JOHN MUIR AND GLACIER BAY
GOLD FEVER BEFORE THE KLONDIKE STRIKE
THE KLONDIKE STAMPEDE
STIRRING DAYS IN SKAGWAY
NEW ELDORADOS: NOME AND FAIRBANKS
THE YUKON: HIGHWAY TO THE INTERIOR
FRONTIER TOURISM: ALASKA WITH BAEDEKER
ALASKA IN THE TWENTIETH CENTURY: FROM TERRITORY TO STATEHOOD
AFTER ’98
PIONEER JUDGE: JAMES W. WICKERSHAM
A YOUNG GIRL’S FAIRBANKS
KING COPPER
ANCHORAGE AND THE IRON HORSE
BUSH PILOTS
THE “THOUSAND-MILE WAR”: THE ALEUTIAN CAMPAIGN OF WORLD WAR II
THE “MILITARY RUSH” AND THE ALASKA HIGHWAY
THE POLITICS OF STATEHOOD
GEOGRAPHY, CLIMATE, AND NATURAL EXTREMES
NOT ONE LAND, BUT MANY
ARC OF FIRE: VOLCANOES OF THE GREAT LAND
EARTHQUAKES AND TSUNAMIS
MOUNTAINEERS AND DENALI
SYDNEY LAURENCE AND THE NORTHERN LANDSCAPE
NEW DEAL AGRICULTURE: THE MATANUSKA EXPERIMENT
SLED DOGS AND THE IDITAROD
GROWTH, CONSERVATION, PRESERVATION: ALASKA’S ESSENTIAL TENSION
THE STORY OF SALMON
THE FISHING INDUSTRY
HUNTING IN ALASKA
ALASKA’S MARINE HIGHWAY
THE OIL BOOM
THE SPILL
COMING TO TERMS WITH NATIVE LAND CLAIMS
PRIDE AND PREJUDICE
CARIBOU AND NORTH COUNTRY POLITICS
RENEWED TRADITIONS: THE RENAISSANCE OF NATIVE ARTS
LAST FRONTIER OR LASTING FRONTIER?
ANCSA AND ITS DISCONTENTS
THE STATE OF ALASKA
Mount Katmai on the Alaska Peninsula, one year after its great eruption of June 6, 1912 (see p.96)
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Among the people who have nurtured my interest in Alaska’s history, sometimes unknowingly, I wish to thank in particular Darrel Amundsen, Monty Elliot, Gary Ferngren, and Sue Hackett, as well as Ron Valentine, Director of Operations of World Explorer Cruises. I am especially indebted to Marlene Blessing and Ellen Wheat of Alaska Northwest Books for supporting the idea of a popular history of Alaska, and to Betty Watson for designing the book. In the later stages of writing, Nolan Hester provided invaluable editorial suggestions which resulted in a much-improved manuscript. Ted C. Hinckley, Catherine and Bill Ouweneel, and Roy Potter kindly agreed to read the manuscript in its late form. I also wish to thank Richard Engeman and the staff of the Special Collections Division of the University of Washington Libraries, India M. Spartz of the Alaska Historical Library, Marge Heath of Rasmuson Library at the University of Alaska/ Fairbanks, Toni Nagel of the Whatcom Museum of History and Art, Ken Southerland of Sealaska Corporation, Sara Timby and Linda Long of the Special Collections of Stanford University Libraries, Mike Connors of the Port of Bellingham, Fred Goodman of Bellingham, Doug Charles of the Totem Heritage Center in Ketchikan, and several colleagues at Western Washington University: Janet Collins, Gene Hoerauf, Ed Vajda, Ray McInnis, Virginia Beck of Wilson Library’s Special Collections, and especially Jim Scott, Director of Western’s Center for Pacific Northwest Studies.
For the book’s second edition, I want to thank Jennifer Newens and the West Margin Press team for inviting me to undertake the revision. Very special thanks, as well, to Tricia Brown and Leza Madsen for their helpful suggestions.
Thanks, above all, to my wife, Marian, and son, Alan, without whose inspiration and support this book would not have been written.
Snug Corner Cove, Prince William Sound. Drawing by John Webber, 1778.
ALASKA: THE GREAT LAND
ALASKA, PAST AND PRESENT
Gold and silver doors, St. Michael’s Cathedral, Sitka, late 1800s.
Alaska’s human history—from the prehistoric arrival of the earliest Siberian hunters to today’s Arctic Slope oil exploration—is unified by one simple but grand theme: people’s efforts to wrest a living from the region’s vast natural riches despite its extreme conditions.
Nature endowed the Great Land with wealth, scenery, and a scope surpassed by few regions of the earth. Alaska is a virtual subcontinent: Twice the size of Texas, it contains 16 percent of the United States’ land area. But its population
