All You Always Wanted to Know about the Alaska Capitol

Since it is not reachable by road, you have to take a boat or a plane to visit the Alaska Capitol in Juneau. When we started our Visit All Capitols quest, we expected that Alaska would be one of our last ones to visit. Then we found a cheap cruise to Alaska on the Holland America line, and our daughter moved to Seattle. Suddenly, we got to go there way sooner. Learn all these Alaska Capitol fun facts with us!

One unexpected bonus: after we booked our Alaska cruise we looked at the shore excursions. We were shocked at the price of the excursions and decided to do our own exploring. Luckily, the Alaska Capitol is totally free, an easy walk from the ship and shows the fascinating Alaska history. We totally recommend this Capitol as a free shore excursion, with both guided and self-guided tours.

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To help you see these Alaska Capitol facts in their historical perspective, let’s start with a quick Alaska history recap. (If you want you can skip the history and jump directly to the Alaska Capitol Fun Facts)

Quick Alaska History Recap

If you are like me, you might not know much about Alaska. Maybe you were aware of the eagles, polar bears, salmon and snow (yeah…), but not much else. Admittedly, I wondered about penguins, but disappointingly, they live only in the Southern Hemisphere.

After reading James Michener’s book Alaska (twice!) and going on an Alaska cruise, I now know a little bit more. Let me share some of the long, rich and fascinating history of our 49th state.

More than 15,000 years ago

At least 15,000 years ago, the first humans arrived in the Americas over the Bering Land Bridge. Back then, the land bridge connected Asia and North America making foot travel possible. Over time, there have been many theories about how and when this happened. Was it only one group of travelers who later split up? Were there more groups at different times? Are the Alaskan natives related to the other American natives?

Recently, thanks to DNA analysis, scientists discovered that all native Americans descended from one ancestral population, which originated in Asia. Further supporting this “common ancestors” theory, they found the closest-known ancestor of today’s native Americans in Siberia. Our DNA tells us so many fascinating stories!

Whatever the case, everyone agrees that the Alaskan natives have been there much longer than anyone else.

1741: Russians “discover” Alaska

In 1741, sent by Tsar Peter the Great, two explorers set sail from an Eastern port of Russia. Although the Dane Vitus Bering and the Russian Alexei Chirikov soon lost sight of each other, each ship continued sailing East. On 15 July, Chirikov sighted land, probably Prince of Wales Island in southeast Alaska. Excitedly, he sent a group of men ashore in a longboat. This made them the first Europeans to land on the northwestern coast of North America.

Meanwhile Bering and his ship got stuck on Bering Island. Sadly, he along with 28 of his sailors, died of scurvy. Ten months later, the surviving sailors made it back to Russia and shared the story of their discovery.

1784: Russians Settle in Alaska

In 1784, the Russians settled in Alaska on Kodiak Island at Three Saints Bay. At the end of the 18th century, the Russians reached what is now called Sitka. This town started out as Fort Saint Michael and was the residence of the governor of Russian America, Alexander Baranov. After fights (and defeats) with the Tlingit peoples (pronounced “klingit”), Alexander Baranov returned in 1804 and won back Sitka. Following their victory at the Battle of Sitka, the Russians established the settlement “New Archangel”. In 1808, with Baranov still governor, Sitka became the capital of Russian America.

1867: Russia Sells Alaska to the United States

In 1867, Russia sold its interest in the Russian American Company to the United States for 7.2 million dollars. Of course, the natives were totally left out of this transaction. Interesting and sad fact: at that time, Alaska Natives numbered about 30,000, while there were only 800 Russians.

Given the option to get American citizenship. most Russians declined and instead went back to Russia. The USA did not offer citizenship to the original Alaskan natives. As a result the natives could not vote, own property or file for mining claims.

After buying Alaska, the federal government didn’t really know what to do with it. First, they designated it as The Department of Alaska. During the department era, Alaska was pushed around from the jurisdiction of the U.S. Army (until 1877), via the U.S. Dept. of the Treasury (from 1877 until 1879) to the U.S. Navy (from 1879 until 1884).

1884: the District of Alaska: Gold and Salmon

In 1884, Alaska became a judicial district as well as a civil one. This means that judges, clerks, marshals, and limited government officials were appointed by the federal government to govern Alaska. Still, being just a district, the local government had little control over local affairs while the federal government didn’t really care. Also, the natives were still not considered citizens, despite having lived there for thousands of years.

The combination of gold mining (for example the 1896 Klondike gold rush) and seemingly endless supply of salmon and other fish lead to an influx of settlers. The local government was not able to handle all these, so in 1912 Alaska became a territory. Unsurprisingly at that time, the Alaskan natives still weren’t citizens.

