Mike Stepovich peered over Dwight Eisenhower’s shoulder while the president signed Alaska’s statehood proclamation — just to be sure.
“We did it; we’re in,” Stepovich thought while Eisenhower, not an original backer of Alaska statehood, dragged his pen across the page.
This signature on Jan. 3, 1959, made Alaska the country’s 49th state and touched off a series of celebrations more than 4,800km away while William Egan took an oath in a downtown Juneau movie theater to serve as the state’s first governor.
PHOTO: AP
“That was the final act,” said Stepovich, now 89. “Congress approved it six months earlier, but it never came about until it was signed by Eisenhower. He wasn’t for it at first, but by then he was. There was such relief.”
For the next 50 years Alaska built on its appeal as rugged and at times untamed, while becoming a key domestic energy provider, a place for critically located military bases during the Cold War, and a state with a highly charged —and of late, hostile — political climate.
Alaska has provided 15 billion barrels of oil — as well as the most costly oil spill in US history that led to a protracted legal battle. Oil has also provided Alaska with nearly 90 percent of its state treasury annually.
It’s offered fodder for political pundits and humorists following the unsuccessful Republican vice presidential run of Governor Sarah Palin, and the federal corruption scandal that stretched from Juneau to Washington, where it ensnared Senator Ted Stevens.
And it’s given writers and directors a place to set a scene for memorable books, movies and TV shows. Think James Michener’s book Alaska, the movie Limbo, with director John Sayles, or the Discovery Channel documentary Deadliest Catch.
The state’s foundation was built by fishermen, miners, lawyers, merchants, homesteaders.
Today, Alaska’s leaders still are made up of people unafraid to get dirty, while serving in the legislature for half a year then casting nets at sea and hunting for food in the interim.
“Most of us still share a love for the land we live on,” said state Representative John Coghill, a Republican whose father, Jack, was one of the state Constitution’s drafters. “In the end, that’s what’s made us work well together.”
Recently, the nation’s look at Alaska has been through a political prism: concurrent, unrelated developments that led to Stevens’ conviction for lying on federal disclosure forms and Palin’s emergence onto the national scene as the US’ favorite hockey mom.
But to those living here, especially historians, that point of view may be an important slice of Alaskana, but it is still myopic.
They point to the state’s wildlife that attracts photographers, artists and hunters: Features such as bears pouncing on salmon; moose roaming parks as well as the streets of downtown Anchorage; eagles soaring overhead.
They cite the Iditarod, a long-distance dog sled race and the one sport that puts Alaska in the national spotlight.
And they mention the tasty seafood that lands on the plates of many in the Lower 48 states. Alaska supplies nearly 50 percent of the country’s seafood, including delicacies such as Copper River salmon that fetched up to US$40 per 2.2kg last year.
‘IN A DIFFERENT PLACE’: The envoy first visited Shanghai, where he attended a Chinese basketball playoff match, and is to meet top officials in Beijing tomorrow US Secretary of State Antony Blinken yesterday arrived in China on his second visit in a year as the US ramps up pressure on its rival over its support for Russia while also seeking to manage tensions with Beijing. The US diplomat tomorrow is to meet China’s top brass in Beijing, where he is also expected to plead for restraint as Taiwan inaugurates president-elect William Lai (賴清德), and to raise US concerns on Chinese trade practices. However, Blinken is also seeking to stabilize ties, with tensions between the world’s two largest economies easing since his previous visit in June last year. At the
Nearly half of China’s major cities are suffering “moderate to severe” levels of subsidence, putting millions of people at risk of flooding, especially as sea levels rise, according to a study of nationwide satellite data released yesterday. The authors of the paper, published by the journal Science, found that 45 percent of China’s urban land was sinking faster than 3mm per year, with 16 percent at more than 10mm per year, driven not only by declining water tables, but also the sheer weight of the built environment. With China’s urban population already in excess of 900 million people, “even a small portion
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
Beijing is continuing to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang province, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a report published on Monday, ahead of his planned visit to China this week. The State Department’s annual human rights report, which documents abuses recorded all over the world during the previous calendar year, repeated language from previous years on the treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, but the publication raises the issue ahead of delicate talks, including on the war in Ukraine and global trade, between the top U.S. diplomat and Chinese