Word: alaska
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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...comment on the Women's Conference at Houston [Dec. 5] that "it is a particularly exciting time to be a woman" had a traumatic effect on me. I have been involved in the suffrage movement since 1909, first in London and then in Alaska and on to the present day. What a change there has been in the kind of militant action called for now compared to what our sisters were compelled to experience in England in the early years of this century...
...alpine valley of unparalleled beauty, a spruce-and-birch wilderness without roads or ski lifts or other signs of human intrusion. Only the howl of the wind-or of an occasional wolf-now disturbs the silence. But man is on the way. Last week the Alaska capital site planning commission chose the design of a new state capital to rise in the valley. Unless opponents of the plan develop unexpected new strength, this idyllic subarctic landscape will become a kind of Brasilia of the North-though hardly as monumental as its Latin counterpart and far more in harmony with...
Ever since the turn of the century, Alaska's seat of government has been the old gold-rush town of Juneau (pop. 16,400). Situated far down the clawlike panhandle that Alaskans call Southeastern, Juneau is so distant from Alaska's geographic or population centers that its clocks run two hours ahead of those in Anchorage, the state's major city (pop. 161,600). Surrounded by water on one side and awesome glaciers on the other, Juneau is accessible only by boat or plane; frequent rains and fog and surrounding lofty mountains often make landings a pilot...
...city (pop. 52,200). both were ruled out. For the same reason, the new capital had to be at least 30 miles from either locality. Also the land had to be state owned; anticipating large new tax revenues from the booming oil fields and the trans-Alaska pipeline, Alaska has gone on a spending binge that has brought it to the edge of bankruptcy; thus the state could not afford expensive land purchases...
There were other considerations. The climate of the site had to be reasonably benevolent, and the annual snowfall modest. The soil had to be firm (which automatically excluded the four-fifths of Alaska that is shifting, meltable permafrost), and it had to be less prone to earthquakes and volcanic eruptions than are many other parts of the seismically active state. Finally, as a symbol of the rugged grandeur of America's last frontier, the site had to be scenically impressive without intruding on salmon-spawning streams, bear dens or other wildlife sanctuaries...