Lesson 8: Alaskana

That's a great bit of knowledge to pass on about the permanent link to your community summary.

I was amazed that Wrangell has a 7% sales tax, and of the five (+ Sitka seasonally) that have a 6% sales tax.  In such small communities, that's a heavy hit to the locals!

What I wondered was in looking at communities that don't have a sales tax, if you don't have "no taxing authority", does that count as not having a sales tax, or only those listed as None?

I loved being able to look up census counts.  I was surprised that in 1920 Anchorage had enough population to be double that of Cordova, as well as still being bigger than Fairbanks, which was also smaller than Sitka by only 25 inhabitants.  That Juneau was the biggest with a working mine there didn't really surprise me, but I was surprised that Ketchikan was next with the most inhabitants.

What I wish was at the end of the communities that there was a total population in Alaska for that census count.

My question about the "old Glory Hole" photo from the Michael Z. Vinokouroff Photograph Collection, ca. 1880's-1970's, is how can one determine if this is still under copyright or it's public domain? Was this photographed for the government?  Was it photographed for personal use?  Was it photographed for the mine owners? How do you find out restrictions on the collection the photograph is from?

With Alaska Digital Archives, I get frustrated when hunting for photographs of specific items, like road houses along the Fairbanks-Valdez Trail.  Part of that stems from whomever catalogs the photos.  Unless the rules for cataloguing have changed, there are only four options to list.  If you're hunting for examples of parkas, you rarely find photos with that keyword.  Students try to find things, using specific items like dog sleds or baidarkas or sod roofs when they're doing a class project.  They come up with nothing.  Yet random browsing will often find photos that contain the specific items, and that's inexplicable to me and to them.

The Alaska & Polar Periodical Index can be a useful tool but it doesn't contain full text, which can be annoying when you want specific information.

The Alaska State Museum Collection Search might be useful;  I think one would need to know more about the collection to use this much.

I love Project Jukebox because it has so many wonderful memories stored there, many by individuals I know or have known before they passed.

Discovery Exercises:
Two categories in SLED are Hot Topics (Current Fire Information <http://forestry.alaska.gov/fire/current.htm> where you can see maps that outline where the active fires are currently.) and Genealogy <http://sled.alaska.edu/genealogy> which gives both Alaskan and General links to other sites.  I found the the Alaska/Yukon Pan for Gold Database fascinating.

Using the Alaska FAQ,
I know that President Reagan met Pope John Paul in Fairbanks because my family and I were there in 1984 on a cool, cloudy morning.

I have taught the Alaska Flag song to so many students that I'm sure I don't need to look up the words that Benny Benson wrote.

At AVO, <http://www.avo.alaska.edu/volcanoes/about.php>, it says "The volcanoes in Alaska make up well over three-quarters of U.S. volcanoes that have erupted in the last two hundred years."  Whether that actually answers the question presented, I'm not sure.  This is one of the all-time best websites I've ever found for great information.

Under Daily Living, Recreation & Sports, official breakup dates and times of the Nenana Ice Classic lists 1942 - April 30.......1:28 p.m.

Under Native & Indigenous Peoples, Alaskan Natives did not become citizens until 1924 by a U.S. Congressional Voting Act; what was offered in 1915 was an enabling act by the Alaska Territorial Legislature that was similar to the Dawes Act - The Dawes Act provided that citizenship could be obtained by Indians who "severed tribal relationship and adopted the habits of civilization."  Essentially, Native Alaskans had to stop acting "uncivilized" if they wanted to get U.S. citizenship and thus be eligible to vote before 1924.

3.  Comparing Eek and Fairbanks,

COMMUNITY	LAND	BOROUGH	NEW HOUSE	NEW SENATE	JUDICIAL DIST	WATER OPERATOR	SEWER OPERATOR	LANDFILL OPERATOR	ELECTRIC UTILITY
Eek	0.9	Bethel Census Area	38	S	4	City/Village	Individuals City/Village	City	AVEC
Fairbanks	31.9	Fairbanks North Star Borough	9; 10	E	4	College Util Golden Heart	College Utilities Golden Heart Util (Private)	Borough Ft. Wainwright	Golden Valley Electric Association

4. Using Alaska's Digital Archives and Fairbanks in the search box, 3313 results showed up.
I liked the Celebrating 4th of July at Fairbanks, Alaska 1904
http://vilda.alaska.edu/cdm/singleitem/collection/cdmg11/id/2422/rec/14
because it's really amazing that our town has grown so much in 100+ years!

But I certainly didn't look at all 3313 photos!


5.  Says OPAC not available.  Try later.  ?
5/28/12 - first item to show is from Candy Waugaman's collection of Alaskana, [Front page of the Fairbanks Daily News-Miner on August 16, 1935 reporting the death of Will Rogers and Wiley Post the evening before in an airplane crash] 
There are 50 items, ranging from a photo Jimmy Bedford took of the Rogers-Post monument in Barrow, and published in (Alaska magazine 1982, V. 48 (NOV. 1982) P. 29)
to a review of Gordon Connelly's One Man's Polar Odyssey to the book by Jim Ruotsala, The Last Flight of Will Rogers and Wiley Post (1992).

I did a search on Nick Begich, the father of current U.S. Senator Mark Begich.  144 items showed up, but just browsing, I don't know that all of them are totally relevant.  His name obviously shows up in the personal subject category, but the work topic/title just seems irrelevant if one is trying to find out about Nick Begich.

6.  Halibut hook II-B-1644 "Carved wooden halibut hook. Raven figure. Hook lashed on with leather thong. There is an 18" strip of leather attached to the top section"

7. Project Jukebox
The Fairbanks Jukebox: The Interior Experience
Many interviewed; I watched the one of Judy Shiffler, done in 1995 about her early memories (1968) of first living in Fairbanks.  She was my older two boys' 4th grade teacher at old UPark school.

Katmai National Park Project Jukebox
I looked at the South NakNek project, which has five interviews.  I listened to Frederick Theodore (Ted) Angasan, Sr.'s interview, done by Pat Partnow and Mary Jane Nielsen.  It is in two parts, as Ted remembered much and wanted to add more information.

I'm not certain why the instructions say "try a search for an Alaska related project."  Did I miss something - they all deal with some aspect of Alaska.

I'm interested in the Ted Stevens Papers Project, which is in its infancy of construction. My husband would like to submit a personal Stevens experience when in Washington, D.C. over the d-2 lands debate:
"In more than 40 years of service to the state, Senator Ted Stevens touched the lives of many Alaskans. Did you have a personal interaction with the Senator? Did he visit your community? Share your Ted Stevens stories and images here"