it's light at 3am.

Jenn: 00:00:23

And the British had their rifles and guns with them. And as a show of force, there.

Scott: 00:00:29

Was people from Australia saying, yeah, here in Australia, James Cook is a big deal. He's considered our Christopher Columbus for Australia.

Jenn: 00:00:35

And what's interesting During World War II is this area is very close to Japan. So I just made me really feel like if you want that kind of adventure, that last frontier, that explorer mentality, Alaska is that place.

When you think of the Roosevelts, that is quintessential American dynasty right there.

Scott: 00:01:01

Welcome to TALK with History. I am your host, Scott, here with my wife and historian Jen.

Jenn: 00:01:05

Hello.

Scott: 00:01:06

On this podcast, we give you insights to our history Inspired World Travels YouTube channel Journey and examine history through deeper conversations with the curious, the explorers and the history lovers out there. We're talking about your recent trip back in April a couple months ago to Alaska.

And so for folks who may not be familiar with the charity work that you've been doing with this nonprofit organization called Pinups for Vets that gave you the opportunity to go out to Alaska and you took advantage of that to do some kind of history side trips. Tell us a little bit about that.

Jenn: 00:01:41

eran. And I was a part of the: 2025

And it's great because October is the Navy's birth month and it's the Navy's 250th birthday this year, which I'm was super proud to represent and be a part of.

And what happens is after this calendar is made, we will visit veteran homes and veteran hospitals and we sign the calendar for free to patients and veterans there. And I've done the veteran home in Kentucky, I've done the veteran home in Mississippi, and I signed 100 calendars. I spent hours there.

ht up when you walk in dress,: 1940

I ask them about their service and where they're from. And it's just really great because I Give them something that they can put up in their room.

But it's also great to talk about their service and thank them for their service and give them a visit when a lot of them don't get visitors. So the mission of Pen of Servettes was to visit all 50 states, and Alaska was the last state we hadn't been to Alaska.

So our, our founder, Gina, had set up this trip for seven pinups to go to Alaska, visit the VA homes there, the base, the vfw. It was just a lot of different locations there. Plus they have some non veteran nonprofits there that take veterans out on excursions.

And one of them was a glacier trip. So we got to do a glacier tr. So it was a great opportunity for me. Since I had never been to Alaska, I was asked to go.

I was super, super honored to be selected. And so, yeah, I got to go to Alaska. I had never been to Alaska. So we flew into Anchorage and spent about five days in Anchorage.

And like I said, we were like nonstop visiting all these places, dressed pin up the whole time, signed calendars, met people, was fantastic. And while I was there, I thought, oh, I'll try to do some history.

And I was able to do two things because our days were booked, but I was able to get the van one early morning and before the rest of the girls woke up, I was able to get out and do two things.

I visited the Captain Cook statue in downtown Anchorage, and I did the gravesite of Kermit Roosevelt, which is on Fort Richardson Cemetery National Cemetery, which is on the base there in Anchorage. So I was able to do those two things before the girls actually even woke up.

So if you see the videos, it's early morning because it's like summer coming to summertime in Alaska. The sun rises very early, the snow's still melting. Yes. And. But it's bright. So like even at 3am, 4am it was bright. So I could get out there.

And even though it's freezing, I could film because you had lights. So I was able to do those two things and do some history there in Anchorage.

Scott: 00:04:57

Yeah.

And so to set the stage a little bit further, one of the cool things that as we've been doing Walk with history, the YouTube channel, and talk with History, this podcast, as we've been doing that we've been.

I don't know if building a business out of it is, is really the best way to describe it, but looking for opportunities and, and pinups for vets was one of these opportunities is like something that we've been doing this channel, and you got an opportunity to, to work with a nonprofit and going out there doing something that we do care about, like talking to veterans and visiting veterans. And so that's just been really cool to this channel.

The support that our audience, that you guys listening, that you guys watching give us, gave us that opportunity to do this for a nonprofit. It's really cool.