1912: the Territory of Alaska: No Voting Power

In 1912, Alaska took another step toward statehood, but still was not there. At least the Territory of Alaska did get representation in congress, but this representation did not have any voting power. On the same note, Alaskans couldn’t vote in USA general elections and naturally the Alaska natives still weren’t citizens. At least there was more local government, but things still weren’t ideal.

1924: Alaska Natives become citizens

In 1924, congress finally granted full U.S. citizenship to the indigenous peoples of the United States, called “Indians” in this Act. The act was signed into law by President Calvin Coolidge. The Indian Citizenship act partly was in recognition of the thousands of Native Americans who served in the armed forces during the First World War. So it took the US only 57 years to grant citizenship to the original settlers of Alaska…

1958: Alaska becomes the 49th State

Almost a century after the US bought Alaska from the Russians, they finally got around to granting statehood to the Last Frontier! Since early 1920s, Alaskans had sought statehood, but congress was hard to convince. On January 3, 1959, President Eisenhower signed the official declaration.

Now that you know more about the history of Alaska, it is time for some interesting Juneau and Alaska Capitol facts.

Fun Facts about the Alaska Capitol

1. At first, Alaskans didn’t even have a capitol building and the legislature met in rented rooms;
2. Do you know which animal guards the Alaska Capitol?
3. Who facilitated the first anti-discrimination act in the USA?
4. Dome or no dome? That’s the question.
5. Who designed the Alaska flag and what does it look like?
6. You can touch a full-size replica of the Pennsylvania Liberty Bell.
7. Where did all the marble come from?
8. Do you know which native nation still is in Alaska?
9. Alaska map made out of what?
10. Juneau is HUGE! Bigger than New York City? Bigger than Houston? Go find out!

They used to meet in rented rooms

Upon the purchase of Russian America, Sitka, Alaska became the Territory Capital in 1867. After the capital was moved to Juneau in 1905, the Legislature met in rented rooms around the city. They simply did not have enough money yet to build their own capitol building. In 1911, the United States Congress authorized funds for construction of a capitol building for the Alaska Territory but World War I delayed construction.

After citizen donations the construction started in 1929 and finished in 1931. Back then, the building housed the federal courthouse and the post office. It wasn’t till 1959, when Alaska became a state, that the state government started meeting here.

A bear guards the Alaska Capitol

Since approximately 100,000 black bears live in Alaska, it should come as no surprise that this majestic animal is guarding the Capitol building. Luckily, it wasn’t a real bear, so we enjoyed interacting with the statue instead.

Sometimes a real bear will wander to the Alaska Capitol! Just check out the following news item:

Black bear visits Capitol, courthouse

An Alaska native woman facilitated the first anti-discrimination law in the US

Almost 20 years before US congress passed the Civil Rights bill of 1964, Elizabeth Jean Peratrovich helped pass the Alaska territory’s Anti-Discrimination Act of 1945, the first anti-discrimination law in the United States.

Elizabeth Peratrovich was born in as a member of the Raven moiety (group) of the Tlingit nation. Because of experiencing lots of discrimination throughout her life, she became an advocate for equal rights for everyone in Alaska. In 1941, she and her family could not find housing in Juneau. There were signs everywhere banning Native entry to public facilities. In 1943, she petitioned the territorial governor to ban these signs. Sadly, the Alaska legislature was not ready for this and the Anti-Discrimination act failed. (A tie vote of 8-8 in the House.)

Undaunted by this defeat, Elizabeth searched and found support for a new try in 1945. This time her testimony made a decisive difference. She talked about the Alaska Natives second-class existence. She described how Native children can’t go watch a movie. What it was like to see signs everywhere that read “No dogs or Natives allowed”. There was lots of applause for her speech and the Senate voted 11-5 for the anti-discrimination resolution. An amazing triumph for civil rights! Go watch the documentary which features her:

In 1988, Alaska made February 16 (the day in 1945 when the Anti-Discrimination Act was signed) as “Elizabeth Peratrovich Day”. In October 5, 2019, the United States Mint announced that Peratrovich will appear on the reverse of the 2020 Native American $1 Coin.

The Alaska Capitol does not have a dome!

If you have been to a few Capitol buildings, you might have noticed that they usually have a dome. Not so in Alaska! Unlike in most state capitals, the Alaska Capitol does not have a dome. Frankly, the building looks more like an office building than a capitol. In New Hampshire and other New England states all our state houses have domes.

The Alaska state flag was designed by a 13 year-old Alaska Native.

