“An Alaskan Moment” for October 19th, 2020

Posted on: October 20th, 2020 | Author: Virgil | Filed under: An Alaskan Moment, Community Window

Download or Stream the second episode of “An Alaskan Moment” for the week of October 19th, 2020.
https://apradio.org/mp3/2020-10-19-analaskanmoment.mp3

Welcome to
“An Alaskan Moment”
from Aleutian Peninsula Broadcasting in Sand Point
apradio.org

This week in Alaska History:
October 19, 1951 – Fifty years ago today the Seward Highway connecting Anchorage and Seward opened. It connected to the Sterling Highway that had opened to Homer the previous year. The Seward Highway was to be paved in 1952.
October 20, 1897 – The Fort St. Michael military reservation was established.
October 21, 1904 – The Dillingham post office was established, named for U. S. Senator William P. Dillingham who had visited the town.
October 22, 1916 – The cornerstone was laid for the Masonic Building at 4th Avenue and F Street, Anchorage.
October 23, 1960 – William R. Wood was inaugurated as the fourth president of the University of Alaska.
October 24, 1887 – The Alaskan Society of History and Ethnology was founded at Sitka and it founded the Sheldon Jackson Museum.
October 25, 1916 – The Old Kasaan National Monument was established at a deserted Indian village on Prince of Wales island.
This week in Alaska History compiled by Robert N. DeArmond of Sitka
Courtesy of the Alaska Historical Society

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Now for your poem.
John Haines was Alaska’s third Poet Laureate, appointed in 1969. This piece comes from his collection THE STONE HARP, published by Rapp and Whiting in London, 1971.

“The Way We Live” by John Haines

Having been whipped through Paradise
and seen humanity
strolling like an overfed beast
set loose from its cage,
a man may long for nothing so much
as a house of snow,
a blue stone for a lamp,
and a skin to cover his head.