And Gina, she's been very supportive of you and getting you on the local radio station, and now you're on it monthly and, and all this stuff. And so we love to be able to, to give back, and this was just a really cool opportunity.

But you did sneak away for a little bit, and you got to go visit a site where they had a statue to Captain James Cook. And then later, and we'll, we'll talk about both of these a little bit more in depth here to Kermit Roosevelt.

So that's Theodore Roosevelt, Teddy Roosevelt, his second son. So he was, had. Had an interesting life and ended up passing away way. And we'll, we'll dive more into that.

So let's talk a little bit about more of your trip in, in Anchorage and Captain James Cook.

Jenn: 00:06:30

So when it comes to Captain Cook, I knew a little about him. He's not as well known in America as we come to find out. The Australians know him.

So he is an explorer from England, and he sets out to map the area, the land areas of the world, and he's looking for a Northwest Passage. That's what his third voyage is. He does three voyages. The third one is for this Northwest Passage, and that's when he discovers Alaska.

I would say he discovers it. There were indigenous people there, but he's the first person to map it. And he's mapping the coastline line.

And he comes to this inlet, which is now named Cook Inlet, and anchors and go. And sends.

He doesn't go himself, but he sends his first in command to the land to see who's out there and when and what kind of topography is out there. And because he anchored in that inlet, they named the, the town Anchorage in his honor. And, and so I, that's how I basically did his statue.

oyage of Captain Cook back in: 1778

And it is the most populated town in Alaska. So it has about 300,000 people. That's more than any other town in Alaska. So Anchorage is probably What I would call the.

The Mecca where the people are. And because they have a huge base there. I mean the base there is so big.

They said if you add all the land area of all the west coast bases together, it doesn't even equal the land area of the base in Anchorage, Alaska.

Scott: 00:08:24

And that's Fort Richardson.

Jenn: 00:08:25

Fort Richardson, yeah.

Scott: 00:08:26

And so one of the interesting things, right, And Jen kept telling me before she went and then while she was there and after she came back, she felt bad she went without me because it's somewhere that I've always wanted to go. And I had a climbing friend of mine that we had talked about going to Tri Denali and never ended up doing that.

But just the scale of Alaska compared to the regular United States. And I didn't really have a good grasp for it until you showed me your flight plan.

You're flying from Memphis and you made your way to Seattle and then from Seattle. Okay, picture Seattle in your mind. Those listening. It's another four to five hour flight from Seattle to Anchorage.

That's how far north you are going and that's why it's light at 3am yeah.

Jenn: 00:09:15

And I looked out the window flying across those little islands as you're going into Anchorage, because Anchorage is probably like middle Alaska on the south part. And so you're gonna hit like Juno and Sitka, like you're gonna fly over all those little island inlets before you hit Anchorage.

And so I'm looking out the window and I've never been here. It is so mountainous and beautiful. And that's why I was so sad, because I knew Scott would love this.

If you don't know anything about Scott, Scott is a mountain man at heart and he loves the mountains. He loves to climb, he loves to camp, he loves to hike. Like those are the things he loves. And I love him, so I go with him on some of those things.

But this was like I know this would be what Scott's dream would be. So when, even when you land in Alaska, the mountains are right there and they're snow capped and they're beautiful and the trees.

And we saw moose like walking like it is. It's. It's called the final frontier because it is the final frontier. And when you think of Anchorage, 300,000 people is the most populated town.

There's all these villages and towns in Alaska that have couple thousand people here and there. So it was very interesting to be in this area where it is. It still feels so untapped in so many ways. So I was like, let's do the basics.

in: 1976

And it looks like a George Washington or something. Classic pose, colonial. Right. He has the wig and the curls and colonial dress, and he's looking out to where.

Where he was anchored, and he was there with the Resolution. So he had the two ships with him, the. The HMS Discovery and the HMS Resolution.

So he was on the Resolution, and you get to see him looking out in that area, and they have a map of the kind of mountains that you would see out there as well. And so I went to that park, told his story, told the story of what he was looking for. Why is it called Anchorage? What happened when he came?

