The Life of Mary Joyce

Mary Joyce was born in Baraboo, Wisconsin in 1899. Around 18 months of age, her mother died, leaving her and her brothers to be raised by an aunt and uncle. Mary pursued nursing and graduated from Mercy Nursing School located in Chicago, Illinois.

Her life of adventure really began in 1928 when she was hired by the Smith Family, of the Charles Hackley lumber fortune, as a private nurse for their son, Leigh Hackley “Hack” Smith, who was a decorated French Legion veteran of World War I.

In 1929, Mary traveled with the family to Alaska, where Hack Smith was struck by the beauty of the area. He would go on to purchase the Twin Glacier Camp located 40 miles northwest of Juneau, which was accessible only by boat or plane.

Together, Hack and Mary would run the private lodge, adding to the facilities, raising husky sled dogs, and guiding hunting trips. Unexpectedly, Hack Smith died from a heart attack while on a hunting trip in 1934, only four years after purchasing the lodge.

Hack Smith’s mother purchased the lodge after his death and deeded it to Mary, along with 15 sled dogs and 3 cows. Mary renamed the lodge Taku Glacier Lodge, and began successfully operating it as a tourist resort that could accommodate up to 30 guests.

The first winter Mary owned the lodge, she began operating a radio station at the lodge for Pacific Alaska Airways’ twice-weekly Juneau-to-Fairbanks flight, making her the first female radio operator in Alaska.

In December of 1935, Mary set off for an adventure of a life time, a 1000-mile dog sled journey from her lodge near Juneau to Fairbanks to attend the Fairbanks Ice Carnival scheduled for March of 1936 to which she was invited to participate as a contestant in the Miss Alaska beauty contest. She hitched her five best dogs to her sled and joined a group of Native Alaskans who were headed for Atlin, British Columbia for the initial part of her journey.

At the beginning of her journey, she traveled through mountains using sled dog mail trails, eventually reaching Atlin, British Columbia on January 9, 1936. 10 days later, she reached Whitehorse where she and her dogs rested. While on her journey, Mary kept a diary on note cards of her daily experiences. She remarked on January 26th about her time in Whitehorse that she, “Danced all night, packed load at 6 am. Called the manager at 7:30 to pay my bill. Had toast and coffee. Hitched dogs.”

While in Whitehorse, she toured the city, visited elderly persons at the hospital, got advice regarding her journey from three old prospectors, and spoke to school children about her trip.

After leaving Whitehorse, she traveled through country that was true wilderness, largely without roads and often without trails, struggling with illness and blizzard conditions, she eventually reached the village of Tanana Crossing, which was less than 200 miles from Fairbanks. Upon her arrival in the village, she learned of the media buzz surrounding her journey, and realized at her current rate of travel, she would not make it to Fairbanks in time for the carnival. Mary made the difficult decision to fly from the village to Fairbanks, vowing to return to the village and complete her journey by dog sled.

Mary kept her word, and on March 16, 1936, she returned to the village of Tanana Crossing and restarted her journey by dog sled, arriving in Fairbanks on March 26, 1936.

The dog sled adventure was really just the beginning for Mary Joyce, she became a flight stewardess on Pan-Alaska Airlines, a subsidiary of Pan-American Airlines, on the Alaska-Seattle-Montana route. She became one of Alaska’s first female bush pilots. She co-starred in a movie filmed on location in Taku region called, Orphans of the North (1940). During World War II, she moved to Juneau to work as a nurse at St. Anne’s Hospital until the end of the war. Additionally, she aided the war effort by teaching wilderness survival skills to troops and hauling radio equipment by dog sled for the U.S. Navy. When asked by the press about her war efforts, Mary replied, “It’s nothing . . . Most Alaska women can take care of themselves.”

Post war, Mary sold the Taku Glacier Lodge and purchased the Top Hat and Luck Lady bars in Juneau, where she lived (above the Luck Lady) for the remainder of her life. In 1950, she led the Alaska statehood parade via dogsled, and in 1973, she cut the ribbon for the first ever Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race. Mary Joyce passed away in 1976 at the age of 77 from a heart attack and is buried at the Evergreen Cemetery in Juneau.

One thing Mary Joyce didn’t do was compete in the Miss Alaska beauty contest to which she was invited. So why did she make the journey if she didn’t intend to accept the invitation? Mary answers this question herself, “I wanted to see the country and experience some of the things the old-timers did, I just wanted to see if I could do it.”

The route Mary traveled on her journey, “…just to see if she could do it,” is known today as the Alaska Highway. The records of her adventure, recorded on notecards, were published in 2007 under the title, “Mary Joyce, Taku to Fairbanks, 1,000 Miles by Dogteam”. Today, you can still visit Taku Glacier Lodge by plane, and while there you can see the dogsled Mary used on her 1,000-mile journey.

Feeling up for an adventure?