Anchorage,
the largest city in Alaska, is located in southcentral Alaska at the
head of Cook Inlet. It is 3 hours' flight time from Seattle. It lies at
approximately 61° 13' N Latitude, 149° 53' W Longitude (Sec. 28, T013N,
R004W, Seward Meridian). The community is located in the Anchorage
Recording District. The area encompasses 1,698 sq. miles of land and 264
sq. miles of water.
In
1741 Russian sailors led by the Dane Vitus Bering came upon Alaska's
mainland. They were followed by British, Spanish and American explorers,
including Captain James Cook in 1778. In 1867, Alaska was purchased by
the U.S. from Russia. The discovery of gold in 1887 and in the Interior
in 1922 sparked development in the area. Construction began in 1914 on a
federal railroad from the port of Seward, 126 miles south of Anchorage,
through the coal fields of Interior Alaska, to the gold claims near
Fairbanks, 358 miles to the north. The midpoint construction
headquarters was Anchorage, and by July of 1915, thousands of job
seekers and opportunists had poured into the area, living in a tent city
on the banks of Ship Creek near the edge of the present downtown. That
July produced the "Great Anchorage Lot Sale," a land auction that shaped
the future of the city. Some 655 lots were sold for $148,000 or an
average of $225 each. A month later, the town voted to call itself
Alaska City, but the Federal government refused to change its name from
Anchorage. From 1939 to 1957, major military impacts and government
construction of roads, airports and harbors throughout Alaska
contributed to the growth of Anchorage. The Port was completed by the
early 1960s. The Good Friday earthquake in 1964 destroyed a large part
of the city. During the 1970s, the development of the Prudhoe Bay oil
fields and the Trans-Alaska Pipeline brought rapid growth to Anchorage;
population, office space and housing tripled within a ten-year period.
