Alaska: Saga of a Bold Land--From Russian Fur Traders to the Gold Rush, Extraordinary Railroads, World War II, the Oil Boom, and the Fight Over ANWR

673 Pages·2003·3.06 MB·English

by  Walter R. Borneman

Alaska
Saga of a Bold Land
Walter R. Borneman
For my son, Russ,
who has traveled this land with me
and who has his own frontiers yet to cross.
Contents
MAP
PROLOGUE Alaska—a Sense of Scale
INTRODUCTION Crossing the Next Frontier
BOOK ONE
The Land before Time (Prehistory–1728)
Mountains, Glaciers, and Innumerable Rivers
First Steps, Continuing Traditions
BOOK TWO
Lifting the Veil:
An Empire Up for Grabs (1728–1865)
The Czar Looks East
Spanish Entradas
Cook and Vancouver
Port des Français
Lord of Alaska
God Is in His Heaven
Limitations of Empire
BOOK THREE
Seward’s Folly: Two Cents an Acre
Becomes a Heck of a Deal (1865–1897)
Last Guns of the Civil War
The Telegraph Survey and Mr. Dall
Two Cents an Acre
Boston Men in the Pribilofs
John Muir Visits Glacier Bay
Sheldon Jackson’s Missionary Zeal
Untangling the Rivers
The Lewis and Clark of Alaska
Juneau, or Whatever Its Name Is
One for the Duke
BOOK FOUR
Go North: The Rush Is On (1897–1915)
Fortymile, Circle, and the Sourdoughs of Rabbit Creek
The Trails of ’98
Two Towns and a Railroad
One Man’s Summer Vacation
Last Stops of the Mining Frontier
Crest of the Continent
Copper, Kennecott, and One Heck of a Railroad
Preserving the Bounty
The Day the Sky Turned Black
BOOK FIVE
Interlude: The Calm between the Storms (1915–1941)
Alaska’s Railroad
The First Iditarod
Conflicting Views, Continuing Battles
Salmon on the Run
Thrill ’em, Spill ’em, but Never Kill ’em
Knocking around the Gates
Farmers in the Matanuska
Never the Same Again
BOOK SIX
The Forgotten Campaign:
World War II in Alaska (1941–1945)
The Rush to Get There
The Darkest Chapter
No Place to Fight a War
Victory
BOOK SEVEN
Postwar Rumblings:
Statehood and Earthquake (1945–1964)
Offspring of Victory
Logging the Forests
Cold War Standoff
The Forty-ninth Star
Oil Boom on the Kenai
A New Meaning of Wilderness
Earthquake!
BOOK EIGHT
North Again: This Time the Gold Is Black (1964–1980)
Black Gold
The Blue Canoes
The Long, Long Road to ANCSA
Working on the Pipeline
A Capital Move
The Permanent Fund
BOOK NINE
Whose Land? Competing Claims (1980–2001)
d-2 Becomes ANILCA
The Big One
Toward a New Economy
ANWR—2001
Postscript to an Era, Prologue to the Next
EPILOGUE Alaska—a Sense of Scale
Notes
Bibliography
Acknowledgments
Searchable Terms
About the Author
Praise
Other Books By Walter R. Borneman
Credits
Copyright
About the Publisher
Map