DeLoss K. Martin was born in 1892 and graduated from Polytechnic College of Engineering at Oakland CA with a B.S. degree. He went to Alaska for the Alaska Packers Association where he assisted with the installation and operation of their radio facilities. During World War I he served as an Ensign with the U.S. Navy and then joined the American Telephone and Telegraph Company, where he worked in development and research in many aspects of radio, communications, air traffic control and microwave transmission. After retiring in 1952, he worked for the Air Navigation Development Board in Washington, D.C.

Martin was 24 years old when he departed San Francisco on the steamship Nushagak. He served as radio operator on the vessel and for the Alaska Packers Association’s Nushagak Cannery in Bristol Bay during the summer of 1916. He recounts his experiences on board the ship and observations while working at the cannery. At the end of his account concerning the cannery, he lists an experienced miner’s outfit for one year, since he planned to stay over the winter. On August 27, 1916, after the last packers’ boats left, he helped close the cannery. The second section of the log tells of his trip up the Nushagak River, spending over three months near the village of Koliganek before returning to Dillingham at the end of January 1917. He describes his subsistence life style and his visits with people of the region. DeLoss K. Martin died in 1968.

[More biographical information is available in The Log of an Alaskan El Dorado Seeker, Addendum, by Gene C. Martin, after p. 36b, located in Box 2, Folder 8]