North to Alaska
In 1960, Johnny Horton sang the #1 hit song North to Alaska.
“With the Northern lights a-runnin' wild in the Land of the Midnight Sun.” I was 8 and it was my favorite song. I had the record. It was a movie too, starring John Wayne slugging it out with claim jumpers in the Yukon.
Recently, I went North to Alaska on terraGoo, the only way to fly free, to figure out if Sarah Palin would win Don Young’s vacant seat in the House of Representatives. It’s an important job in Alaska. Don had it for 50 years, they called him Dean of the House. The race was Alaska’s first to use ranked choice voting, an important new feature.
One of the things one notices gooing around Alaskaland, is the first rate roads, bridges and tunnels. For example, the Anton Anderson Memorial Tunnel cuts the Portage Pass road 2½ miles through the Maynard mountains to Whittier city, population 205. It is the longest combined railroad-highway tunnel in America. Goo eye crashes about halfway through but it’s impressive.
Don was effective over the years. Alaska is what I would call a sleeper state. Things are pretty good if you’ve got some grit. For starters there’s an annual oil royalty check for three grand that goes to all state residents. That’ll keep you happy on a cloudy day. After looking around Anchorage, it appears the front yards are filled with the booty. I was a little shocked at the accumulation. And there are flags, the frontier spirit is alive and well in Alaska.
Anchorage is the largest city with around 290,000 people. Fairbanks is next with 31,000 and Juneau, the state capital, with the same. 15% of the population are Native Alaskans.
Let that sink in for a second. Alaska is the largest state in the Union at 670,640 square miles, that’s about 4 Californias. Total population is 731,391. Sparse.
There is fishing, hunting, mining, logging, oil and gas a plenty. Along with vast junkyards of equipment that built the roads, bridges and tunnels and the industrial waste that goes with it. I noted the Wales Alaska post office is 50 miles from Russia. Seems close. There’s nothing on the other side for 2000 miles, they should have sold us more of it.
It’s rich and beautiful country when you arrive at Prudhoe Bay on the north slope. Follow the pipes for hundreds of miles. Oil slag appears to dot the land and you realize Big Daddy Oil isn’t going anyplace except in the tank, better get used to the heat. Timber clearing and oil mechanics leave obvious scars on the surface. The collapse of the crab and salmon populations are unseen collateral damage.
I found Sarah’s house on Lake Lucille in Wisilla. Not to shabby, nothing piled up in the yard. As it turned out, Sarah lost and will stay in the yard for now. Because of the fairness of ranked choice voting, Mary Pertola became the first Alaskan Native woman ever elected to Congress. Congratulations Mary!
She would be my kind of President. That’s probably to much to ask but she has the right chops for the job. I’m rooting for her to retain her democratic House seat in the Mids. I’m a fan from Chicago. So if you’re curious, fly terraGoo up North to Alaska, see those front yards for yourself. It’s quite the place. Cue Johnny Horton. Vote Dem. Here There and Everywhere.
atomthought • artist@Large
