Page 153 - Vacation Country Travel Guide

for the Northwest Passage.
1835. Russian traders and explorers established a
mission near Knik, across the inlet from present-day
Anchorage.
March 30, l867. Financially strapped Russia sold
Russian-America to U.S. for 7.2 million or about
two cents an acre. The treaty was negotiated by U.S.
Secretary of State William Seward.
1882. Gold was found at Crow Creek near Girdwood,
just 39 miles (62 km) south of Anchorage.
1914. Congress authorized construction of Alaska
Railroad, the only railroad to be owned and operated
by the U.S. Government.
April 10, l915. President Woodrow Wilson selected
the railroad’s route from Port of Seward through coal
fields in the Interior to the gold claims near Fairbanks.
Anchorage selected as construction headquarters.
Thousand of job seekers and adventurers poured into
the area to build the railroad, living in a tent city of more
than 2,000 on the banks of Ship Creek.
July 10, l915. Land auction held that shaped layout
of present-day Anchorage. First lot sold for $825.
November 23, 1920. Anchorage incorporated. Anchorage Cityscape
July 15, 1923. President Warren G. Harding drove
a golden spike at Nenana, officially completing the
railroad’s construction. opens with transpolar airline traffic flying between Slope.
1935. Matanuska Valley Project brought more than Europe and Asia. City becomes the “Air Crossroads March 3, l973. The first Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race
200 families from the Midwest to begin an agricultural of the World”. occurred to celebrate Alaska’s distinctive past. Starting
community north of Anchorage. July 23, l957. Oil was discovered in the Kenai in downtown Anchorage, the race crossed more than
June 27, 1940. Anchorage’s strategic position Peninsula, starting Alaska’s boom. 1,000 miles of wilderness to Nome and commemorated
attracted military interest with the threat of world war. January 3, l959. President Eisenhower signed the the relay of life-saving diphtheria serum to Nome by
Construction began on army base and airfield. Statehood Act, making Alaska the 49th state. sled dog mushers in l925.
1942. Japanese invaded Alaska’s Aleutian Islands. March 27, 1964. The largest earthquake ever 1974. Construction began on the 800-mile trans-
In defense of the West Coast, the Alaska Highway was recorded in North America took place on Good Friday Alaska Pipeline. Oil and construction companies set up
built in eight months and 12 days, linking Alaska with and measured 9.2 on the Richter Scale. headquarters in Anchorage, fueling a construction boom.
the rest of the nation through an overland route. February 16, l968. Oil companies announced the June 20, l977. Prudhoe Bay oil began flowing to
December 10, l951. Anchorage International Airport discovery of oil in Prudhoe Bay on Alaska’s North Valdez, reaching the Valdez terminal on July 28.

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