Volunteers uncover fate of thousands of Lost Alaskans sent to Oregon mental hospital a century ago

By MARK THIESSEN
Associated Press

ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) — A 15-year volunteer effort is helping identify the fates of thousands of Alaskans who were shipped to a controversial psychiatric hospital in Oregon between 1904 and the 1960s. The patients were committed after being deemed by a jury “truly insane.” There were no facilities to treat those with mental illness or developmental disabilities in what was then the Alaska territory, so they were sent to Morningside Hospital. Many never left, and their families never learned their fate. Volunteers in Portland and Fairbanks have been combing through government archives to identify the “Lost Alaskans” and what happened to them, with the results documented at a new website. The remains of some patients have been returned to Alaska for reburial.