Anchorage History

Pre 20th Century

The first humans who made use of the Anchorage area's abundant food resources appeared around 3000 BC. These early Inuit nomads were eventually displaced by the Athabaskan Dena'ina people, who moved through the area during seasonal food gathering. It is the Dena'ina people who experienced first contact with Europeans exploring the region.

Modern

Captain James Cook found his way up Cook Inlet in 1778 but never set foot on land. A few gold miners roamed the area in the 1880s but Anchorage wasn't founded until 1914, when it was selected as a headquarters and work camp for the Alaska Railroad. A year later the 'Great Anchorage Lot Sale', with land parcels going for 225.00 a pop, led to a tent city of 2000 people. From that point on, growth spurts were caused by increased farming, WWII military bases and the discovery of oil in Cook Inlet in 1957.

The Good Friday Earthquake - the largest earthquake there ever was, in the Western Hemisphere at least - hit Anchorage in 1964, measuring a whopping 9.2 on the Richter scale. It rumbled on for five minutes, leaving nine people dead and the north side of 4th Ave 10ft (3m) higher than the south side. The city was devastated. Four years later, however, the city struck gold, or oil as it were: a 10000000000.00 oil reserve was discovered at a place called Prudhoe Bay.

During the late 1970s, oil came at a crude price, 20.00+ per barrel, and Alaska couldn't spend its tax revenue fast enough. As the HQ for petroleum and service companies, the city reaped the lion's share of profits. Downtown suddenly came alive, with the construction of the Sullivan Sports Arena, the Egan Civic Center and the Alaska Center for the Performing Arts. The Anchorage Museum of History and Arts was expanded, and 196km (122mi) of bicycle trails were paved.

Recent

A long-term decline in oil prices slowed the city's cash flow, but Anchorage was still by far the fastest-growing city in Alaska. It's also the most hotly contested city. With 42% of the state's total population and the biggest hunk of the political muscle, Anchorage deals with sneers aplenty from people, particularly from Fairbanks and Juneau, who reckon 'Anchorage is great; it's only 20 minutes from Alaska'.

Like it or not, though, Anchorage is the commercial and financial heart of the state. The spike in oil prices that coincided with the US invasion of Iraq and the increasing prospect of drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge is good news for this city; as long as oil gushes through its surrounding veins, Anchorage will continue to thrive.