Naptowne Revisited

Intrigued by the name Naptowne, an early name for present-day Sterling, Alaska, I wrote an earlier article suggesting how the name might have originated. The most elaborate suggestion involved the possibility that Naptowne was a modernization of a variant of the Eskimo term "nap" or "nape" meaning "trees" or "forest". Since Eskimos lived in the Kenai Peninsula area prior to its recent occupation by the Tanaina Indians, it seemed possible that Naptowne could have had this origin.

But this elaborate and fanciful idea is wrong - not just a little bit wrong, it is totally wrong. In this case my embarrassment at being wrong is more than compensated for by the several letters to the editors of newspapers that my article elicited and letters sent directly to me. In particular, I thank Roger V. Burke of Ketchikan, Walt Pedersen of Sterling and Jeffery Paul Petrovich of Anchorage. These knowledgeable persons have provided factual information on the early history of the Sterling area.

Probably the most valuable single source of information is the book A Small History of the Western Kenai by Walt and Elsa Pedersen, who live at Sterling. Walt Pedersen played a major role in the modern settlement of the area. That settlement commenced in August 1947 when the area was opened to homesteading, prior to the existence of the Sterling Highway. A letter from Walt Pedersen states that the Indian settlement at Moose River was called "Nilnungua," or "Nilhunga" or "Nilnunga," the last probably being a spelling or typesetter's error.

As the first homesteaders moved in, an attempt was made to give Nilhunga the name "Donjay" in memory of Don J. Saindon, who had drowned at Ketchikan. But this name was not adopted into common usage.

The name Naptowne was introduced by the homesteading families of brothers Alex and George Petrovich from Indiana. The nickname for their hometown of Indianapolis, Naptowne, was first suggested by George Petrovich's wife Elvessie, according to her son Jeffery Paul Petrovich. Alex Petrovich, the first postmaster, chose the name, and the Naptowne Post Office was established at the Naptowne Inn operated by the Petrovich families.

Mail missent to the villages of Napaskiak and Napaimiut in the lower Kuskokwim, endless jokes about napping and numerous misspellings led residents to a request changing the name of Naptowne. According to a letter to the editor of the Cheechako News Laura L. Tyson, second Postmaster of Naptowne, there was much controversy before a petition for a name change was submitted to the Post Office Department. This petition, originated by Walt Pedersen, resulted on October 1, 1954, in the change to the name Sterling in honor of Hawley Sterling of the Alaska Road Commission who had supervised the engineering of the highway which bears his name, but who died before seeing it completed.

Naptowne as a town name is gone, along with the hard pioneering of the era during which the name pertained to the Sterling area. However, the name has achieved a permanency because of its use application to the last of the five Pleistocene glaciations that covered much of the Cook Inlet Area. In the Sterling area the name remains with the Naptowne Rapids of the Kenai River. Also, the Naptown Trading Post, a secondhand store, sits alongside the Sterling Highway on the original Petrovich homestead.