Welcome to "An Alaskan Moment" A "moment" is a measure of time... 90 seconds. "An Alaskan Moment" lasts a little longer. Sometimes twice as much. ####################################################### This week in Alaska History: May 3, 1917 - Governor John F. A. Strong approved a bill that created the Alaska Agricultural College and School of Mines, today the University of Alaska Fairbanks. May 4, 1911 - At Cordova a group of residents, irate because nearby coal fields had been closed to entry, shoveled a quantity of Canadian coal from the wharf into the bay. The event became known as the Cordova Coal Party. May 5, 1898 - Tom Lopp and Native reindeer herders returned to Wales after driving more than 400 reindeer 700 miles to Barrow. This feat was part of the "Overland Relief Expedition" to supply food to whalers unexpectedly trapped in the ice in the fall of 1897 off Barrow. May 6, 1941 - A B-19 bomber was the first plane to land on the still unpaved Yakutat airfield. May 7, 1906 - An Act of Congress providing for a Delegate in Congress from Alaska was approved by President Theodore Roosevelt. May 8, 1871 - John H. Kinkead closed his mercantile business and left Sitka. He had been the town's first postmaster and had served briefly as mayor. He would return in 1884 as Alaska's first governor. May 9, 1879 - Alonzo E. Austin arrived in Sitka with John Brady. Two years later he opened a boarding school for Native boys, the beginnings of the Sheldon Jackson School, now Sheldon Jackson College. This week in Alaska History compiled by Robert N. DeArmond of Sitka
Courtesy of the Alaska Historical Society ####################################################### "An Alaskan Moment" is produced at Aleutian Peninsula Broadcasting in Sand Point apradio.org Music by Paul Holmberg With help from NAMES OF FOLKS WHO READ HISTORY & POETRY. And especially you, the supporters of Public Radio. ####################################################### Now for your poem. Today's poem is found in the book "Hunger & Dreams: The Alaskan Women's Anthology", edited by Patricia Monaghan. Published by Fireweed Press in Fairbanks, 1983. BEGIN POEM ####################################################### Today's poem is found in the book "A Good Crew: An Alaskan Men's Anthology", edited by Roland Wilbert and Larry Laraby. Published by Fireweed Press in Fairbanks, 1986. BEGIN POEM