In 1926, the Alaska Department of the American Legion held a territorial contest for Alaskan children from seventh to twelfth grade. Benny Benson, a 13-year-old orphaned Alaska Native won the design contest. For winning this contest, Benny got US$1,000 and an engraved watch. He described his design for the Alaska flag as

The blue field is for the Alaska sky and the forget-me-not, an Alaskan flower. The Northern Star is for the future state of Alaska, the most northerly in the union. The Dipper is for the Great Bear—symbolizing strength.

Benny Benson

Touch the Liberty Bell!

When we started our 50 capitols quest, we discovered that every state has a full-size copy of the original liberty bell. Unlike the original one in Independence Hall in Pennsylvania, you actually can TOUCH this liberty bell. In 1950, the United States Treasury Department donated this replica to the people of Alaska. It looks just like the original one. The last time they rang the Pennsylvania Liberty Bell was in 1835 when it cracked at the funeral of Chief Justice John Marshall.

Since we like bucket lists, we decided to try to visit all the liberty bell replicas. So far, we have been successful in most places, but not in Boston because Massachusetts locked up their liberty bell. What a contradiction! So the fact that the Alaska Capitol gives free entry to its liberty bell made us happy.

All the marble is “local”

Most states have to import marble from other states or even other countries, but the Alaska Capitol marble is from nearby Prince of Whales Island. As such, it was much easier to transport than for example the Italian marble in the Massachusetts State House.

Ravens and Eagles

Throughout the Alaska Capitol there is lots of information about the Alaska natives. The so-called Tlingit (pronounced klingit) is one of the nations mentioned. We found out that the Tlingit are divided in two groups (moieties), the eagles and the ravens. Clan allegiance passes on through the mother. Hearing this made me look differently at the eagles and the ravens we saw in Juneau. Together with the Tlingit people, these birds have been living for many thousands of years.

Alaska Map made out of pipeline

To celebrate and commemorate the Trans-Alaska pipeline system, there is a map out of scrap pipe cut into the shape of Alaska. Although it is hard to imagine a crude oil pipe line inspiring art, there are many of these so-called pipeline maps around, with a piece of metal delineating the path of the pipeline through the map. Frequently, the welders who worked on the pipeline created these maps and sold them to tourists or gave them away as gifts.

Although 1968 saw the first oil discovery in Prudhoe Bay in 1968, it took the 1973 oil crisis to pass legislation to build this pipeline. Following many environmental, legal, and political debates, construction started in 1974. Three years later, in 1977, the pipeline was finished. Partly thanks to this pipeline, every Alaska resident now gets a yearly check of about $1,500!

Juneau is BIG

Surprisingly Juneau is the second largest city in the US by area. Yes, larger than Houston and New York City together. When you look at the list of the largest cities in the US (by area), you will notice that the top 4 spots all are taken up by cities in Alaska. Even more surprising, Juneau is bigger than the whole state of Delaware! When we visited Juneau, we thought it was such a small capital, but we obviously were wrong. Still, walking from the cruise terminal to the Capitol was fast and easy.

Recap Alaska Capitol Facts

I hope you know way more about the Alaska Capitol and the state of Alaska now that you read this article. Have you been to Juneau? Or somewhere else in Alaska? Have you ever taken an Alaskan Cruise? What was your favorite stop? Please let us know in the comments!

Bonus Alaska capital fact: Juneau also is the only state capital bordering a foreign country. Leaving it as an exercise to the reader to figure out which one. Leave your answer in the comments!

Second Bonus: Kwek’s Amazing Adventures! Go give her some love!

Best Places to Stay and Eat in Juneau

If you are not visiting on an Alaska cruise, here is a list of the best places to stay in Juneau.

Alternatively if you are in Juneau as a stop on your cruise, check out the best Port of Call Tours in Juneau.

And if you are a foodie traveler, or simply need a good place to eat, here are the Best Restaurants to visit.

More Reading on Alaska Capitol Facts

• Alaska Capitol Virtual tour. Because not everyone can make it in person, the state of Alaska offers a virtual tour of the Capitol building.
• Alaska State Legislature. Official site with opening hours and tour hours for the Capitol and lots of Alaska state history to explore.
• Overlooked No More: Elizabeth Peratrovich, Rights Advocate for Alaska Natives. Fascinating New York times obituary written in March 2019 about Elizabeth Peratrovich. Go check it out! (Overlooked is a series of obituaries about remarkable people whose deaths, beginning in 1851, went unreported in The Times.)
• There Are Two Versions of the Story of How the U.S. Purchased Alaska From Russia. Smithsonian article about the Alaska Purchase from the USA perspective and from the Alaskan natives perspective.

Explore Other States Capitol Facts

Most of these capitals will have a state Liberty Replica.

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