The Alaska Business Community's View of the Development of Alaska

America has discovered Alaska!! Or maybe that’s just the way it seems to us Alaskans. Even though Secretary of State Seward bought the Great Land (that’s what Alaska means in native tongue) more than a hundred years ago, very little of its nature has drifted down to the “Lower 48”. That is until the...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Scott, William H.
Format: Text
Language:unknown
Published: Scholars' Mine 1971
Subjects:
Online Access:https://scholarsmine.mst.edu/umr-journal/vol2/iss1/18
https://scholarsmine.mst.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1026&context=umr-journal
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Summary:America has discovered Alaska!! Or maybe that’s just the way it seems to us Alaskans. Even though Secretary of State Seward bought the Great Land (that’s what Alaska means in native tongue) more than a hundred years ago, very little of its nature has drifted down to the “Lower 48”. That is until the great oil reserves were discovered on the now-famous North Slope. Only then was the fact of Alaska’s mineral wealth translated into something other than very general admissions that Alaska was the natural resource storehouse of the United States. Now one would naturally conclude that the Prudhoe Bay miracle, followed closely by the $900 million oil lease sale conducted by the State of Alaska in September 1969, has transformed an economic desert into a businessman’s bonanza. Well, that could have happened. Why hasn’t it? Simply because the same outside influences that have kept Alaska locked up for all these years have once again come into play to block or hinder the development of our state by Alaskans and for Alaskans.