In September, relatives of Lucy Pitka McCormick held a burial ceremony near Fairbanks, Alaska to honor her remains that had only recently been identified and returned to her family. McCormick died in 1931, after being committed to Morningside Hospital in Portland, Oregon. Along with thousands of other Alaskans who were deemed mentally ill, McCormick was sent to the hospital as there were no facilities to treat such individuals in Alaska at the time. Many Alaskans who were sent to Morningside never returned, leaving their families to wonder about their fate, earning them the nickname of the Lost Alaskans.
For more than 15 years, volunteers in Fairbanks and Portland have worked to identify the patients who were committed to Morningside Hospital. The volunteers became history detectives, searching through various records from the National Archives, Alaska and Oregon state archives, and old Alaska court records. Armed with laptops and scanners, they combed through data to find out more about the Lost Alaskans. The volunteers’ efforts have paid off, with Lucy McCormick’s remains being identified and returned to her family for a proper burial.
A new online database was launched in February to help families find information about their long-lost relatives who were sent to Morningside Hospital. The database contains several thousand names, with details about when and why a patient was committed, when they left or died, and their burial location. Among the patients committed to Morningside were miners, housewives, Alaska Natives, and even a co-founder of Juneau. Various reasons led to their commitment, from postpartum depression to addiction and syphilis.
Morningside Hospital’s treatment of its residents came under scrutiny by the 1950s, eventually leading to its closure in 1968. In Portland, volunteers like Eric Cordingley have been instrumental in documenting the burial sites of patients from Morningside, obtaining Oregon death certificates, and creating virtual cemeteries to help families find their lost loved ones. Cordingley discovered Lucy McCormick’s grave marker in Portland, informed her family, and witnessed her being disinterred and later laid to rest in her birthplace in Rampart, Alaska, overlooking the village and the river. McCormick’s family believes that the spirits of lost loved ones do not rest until they are found and brought back home.
