he patriarch of one of the most prominent mining families in Alaska, David Strandberg was born in Halmstad, Sweden in 1875. After obtaining his early education in Sweden, he came to the United States and resided in Seattle, Washington where he attended the Wilson Business College. He was employed in the timber country of Washington and in various mines prior to coming to Alaska in 1898 during the great rush to the Klondike. Little did he know that his venture in gold mining would lead to his being the father of one of the most prominent mining families in Alaska.

After trudging over the pass from Dyea, he prospected and mined around Dawson until 1905 when he decided to move on to Fairbanks. He went down the Yukon and located on Ester Creek just out of Fairbanks. In Fairbanks, Dave met Jenny Sophia Johanson, who was born in Smoland, Sweden in 1884. She came to the United States in 1904, arrived in Dawson in 1905 and then moved to Fairbanks to live with an aunt. Dave and Jenny were married in 1908 and lived and prospected on Ester Creek for two years before departing for the Iditarod area. Dave staked some claims on Flat Creek and proceeded to develop them for the next dozen years.

In 1923, he moved the family to Anchorage, and from that period on he made Anchorage his headquarters for the operation of mining properties in Candle Creek, Cripple Creek, Utopia Creek, property on the Koyukuk River, and platinum ground in the Goodnews Bay country. Dave’s sons became his mining partners as they grew older, and in 1932 they formed the Strandberg and Sons Mining Company, which first operated in Folger.

Jenny and Dave Strandberg had four sons and two daughters. Their eldest son, Harold, married Barbara Carlquist, daughter of another pioneer Anchorage family, and they had three children; David Harold, Steven Frederick and Douglas Frank. Harold Strandberg died in Green Valley, Arizona in 1995. Daughter Olga married Larry Doheny and they had three children; Kathleen Hennessy, Michael and Jenny. Olga Strandberg Doheny died in Anchorage in 1991. Son Theodore “Ted” and wife, Gail, had one daughter, and Ted died of a heart attack at the Folger mine in 1955. Son William did not marry. He was killed by a black bear at the mining camp in Eureka Creek in 1961. Son Odin married Marie Nordstrom, and they had four children; Odin, Jr., Sigvold John, James and Barrent. Daughter Genevieve Strandberg Crawford had six children.

David Strandberg died in Anchorage in 1951, and Jenny died in 1954. David and Jenny Strandberg and their sons Theodore and William and daughter Olga Doheny are all buried in the Pioneer Tract, Anchorage Memorial Park Cemetery.