Joe Vogler

Joe Vogler was a miner, land developer and founder of the Alaska Independence Party. He was born and raised in Kansas, and came to Alaska in 1942, at the age of eighteen. He worked construction on military bases, first at Kodiak, later in interior Alaska, and ended up with extensive real estate holdings around Fairbanks and mining claims in other parts of Alaska. Joe was an outspoken critic of government, advocated Alaska's secession from the Union, and made three unsuccessful bids for governor under the Alaskan Independence Party. He was especially critical of the National Park Service who imposed control on his mining and land development activities, such as at Woodchopper Creek in Yukon-Charley Rivers National Preserve. Joe Vogler disappeared in 1993 when he was 80 years old, and his body was found near Fairbanks on October 12, 1994. In keeping with his distaste for federal bureaucrats, Joe was buried in Dawson, Yukon Territory, Canada.