Celebration marks Alaska’s path to statehood
Published Thursday, May 29, 2008
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Wednesday marked the 50th anniversary of the first step toward statehood.
On May 28, 1958, the U.S. House of Representatives passed a bill proposing that Alaska become the 49th state of the union.
The bill wouldn’t be passed by the Senate until June 30, 1958, and signed by President Dwight D. Eisenhower, making it official, in January 1959.
“Today marks the first day that Alaska got its foot in the door,” John H. Venables said in a historical re-enactment of Judge James Wickersham on Wednesday evening at the Noel Wien Library.
Venables also stepped on stage as William Henry Seward.
Adorned in historical costume, Venables filled the audience with the cold facts abut what has historically been called “Seward’s Folly.”
William Henry Seward served as secretary of state under President Abraham Lincoln, whom Venables called “just a log-splitter from Illinois.”
According to Venables, Seward lost the presidential nomination to Lincoln by only four votes.
He then served as secretary of state under Lincoln and President Andrew Johnson. During that time, he purchased 586,412 square miles of Alaskan land from Russia for $7,200,000. At that price, Alaska was bought at only 2 cents per acre.
The purchase was mocked by the public at the time, but Venables, speaking in character as Seward, humorously predicted the future by telling the audience, “They may laugh now, calling it ‘Seward’s Icebox’ but I predict some day the United States will need Alaska’s resources.”
Acting as Judge James Wickersham, Venables sat in a judge’s robe with the Stars and Stripes on his right and the eight stars of gold on a field of blue to his left.
Wickersham served as Alaska’s third territorial delegate to Congress in 1917, where he passed the Organic Act of 1912, which made Alaska a territory. He also helped create the Alaska Agricultural College and School of Mines, now known as the University of Alaska.
“It was a fight all the time trying to be the voice of the people,” he quoted Wickersham. “But then again, Alaskans have a fighting spirit.”
Apparently, Alaskans also have a dancing spirit.
Following Venables’ performance, residents headed to Pioneer Park for a barbecue and bonfire where they joined Sen. Lisa Murkowski, Borough Mayor Jim Whitaker and City Mayor Terry Strle in celebration.
Sen. Ted Stevens caught many by surprise as he was seen dancing to the music alongside local children also enjoying the music.
“One of the best pieces of advice I ever had was to dance like no one is watching,” one dancer said. “I guess Mr. Stevens already took that advice, though.”
The 50th anniversary celebration continues Friday with the “Proud to be an Alaskan Festival” at Pioneer Park from 5-10 p.m. and Saturday at Griffin Park for kite flying activities at 2 p.m.
Community Discussion
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This is the most ILL-PLANNED and promoted event I have ever seen. Visitor centers around the state didn't even hear about the celebration until a few months ago and the Governors office is taking MONTHS trying to send promo material out. What a joke.
It'll be the 51st anniversary before Palin gets her act together on this one. What a missed opportunity for our state!
The News Miner could have at least put something on the front page yesterday..All I could find about it to tell people was Dermot's column in Tuesday's. It wasn't even on the Calendar of events??
I am sooo tired of our LOCAL paper not putting information about what is happening locally where a person can actually find it BEFORE it happens. These things ALWAYS get the headline when it's over, how about doing that the day of the event or the day before? Not just some tiny blurb in Dermots column(No dissrespect Dermot :o) I love your column!). Obviously if Dermot ran it you knew about it before hand!
This same thing goes for any big happening..North Pole's Summer carnival, The Labor day parade & picnic..The Midnight Sun Inter-tribal powwow or the Festival of Native arts..Just some examples. If not the headline at least somewhere on the front page or in the local section! These are important local events where everyone is welcome!
If our paper were to actually get more local information about events printed, in a place where it could be found without having to search for it, more people would get it delivered..Instead of just reading it online. I would. Used to be the News Miner was a great paper to read, any day of the week, now I only buy Sunday and Wednesday's..
I get the feeling that if an organization isn't rich enough to take out huge ads, you don't care.
I agree, it sure would have been nice to know about this a head of time so I could have gone.
Take a look at the photo of Ted Stevens (third one down or currently on the home page). It strikes me as a lot different than the media bytes we usually see of him primped, prompted and propped up. Now pair that with his senseless ramblings on the floor of the Senate. Isn't that enough to vote him out this year?
I agree also..There was no promotion for this event to speak of. I would have like to have gone to this, but the article in today's paper was the first I saw of it. Maybe I am looking in the wrong place for community events?
We strive to inform people in advance and take these comments and that responsibility seriously. The events listing should be improved, I agree.
Let me point out, however, that this was a six-column headline in the News-Miner on Tuesday:
Wednesday bonfire, barbecue to mark 50th anniversary of statehood milestone
Dermot - Right, and it's funny that people missed the six-column headline, but it would make sense to have somebody at the DNM make sure every upcoming event that one of you gets ahold of, there, is listed in the community events columns (of which there seem to be more than one: the daily one and the Friday listing, and that's good). I know it's kind of a herding cats thing, but it would help. And it is kind of a cognitive dissonance thing: the mention on Tues of bonfires and barbecues on Wed just doesn't register unless there's been more of an effort made. When my kids were still at home, we needed to plan ahead of time, and a couple weeks was the best kind of notice. A week would work, sometimes. The day before almost never worked. Even adults w/o kids almost never go to something they've heard about the day before.
Judging from the photo, I'd say that Ted dances about as well as I do.
I can see a Fire Captain who owes Ice Cream!!!!
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