He sent his first ashore. They met about 20 indigenous men, warriors. And the British had their rifles and guns with them.

And to, as a show of force, they shot one of their dogs to show that they were the stronger group, and then traded with them a little bit and then placed the English flag, like, kind of took. Said, we take this land in the name of the British, which is not a new thing for the British to do in any means.

So and then from there, they realize they keep going north, but they realize there is no Northwest Passage. They end up going south from there, and they make it to Hawaii, and that's where Captain Kirk is going to be killed.

It's going to be some miscommunications and some tensions, and Captain Crook gets killed as a result of it. So telling that story, I learned more about Captain Cook and what he had done and the influence he had.

But then afterwards, once we made the video, we had so many people from Australia who. They credit Captain Cook with discovery of Australia, discovery of New Zealand, and so they consider him like the Christopher Columbus.

Scott: 00:12:48

Yeah, Someone. Someone from Australia actually commented that they were like. And that was something I wasn't expecting, because once you.

If you start dabbling in Captain, Captain James Cook history and stuff like that, you start reading about all. All his travels all over the globe. It's pretty incredible what he did and where he mapped and.

And everything, and a relatively short span when he's sailing around the world, but there was people from Australia saying, yeah, here in Australia, Captain James Cook is a big deal. He's considered the Christopher Columbus. He's our Christopher Columbus for Australia.

Jenn: 00:13:21

ves on this voyage in July of: 1776

s like the summer, the end of: 1778

killed on Valentine's Day in: 1779

But if you hang out in Alaska, what's interesting is they. Oh, they have these flags there, and one of them is the British flag.

And so they fly the British flag, they fly the Alaskan state flag, and they fly the American flag. And they really hold on to this heritage of Captain Cook being there and planting that flag and Anchorage being named for it.

, like, that was in: 2007

Scott: 00:14:34

Well, and we always joke, too, that if we ever got on the Amazing Race, everybody would. Would be on Team Scott pretty quickly because. Just because I'm always the Mr. Cool, Calm and collected, and Jen's emotions are never hidden. And.

And so we always joked about that, oh, it would be so fun if we both got on the Amazing Race and. And, you know.

Jenn: 00:14:52

So this statue's in the finale of Amazing Race 12.

Scott: 00:14:55

Oh, that's cool.

Jenn: 00:14:56

So they gotta make it. I think they say something like, Cook's eye. Go to where Cook's eye was, or something like that. And people have to make it to this statue.

Scott: 00:15:05

That's cool.

Jenn: 00:15:06

In Anchorage. So I thought that was neat.

So just a little history, like, in case you're ever on one of those races and you're like, oh, Captain Cook, he's associated with Anchorage. It's what it's named for. And he's the first person to map the coastline of Alaska.

Scott: 00:15:20

Yeah. And I think one of the interesting thing was he never actually stepped foot in Alaska. He sent his folks, they did their thing.

I can't imagine they were around for too long. And then they took off. They took off looking for the Northwest Passage and eventually made a U turn and hit. Went down to Hawaii. Now, from there.

Now, see, I think you did this all on the same morning.

Jenn: 00:15:39

I did. I did the same morning.

Scott: 00:15:40

And so you went out to Fort Richardson, which is what you mentioned. Just this massive, massive army base.

Jenn: 00:15:51

Yeah. So it's now it's kind of like a joint base.

Scott: 00:15:54

Okay.

Jenn: 00:15:54

It's all the services are on this base because they just. It's so much space and it's expansive. So it's like a joint base. But I think it was originally an Army Air Force base.

And at the time when Roosevelt is there, it's an army base. But you gotta think like he's there in, during World War II. And what's interesting during World War II is this area is very close to Japan.

If you think about the topography and you're looking at a map, you're not going to think Alaska, where is it in the world? It's very close to Japan. So they had a lot of contact with the Japanese for World War II. And so that's.

