Redstate

By Achance Posted in History — Comments (9) / Email this page » / Leave a comment »

On June 30, 1958, the US Senate by a vote of 64 yeas and 20 nays enacted the Alaska Statehood Act, which was signed into law a few days later by President Eisenhower. Thus ended an almost century long battle to achieve some measure of self-determination for the sparsely populated but fabulously resource rich territory acquired from the Russians in 1867.

From the 1840s, Alaska had been the province of New England's otter fur traders and whalers. The Russians could barely maintain their colony and the Chinese, the primary market for sea otter fur, then the most valuable produce of Alaska, would only trade with the Russians at one port far up the Amur River. The Americans, who enjoyed good relations with the Chinese, filled the void trading with both the coastal Indians and the Russians for the valuable sea otter fur which in turn they traded with the Chinese for tea, porcelain, textiles, and other products desired by the burgeoning European and American markets. Voyages were typically four years or more and profits were often over 4000%!

After the US bought the territory, it was governed as a military district and the US maintained a small military presence and government but otherwise generally ignored the territory. Sea otter populations had declined so much as to largely eliminate that trade, but a whaling trade remained in the Bering Sea and Arctic Ocean. Alaska was granted Territorial status in 1912 (or so, working from memory).

The Klondike Gold Rush of the late 19th Century thrust Alaska on the national consciousness for a while and a major mining presence developed. It was not the rugged world of the sourdough prospector, but world-scale industrial mining for gold and copper. Juneau's Alaska-Juneau and Treadwell Mines were in their time the largest and richest gold mines in the World. Kennicott's property on the Copper River was likewise an industrial mine connected to tidewater at Cordova by a 110 mile class one railroad, and until its closure for geopolitical reasons in 1938, the richest copper mine in the World.

Through most of the first half of the 20th Century, mining and fishing interests controlled the territory and used it rapaciously. A largely symbolic Territorial Legislature met in Juneau each winter. The A-J Mine and the Alaska Canned Salmon Producers accommodated them by providing a 24/7 bar and Seattle hookers in various hotels during the Session.

Alaska again came into the national consciousness in the build up to WWII as the US increased its military presence. The Japanese attacked and held Attu and Kiska Islands in the Aleutian Chain. The US in a monumental engineering and construction achievement built the Al-Can Highway through some 1500 miles of wilderness in Canada and Alaska to bring military supplies to the territory and to support the retaking of the Japanese strongholds.

Alaska remained a major flash point in the Cold War as US and Soviet territory are separated by only 53 miles in the Bering Sea. The US built new major installations to confront the Soviets with the naval installation at Adak in the Aleutians and Distant Early Warning radars throughout the territory.

Throughout, Alaska was governed by federal appointees many of whom knew little and cared less about the territory. The mining and fishing interests did as they pleased, and Alaskans going to "The States" were treated as foreigners when they stepped off the plane or steamship in Seattle. That all ended as the result of the bill passed this day fifty years ago. Now we just screw things up all by ourselves!