Alaska became a state in 1959 after nearly a century of federal rule and domination by powerful mining, timber, and canned-salmon interests. At last the people of Alaska would direct their own destiny. But would they? In its first fifty years, Alaska's fate continued to be influenced by outside interests and unexpected events.
Dermot Cole is a long-time newspaper columnist for the Fairbanks Daily News-Miner. Cole grew up in Pennsylvania and lived in Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Montana before moving to Alaska at the start of the pipeline boom. He studied journalism at the University of Alaska Fairbanks and was named a Michigan Journalism Fellow in 1986-87 at the University of Michigan. He also worked for the Associated Press in Seattle. Cole is the author of Frank Barr, Bush Pilot in Alaska and the Yukon Hard Driving: The 1908 Auto Race from New York to Paris; and North to the Future: The Alaska Story 1959-2009.
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