The Chechahcos (1924)
During the Klondike gold rush, a shipboard fire separates a mother from her infant daughter, who is rescued and raised by two prospectors, until the mother returns to their Alaskan town fifteen years later.
The Chechahcos was the first feature film shot on location in Alaska, produced by the Alaska Moving Picture Corporation using local settlers alongside its cast. It was added to the National Film Registry in 2003.
Background
The Chechahcos is a 1924 silent adventure directed by Lewis H. Moomaw for the Alaska Moving Picture Corporation, financed by Fairbanks businessman Austin E. Lathrop. It was the first feature film shot entirely on location in Alaska, using the territory’s own landscape and local settlers alongside its billed cast of William Dills, Albert Van Antwerp, Eva Gordon, and Gladys Johnson. The story follows a mother separated from her infant daughter in a shipboard fire during the Klondike gold rush, with the child raised by prospectors until mother and daughter unknowingly cross paths fifteen years later. It premiered in 1924 and was added to the National Film Registry in 2003.
What to watch for
The documentary value of its Alaska setting sits alongside the melodrama: Lathrop’s production used the territory’s own terrain, weather, and residents rather than a studio backlot or a more accessible stand-in location, something few American features of the era attempted. It was also the only feature the Alaska Moving Picture Corporation ever produced, making it as much an artifact of a one-time regional filmmaking effort as a conventional melodrama. The reunion plot, built on coincidence and long-delayed recognition, is standard for the period, but the backdrop of an actual gold-rush-era Alaskan town gives it a specificity most melodramas shot on a studio lot could not match.
