Iñupiaq men in qayaqs, Noatak, Alaska, circa 1929. Edward S. Curtis Collection, Library of Congress Digital Collections.
Crossing the Chilkoot Pass, circa 1898. Courtesy Candy Waugaman and Klondike Gold Rush National Historical Park.
The Gold Rush boomtown of Nome on the Seward Peninsula, 1900. Courtesy of U.S. Geological Survey Photographic Library.
Thank you all who attended our 2025 Alaska Historical Society Conference!
KEYNOTE Reflections on Alaska Resource Development Gov. Bill Walker in discussion with Philip Wight
Bill Walker was elected governor of Alaska in 2014. Born in Fairbanks, he graduated from Valdez High School, received a bachelor’s in business administration from Lewis and Clark College, and earned a J.D. from the University of Puget Sound. He founded a law firm focused on municipal, oil and gas law. A lifelong Republican, he was elected governor on the Alaska First Unity Ticket with Native leader Byron Mallott.
Philip Wight is an associate professor of history and Arctic and northern studies at the University of Alaska Fairbanks. He is an energy and environmental historian, and is finalizing a manuscript on the environmental history of TAPS. He serves on the Alaska Historical Society Board of Directors.
SESSION 1 50 Years of TAPS: The Pipeline’s Significance in Alaska Moderator: Lisa Weissler Panelists: Tim Bradner, Philip Wight, Greg Kinney
SESSION 2 WWII: Daring Flight, Artillery & Displaced Persons Moderator: Patricia Partnow
» Kristi Swain – Legacy of a Vital 1934 Flight for Alaska Military Aviation
» Rachel Mason – The Faith that Sustained in the Aleutians
» Kendra Earl Warlow – The Story of the 267th Coast Artillery Battalion
LUNCH SESSION:
» Tim Cerny – Behind-the-Scenes Tour of New Fountainhead Antique Auto Museum
» Katie Ringsmuth – Baseball in Alaska, an America250 Commemoration
SESSION 3 Paleontology, People and Archives Moderator: Karen Brewster
» Greta Helfenstein – Exploring the Bering Land Bridge and Peopling of Alaska
» Paul Goodfellow – Salvaging and Building an Archive
» Deirdre Bryan & Tom Davis – Building Anchorage’s Landmark Database
SESSION 4 The Trans-Alaska Pipeline System Moderator: David Ramseur
» J. David Norton & Scott Goldsmith – Fifty Years in Alaska Without TAPS
» Gretchen Fauske – Megaprojects and Small Business
» David W. Haugen – My Experience on the TAPS Project
» Greg Kinney – TAPS: Past, Present and Future
KEYNOTE Reflections on the History of Alaska’s Judiciary Justice Susan Carney in conversation with Barbara Hood
The judiciary article in Alaska’s Constitution established a framework for Alaska’s justice system that has been widely recognized as a model for justice delivery. By adopting provisions for a unified judiciary, a merit-based judicial selection and retention process, and an independent judicial council, the framers aimed to ensure that Alaskans were served efficiently, competently and fairly in state courts. Chief Justice Susan Carney, in conversation with attorney Barbara Hood, will reflect on the extent to which these goals have been served over the past 70 years, to celebrate the successes and discuss the challenges that remain.
Susan Carney began her three-year term as chief justice of the Alaska Supreme Court earlier this year. Appointed to the court in 2016 by Gov. Bill Walker, she currently presides over Alaska’s first female majority court. After earning her law degree from Harvard University in 1987, she clerked for the Alaska Supreme Court and worked for the Public Advocacy and Public Defender agencies.
Barbara Hood has a bachelor’s degree in biology from the University of Alaska Fairbanks and a law degree from the University of California Berkeley. She began her legal career in Fairbanks at Alaska Legal Services Corporation and retired from it in Anchorage as communications counsel for the Alaska Court System. She serves on the board of Alaskans for Fair Courts.
SESSION 5 Alaska’s Constitution at 70: How it Developed and Shaped Resource Development Moderator: Brian Rogers Panelists: Tim Bradner, John Coghill, Karen Perdue, Doug Pope, Marty Rutherford
SESSION 6 Alaska Locally and the World – Foreign Relations, World’s Fair and Public Commissions
»Marcia Biederman – The Alaska Pavilion at the 1964–65 New York World’s Fair: An Impish Young State vs . the Scolds
» Brandon M . Boylan – Alaska in U .S . Foreign Policy and International Relations
» Paul Dauphinais – The First Fifty Years of the Alaska Public Offices Commission: Love, Hate, and Transparency in Campaign Finance and Conflicts of Interest
Historic Bars of Fairbanks with Douglas L . Vandegraft
SESSION 7 Diphtheria, Crises and the Nome Serum Run
» Carol Gales – 1918 and 1925: Responses to Two Health Crises in Nome
» William Schneider – Nome Serum Run
» Leanna Williams – A Most Hazardous Undertaking: Aviation and the Nome Diphtheria Crisis of 1925
SESSION 8 Death, the Diomedes and Alaskans at Carlisle
» Rebecca Poulson – Death in Sitka in the 1930s
» B .D . Seymour & Erin Algiere Segarra – Breaking Storm over the Diomedes: 1938’s Native Travel Program Across the Bering Strait
» Mary Ludwig – Cultural and Educational Lifelines: Alaska Natives at Carlisle and Beyond
SESSION 9 Lifelines Across Borders, Cultures and Eras
» Viktor Shmagin & Tane Timling – Alaska in Russian American Company Contacts with Tokugawa Japan
» Cynthia Wentworth – Mary Cluniq Pete: A Vital Lifeline
» Timothy Yu – Imagined Reminiscences: Ecofeminism in Alaska
SESSION 10 Sleds, Trails and Highways
» Christopher David Adkins – Like a Silver Balloon: Zeppelins in Alaska
» Mark Rice – Road to Alaska: The Alaska Highway and Opportunities of Alaska
» Bill Youngs – Competing Trails from Coastal Alaska to the Klondike Gold Fields
SESSION 11 Fairbanks, Gold, Pollution and Felix
» Russ VanderLugt – Fairbanks before Felix
» Skyler B . King & Lynn Johnson – Transportation and Reassembly of Alaska–Yukon Gold Dredges
» Neall Pogue – Air Pollution in Fairbanks
SESSION 12 Sled Dogs, Races and International Lifelines
» Aaron Burmeister – History of the Nome Kennel Club
» Tyler Kirk – Circumpolar Re-connections: The Hope ’91 Sled Dog Race and the End of the Cold War
» Pierce A . Bateman – The Aleutian Islands Campaign from the Pages of the Shashin Shuho, 1942-43
SESSION 13 Setting Boundaries
» Michael Letzring – 141 Longitude West: The Origins of Alaska’s Arctic Boundary with Canada
» Matthew Sturm – Andy Taylor, Unsung Hero of the Alaska-Canada Boundary
» Michael Livingston – Vital Lifelines through Benny Benson’s Alaska Flag
SESSION 14 Kennels, Push Sleds and Secret Missions
» David Tomeo – Denali Kennels: Preserving Wilderness and the Dogsledding Culture
» Tricia Brown – Alaskan Sled Dogs in World War I: The French Army’s Secret Mission
» Forest Wagner & Emilie Entrikin – Beyond the Pipeline and the Push Sled: Tourism as Alaska’s Enduring Lifeline
Visit the pages below for information and presentations from past conferences.
