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.
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE May 14, 2025 Contact: David Ramseur, 907-317-3657
Two Prominent Alaska Leaders to Keynote Historical Society Conference in Fairbanks
Annual Meeting set for Sept. 24-27; Deadline for Presentations is June 15
Two insightful Alaska leaders – former Gov. Bill Walker and current state Supreme Court Presiding Justice Susan Carney – will serve as keynote speakers for the Alaska Historical Society’s fall conference Sept. 24-27, 2025, in Fairbanks.
This year’s theme is “Vital Lifelines in Alaska’s History,” which marks two significant milestones in Alaska: the 50th anniversary of construction of the Trans-Alaska Oil Pipeline and the 100th anniversary of the Nome Serum Run.
Born in Fairbanks, Walker will call on his distinguished career as Valdez’s youngest mayor, Alaska’s 11th governor and a major player in regulation of the oil pipeline. Before his 2018 election as governor, Walker was a prominent oil and gas attorney who represented Valdez and the Alaska Gasline Port Authority in lawsuits with oil companies over property tax valuations. He also actively pursued construction of an Alaska gas pipeline.
Carney was appointed to the Supreme Court in 2016 where she now leads Alaska’s first-ever female-majority top court. After graduating from Harvard Law School, she clerked for Supreme Court Justice Jay Rabinowitz of Fairbanks and worked as a public defender and with the Alaska Office of Public Advocacy, focusing on issues of child guardianship and advocacy and elder assistance. She will discuss the role of courts in American and Alaska public policy.
Most of the conference sessions will be held on the University of Alaska-Fairbanks campus. The deadline for proposals for presentations at the conference has been extended to June 15. Proposals can be made through the AHS website, www.alaskahistoricalsociety.org, and provide a title, 100-word abstract and two sentence biography.
Conference organizers welcome discussions of the two major anniversaries and examinations of other vital lifelines in Alaska’s history, including communications systems, transportation lines, pathways for accessing subsistence, medical and disaster relief delivery.
The conference theme also speaks to services and human resources that have sustained Alaska. The delivery of modern medical services has brought life-saving care to remote regions. Even with a long history of Alaskans maligning the federal government, federal funds are the most important driver of the state’s economy and constitute a vital lifeline. Today, software and information technology define Alaskans’ lives.
Registration opens Aug. 1, 2025, on the AHS website. The Society has negotiated special conference hotel rates at both the Bridgewater and Springhill Suites in downtown Fairbanks. Partners for this year’s conference include the Tanana-Yukon Historical Society.
###