It was like the closest American place to Japan. And of course we were fighting with Japan. So that is why he's out there. He of course, is Teddy Roosevelt's son. He's in World War I.

Remember his brother Quentin is killed in World War I, but for World War II, he's FDR sends him out there because he works intel, he's done military stuff before. But he's also can get mixed in with the wrong group of people. And alcoholism really is influencing his life.

So FDR feels if he can get him away from his in bad influences in New York and get him to a far off place like Alaska where he can do work where he could be useful, maybe those influences won't have as much impact on his life.

Scott: 00:17:26

Yeah. And Kermit Roosevelt had an interesting path. So he's the second of Teddy Roosevelt.

So fdr, second child, Second child, second child of Teddy Roosevelt, Franklin Roosevelt, later President. FDR was his cousin. So that's how he ended up coming back.

But not only did you know he served in World War I, but he had this kind of very well known Amazon river, river of Doubt expedition that he did with his father.

And you had mentioned how he actually preserved his malaria medicine or his, because they both caught malaria and he gave it to his father to make sure his father lived. He's credited with kind of saving his father's life.

Jenn: 00:18:06

Yes. So Teddy Roosevelt has a wife named Alice. And if you remember correctly, she has one daughter.

They have one daughter, Alice, who's like the crazy child Alice is. Remember Teddy was always like, I gotta handle Alice. Right. So his wife dies. I think it's the same day as his mother.

And I remember he writes, the light has gone out in my life in this diary. So Alice only has one child and Then he marries again, Edith Kermit Roosevelt.

And so that's where he has the rest of his children with his second wife. And so their first child is Kermit, after her maiden name. That's where he gets the name. And he is for all intents and purposes, a presidential son.

He goes to Harvard, completes four years of Harvard and serves in the military.

Scott: 00:18:55

Successful businessman.

Jenn: 00:19:01

to a safari in Africa. And in: 1913

One branch is now named Rio Kermit. But it's on that expedition that his father and him both get malaria.

Now you can imagine Kermit's younger and so probably more robust and more healthy to fight off the malaria where his father is older. So even though they're both given rations of the medication to, to beat malaria, he rations his to give to his father.

And he's able to beat the malaria because of his youth. He's 24 and his father needs the medication, but saves his father's life.

So he's credited with doing that, with being so self aware and doing that, with saving his father's life.

Scott: 00:19:57

Now you mentioned it earlier, but you said, and we talk about this in the video, and that video's getting ready to come out, that kind of all throughout Kermit's life, he essentially struggled with depression.

And it sounds, I mean, I can imagine at the time when being the son of a incredibly popular and successful president, but serving in multiple wars, doing all sorts of crazy stuff. But he deals with this depression throughout the majority of his life and turns to alcohol after World War I.

He's doing business and he's doing what Roosevelts do. Like he's successful, he's running successful businesses. World War II comes back around. His cousin's now president. His cousin helps him out.

I think he said, brings him in. You said brings him in as a.

Jenn: 00:20:40

Major, a major intelligence officer in the army. In the army because he's good with these business. He's worked with Russia, he's worked with Finland. He does global business.

And because he's used to global business, World War II is really about that negotiation and business. And so because he's so close with Russia, Alaska makes sense. And Russia at the time is a ally. So yeah, he's.

cted gunshot wound in June of: 1943

And then they talked to his wife about, would you like to send him back home? She says that his father always said a tree should lie where it falls. And so she felt he should be buried there with his men where he fell.

And so if you visit Fort Richardson, it's in section A, one of the first graves. This, this whole cemetery started during World War II and it's on a base, so I had to use my ID to have access to it.

So I don't know if the public has access to this cemetery, but it was a very easy grave to find. But it was so cold.

Scott: 00:22:08

It looked pretty cold out there.

Jenn: 00:22:10

Your nose was all red, but it was very easy to find. And the graves were your typical white marble gravestones for a national cemetery.

