Great Land

     In the language of the Aleuts Alyeska translates as Great Land.  That is the term used to describe Alaska.  It is difficult to comprehend its vastness.  We all know that it is larger than Texas.  And at 586,412 square miles it is larger than all three of the next largest of our United States: Texas, California and Montana.  Alaska has a larger coastline than all the rest of the states combined.  Purchased from Russia in 1867 for about 2 cents an acre it was dubbed "Seward's Folly" mocking then Secretary of State William Seward who brokered the real estate deal, Alaska was granted statehood as the 49th state in the union on January 3, 1959.  And with a 2012 population of only a little over three quarters of a million inhabitants it ranks 47th and has fewer residents per square mile than any other state.  Anchorage, the largest city has over a quarter million citizens or about 41% of the state's population.  To this date 65% of the land in Alaska is owned by the Federal Government and is deemed public land.

     Alaska is home to Mt. McKinley, also called Denali, the tallest mountain in North America at 20, 320 feet.  In Juneau, the state capital is the governor's mansion, the official residence of Sean Parnell, who interestingly enough has the same initials on the bathroom towels as the previous resident of that stately edifice.

     It is an interesting mix of cultures and cuisines that make up the populace.  For thousands of years indigenous peoples claimed the land as their own.  Athabaskan, Aleut, Tlingit, Haida and Tsimshian families hunted, fished and farmed, little known or regarded by the rest of the world.  But the Klondike Gold Rush in the neighboring Yukon Territory changed all that in the years following 1898.  Thousands abandoned the safety and security of civilization in search for fame and fortune, hoping to strike it rich.

     Ann Chandonnet in her book Gold Rush Grub writes, "Who were the men and women of the Klondike rush?  They were veterans of the Civil War and old Indian fighters.  They were the younger sons of good English families, provided with generous allowances and sent adventuring.  They were the natural sons and spiritual heirs of California's Forty-Niners.  They went by picturesque nicknames like Salt Water Jack, Squaw Cameron, Jimmy the Pirate, Pete the Pig and Muckskin Miller."

     And when they came they brought with them their favored recipes and adapted them to the harsh climate.  Storing food was a balancing act the author goes on to say.  "Flour, sugar and dried food had to be kept from contamination, insects, mice and damp.  Canned food had to be kept from both damp and freezing. " And these explorers made their mark on the landscape with locations named after food.  Tapioca Creek, Coffee Point, Biscuit Lagoon, Macaroni Creek, Goose Gulch and Bacon Glacier were just a few names on the map.