There is a link to the introduction dates on all Garrett models, but I can't seem to find it now. Perhaps someone can chime in on that.
As far as the Whites, there may be a model or two that was their "first" one mass-made, but there was several hand-made evolutions sold, even before Whites really got into detectors as their primary business. Mr. White was making geiger-counters only at first. He only incidentally made some metal detectors "on the side", as a special request from a few customers. Then eventually it got to such a demand, that the business turned entirely to detectors. I wonder if any of those earlier prototype experimental models still exist? That'd be interesting to see what they looked like, what they were capable of, etc...
I read an account that a fellow from a desert ghost town had written and requested Mr. White to build him a detector. Later he wrote back to Whites and told of the items he'd found in his ghost town. They included tools, coins, etc... (so it was obviously sensitive enough to find individual coins, unlike some early units which only found large objects). That account leaked to the public in some sort of publication or article, and a flood of requests came pouring in to Whites. Thus the Whites detectors as their main venue was born.
The "Alaskan" was advertised in the treasure mag's lineups of Whites models till the early 1970s, so that was not their "first" detector. But there could have been earlier models that used the name "Alaskan" in their title though. For example this one on ebay right now:
http://cgi.ebay.com/VINTAGE-50'S-WH...ItemQQimsxZ20090111?IMSfp=TL090111117004r3160
That one is definately not "1950s". Whomever he supposedly asked at Whites was incorrect. There were no "TR discriminators" in the early 1950s. The coil also looks like Whites early 1970s style logo, look, etc... If there was a Whites with the word Alaskan in the title, it was some earlier incarnation, not this one.
Here's an entire forum dedicated to vintage detectors:
http://members6.boardhost.com/classicdetector/index.html?1172512320
also what was the 1st whites ever made was it the alaskan