But what I also found interesting about this, this area was during World War II, they had some Japanese that were killed during some fighting. And the bodies. They buried the prisoner or the captured or the dead Japanese in Fort Richardson National Cemetery, they buried them there.

And it wasn't until more recently they disinter them and burned their bodies in more customs to their religion to release their souls and then put their ashes back and then they have a Japanese monument to them. So I found that for you as well. So you can see that.

Scott: 00:22:59

Yeah. In. In the part of the thing that I gave Jen a hard time is I wish I could have been there just. Just to take B roll because the.

The video was just astounding.

Here I am trying to focus on Jen's face as she's talking, but the scenery behind her with the mountains and the trees, it was just absolutely stunning. So here's this national cemetery on this base with the Alaskan wilderness right behind her. It was just absolutely gorgeous. It was pretty cool.

Jenn: 00:23:28

The cemetery feels like it's just in the middle of the Alaskan wilderness. And what's interesting is I've been to Quentin Roosevelt's grave because he's buried beside Theodore Jr.

And in the American Normandy Cemetery, his body was moved to be beside his brother because he dies in World War I and Theodore Roosevelt Jr dies in World War II. And here is another brother who dies in World War II and his grave. So they. They're basically where they fell during their service.

And so I thought that was very, I don't know, honorable of the Roosevelt boys and of Teddy Roosevelt. He gave three sons to the war. When you Think about this. As a president, he gave three sons to American wars and I was able to visit their graves.

So it was really neat. It was important for me to go there. I think Kermit Roosevelt is probably the more famous of all the graves in that cemetery. But it is a very.

Was very honorable to go there and to be in a national cemetery. I was the only person there. So when you're in Alaska, like when you think about it, a town of 300,000, how many people are on the base?

Scott: 00:24:36

Yeah.

Jenn: 00:24:37

And then how many people? Like I. Even when I drove there, I was like the only car for a long time.

So it's one of those places that you really have got to be self sufficient because if something happens like you're saving yourself. So I just made me really feel like if you want that kind of adventure, that last frontier, that explorer mentality, Alaska is that place.

I really felt that there.

Scott: 00:25:02

Yeah, no, it was, it was beautiful. I encourage you guys. I'll link the videos down below, but look into. I think there's plenty of books about Captain James Cook.

In fact, I think I'm going to pick some up myself. But the learning about the Roosevelts and kind of what Teddy Roosevelt's sons did is been pretty fascinating.

It was cool that you got to go visit Kermit because here you are visiting Kermit in Alaska, then the other brothers all the way in France at Normandy. Yeah. So it's pretty wild where our opportunities have been able to get you to explore some of the history out there.

Jenn: 00:25:34

Yeah, I'm very honored. I'm very honored to tell their story. I mean, when you think of the Roosevelts, that is quintessential American dynasty right there.

And so to be able to visit the sons that have served of that family, it really was an honor for me.

Scott: 00:25:48

Yeah, no, it was beautiful. Again, I'll link it down below for those listening for our audience. If you guys want to support the podcast, you can go to talk with me.

There's a support link down below. If you want to leave us a tip, buy me a coffee, buy us a sandwich, buy us some gas money.

Or if you want a little bit more resources, you can go to the history road trip.com I try to send out a newsletter occasionally. Try to include some maps, links to the locations where we visit.

If you guys ever want to go visit these spots themselves, you can get a little bit more resources there. But thank you, thank you so much for listening and we'll talk to you next time.

Jenn: 00:26:19

Thank you.

Scott: 00:26:23

This has been a Walk With History production. Talk With History is created and hosted by me, Scott Benny. Episode researched by Jennifer Benny.

Check out the show notes for links and references mentioned in this episode. Talk With History is supported by our fans@thehistoryroadtrip.com our eternal thanks go out to those providing funding to help keep us going.

Thank you to Doug McLiverty, Larry Myers, Patrick Benny, Gale Cooper, Christy Coates, and Calvin Gifford. Make sure you hit that follow button in that podcast player there and we'll talk to you next time.