Forget-Me-Nots

Arliss Sturgulewski came to the territory of Alaska in 1952.

Six years later her  family attended the bonfire on the park strip in Anchorage – though her late husband, an engineer,  did not support statehood.

Download Audio (MP3)

Chuck Hawley says miners opposed giving land to Natives.

But in the ’70s, there was a shift in the politics of the Alaska Miners’ Association.  Bigger mining companies were again seriously looking at mineral development in the state.

And, like the oil companies, they needed clear land titles.

There was also a leadership change in the miners’ association.

Chuck Hawley became head of the Anchorage branch and later its executive director.

Download Audio (MP3)

Connie Bacon was a teenager in Texas when she heard about Alaska’s attempt to become a state.

Like many Texans she was not too keen on the idea.

Download Audio (MP3)

Dan O’Neill wrote “The Firecracker Boys” — a book about Project Chariot, a plan to use H-bombs to carve a harbor in the Arctic.

Many of the same business leaders who had supported statehood also backed this project near Point Hope.

Download Audio (MP3)

Ed Crittenden came to Alaska as part of the Coast Guard during World War II.

He stayed and built an architectural firm. He was here during the Good Friday earthquake.

He and his wife Kit remember one of the projects Ed designed – the first Tower of the Hotel Captain Cook. Wally Hickel built right near where land had liquefied and sunk into Cook Inlet in the quake.

Download Audio (MP3)

Eldon Galier  jumped ship in 1946 to make a home in Anchorage.

The town was mostly wilderness then.

He made his mark on the state doing a variety of things including building the first public power system for the village of Dillingham 50 years ago – the same summer congress voted to allow Alaska to become a state.

But his favorite memory is getting his first moose.

Download Audio (MP3)

Jack Roderick came to Anchorage in 1954 and wrote “Crude Dreams” about finding oil on the Kenai Peninsula.

He remembers how some local business men who bought leases there, got rich despite themselves.

These oil investors met across the street from the old Federal building.

Download Audio (MP3)

Kit Crittenden remembers the celebrations in Anchorage 50 years ago when Congress finally gave the go ahead for Alaska’s statehood. She and her husband, Ed, were both active supporters.

Download Audio (MP3)

That route he’s talking about was the Alaska Railroad.

And he ought to know. Jim Blasingame is called the “unofficial historian of the Alaska Railroad.”

And when it came time to build a headquarters – Anchorage was not the first choice.

Download Audio (MP3)

John Basler came to Alaska in 1947 to work at  remote federal aviation stations.

His first assignment was Middleton Island.

Download Audio (MP3)

John Jack de Yonge remembers meeting Mucktuk Marsden during the Constitutional Convention in Fairbanks.

De Yonge , a senior at the University of Alaska in Fairbanks, was covering the convention for the Anchorage Times when in the first draft of the Alaska Constitution was presented.

Download Audio (MP3)

Laurel Downing Bill sits atop a treasure trove of stories inherited from her aunt Phyllis Downing Carlson.

Her aunt came to Alaska as a young girl in the early 1900’s when her father, Laurel’s grandfather, moved to Cordova to help build a railroad to Kennecott.

Aunt Phyllis grew up in Cordova.

Download Audio (MP3)

In 1958, Lee Jordan was a service man stationed in Anchorage and making a little money setting type for the Anchorage Times when news came through that the Senate had finally passed the statehood bill.

Download Audio (MP3)

John Whitehead is a historian who spent two decades researching and writing the book – “Completing the Union: Alaska, Hawaii and the Battle for Statehood.”

He remembers the efforts of a New Orlean’s business man who spent his on funds to help turn the territory of Alaska into a state.

Download Audio (MP3)

Marge Mullen and her husband, a bomber pilot during the Second World War, flew a small plane to Alaska – looking for a frontier life.

When the federal government opened up homesteading to vets, she and her husband walked 60 miles, endured some wet nights camping till they got to the stream they had seen drawn on the map.

Download Audio (MP3)

Walt Parker has been on the frontlines of the battle to safely develop Alaskan oil.

He traveled up and down the Alaska pipeline route trying to make sure it was built right.

A watchdog was needed from the very beginning.

Download Audio (MP3)

Kit Crittenden lived in Anchorage before Alaska became a state.

After spending a year living in Finland, she was convinced the need town needed more trails.

One of her first projects was the Chester Creek Park.

Download Audio (MP3)

Mia Basler ‘s husband John, brought her over from Holland to live at several remote federal aviation stations.

They remember a difficult birth at Moses Point, about 100 miles from Nome.

Download Audio (MP3)