 The natives called it the Great Land, Alayesca in their tongue, a hard, unforgiving land where bold, raw mountains thrust forever against ancient rivers of ice. And yet a land of paradox for sprightly streams and luminous days animate the landscape and nourish a near-tropical greenery. Along the coast, forests of alder, spruce, cedar, and pine spread for a thousand miles, deep and green beyond the boundaries of imagination. The Indians who tenanted this coast and named the land gave shape to the real and ghostly figures of their world, recorded their history and their legends in the carved spruce log. Among their lofty monuments, they left the carved record of the bearded Russians who drove them from the Great Land. In the mid-18th century, the Russian Empire was expanding. In 1741, their explorers claimed the Great Land in the name of Katarina Alexeyevna, widow of Peter the Great, and Empress of all the Russians. They brought the Christian religion here, their Russian Orthodox churches with its outward symbols of priceless art and gem-encrusted icons. Russia ruled absolute for a century and a quarter over a place we now call the State of Alaska. Historical event, October 18, 1867. United States troops under the command of Revit Major General Jefferson C. Davis were present on that quiet, misty day when the Russian Imperial flag was lowered for the last time. The ceremony took place at the chief city of the Russian colony, a place called New Archangel by them, and also Sitka after its Indian name. At 3.30 that afternoon, the territory sometimes known as Russian America was officially transferred to United States ownership. It was the greatest event of its kind in peacetime history. Just of the Alaska territory, the United States gained control of about 375 million acres at an average cost of less than two cents an acre. Everyone present now stood on American soil. Until Congress could provide for laws and government, the United States Army was to be caretaker of the new territory. They began by establishing four garrisons in strategic locations. Soldiers acting under official orders were important explorers of Alaska. In 1881, Lieutenant Patrick Ray's expedition penetrated Polar Tundra. Lieutenant Frederick Schwatka's 1883 reconnaissance of the Yukon River established one of the main routes to the Klondike Gold Fields. Lieutenant J.C. Kastner traversed Portage Glacier on his scouting mission from Resurrection Bay to Cook Inlet. Law and order in the Gold Rush were maintained by the Army. Their field kitchens fed hungry, luckless prospectors. Trails connecting military posts pioneered the road net of modern Alaska, and U.S. Army Signal Corps communication lines served military and civilian alike. Army pilots learned to master northern skies. The Army Corps of Engineers thrust the Alaska Highway across 1600 miles of virgin land in a single summer. And when at last Alaska became a state, Army artillery boomed the good news. The state of Alaska is the size of a continent, big enough to blanket the Midwest from Canada to Arkansas, from Indiana to Colorado. This one state is twice as big as the original 13 colonies put together. On this centennial occasion, its cities and its citizens pause for a portrait before racing on in youthful anticipation of tomorrow. Fairbanks, the most central city in the state, is the hub of trading, transportation and supply for all of interior Alaska. It's a welcome sight to Alaska Highway travelers, the end to a road that began 1523 miles ago at Dawson, British Columbia, Canada. In Fairbanks, the focal point of the centennial, the city is ready to play host to some 300,000 visitors, prideful of its historic past. The gleam of yellow gold built Fairbanks, boomtown warehouse and supply center for the stampeding miners. Memories of those days are kept alive today. In gold rush days, the steamers left from Dawson, following the melting ice down the Yukon River and the Tananaw. You can repeat parts of that unique adventure in Fairbanks today, although it's hard now to make a living panning for gold. Instead, the emphasis is on education and its growth is an index of expansion in Fairbanks and in all of Alaska. In 1950, for example, the population of Fairbanks was some 6,000 people. Today there are 6,000 school children in the city. It's the same story at the University of Alaska, near Fairbanks. They began here with six students. Now, in addition to graduate and professional degrees, they offer six undergraduate programs and operate six community colleges. Students are drawn from 44 states and 15 foreign countries. 400 miles from Fairbanks, near Anchorage, Alaska Methodist University is also on the move. Dedicated just one day before Alaska became a state, this business and liberal arts college occupies a 500-acre site. It is non-sectarian and self-supporting. Anchorage itself, by far the largest city in Alaska, was born when four men and 24 horses were landed here to begin work on the Alaska Railroad. As you can see, things have changed. Anchorage has become a global travel center, heart of trade, services and communication for Western Alaska. At sunset, the city skyline measures its shadow proudly against Cook Inlet and its frame of mile-high mountains. Anchorage is a young city. 100,000 people call Anchorage home. Population has doubled in the last five years and maybe a quarter of a million by 1980. Moderate winters and mild summers give the city a climate like the northern Great Lakes region. And though it's as far west as Hawaii and as far north as Finland, Anchorage has more than one familiar household name. Alaska lays claim to the title Flying Estate in the Union and backs it up with statistics like these. One airplane for every 150 people. One out of every 50 citizens is a licensed pilot. Combined air operations in the Anchorage area takeoffs and landings reveal more air traffic than New York, Los Angeles or Miami. Nearby Lake Hood is home base to fully one-fifth of the world's sea planes, the largest concentration of float planes in the world. Who are the Alaskans? Native born, foreign born from every state in the Union. Better educated than the average. Younger, men outnumber women. Ordinary Americans with a matter of fact knowledge of what the hand and spirit of man can accomplish. They share a heritage firsthand of leveling ground and building where no man built before. Even something as simple as a country auction is an occasion to renew old friendships and make new ones. Number 27, would you like one more sensor? You already bought one. He takes two times the money. Gold built Juno on this rocky shelf, but Alaskans wanted more than gold. They wanted government of and by themselves. Incredibly, they had none for 45 years. No group of Americans since the founding fathers fought harder or more tenaciously for the right of self-determination than the people of the 49th state. High on their list of victories is the state capital at Juno, where elected representatives may govern according to the will of the people. Less than two blocks away, the state's highest elected official makes his home in a stately well-detailed colonial mansion. Those Alaskans who believed in the new land, pioneered it and with the help of the U.S. Army created a vast state from unknown wilderness, are honored here by this statue of Skagway Bill, overlooking the site of the original transfer in Sitka, once the capital city of Russian America. History was recorded in Sitka and history is being made here today. Cooperating American and foreign interests have created a multi-million dollar industry from the ample coastal forests. Args of western hemlock and Sitka spruce are prime sources of wood pulp, cellulose, the raw material for synthetics, plastics and quality paper of every kind. Forest industries are growing too, in Ketchikan, Rangel and Whittier. Although many millions of feet may be cut without decreasing the supply of timber, regulations are enforced to ensure Alaska the full benefits of its forests. Has become a dominant element in the development of Alaska. One great obstacle was the lack of processing facilities for the oil. