Northern Commercial Company Store, Koyukuk River at Wiseman Creek, Bettles Vicinity, Wiseman, Yukon-Koyukuk Census Area, AK

Significance: Following the purchase of Alaska by the United States in 1867, the assets of the Russian-American Company were acquired the following year by the newly founded Alaska Commercial Company. The Alaska Commercial Company proceeded to establish stores in villages throughout Alaska, providing the crucial service of provisioning remote communities, including the outfitting of miners. In 1901, the Alaska Commercial Company merged with the International Mercantile Marine Company and Goldfields, Ltc, to form two new companies: the Northern Navigation Company and the Northern Commercial Company.

The Northern Commercial Company Store in Wiseman was constructed ca. 1910, when the company moved its operations to Coldfoot. It was later sold to Sam Dubin and William English, who did business as the Wiseman Trading Company. As of 1984, the Northern Commercial Company Store was the only remaining building of the three which once served Wiseman and was the only two-story building in town. Built of traditional horizontal log construction, the building is notable for its unique roof truss system, which includes vertical iron tie rods which secure summer beams beneath the second-floor joists to the roof purlins.
Unprocessed Field note material exists for this structure: N2131
Survey number: HABS AK-25-C
Building/structure dates: ca. 1910 Initial Construction
Building/structure dates: ca. 1983 Subsequent Work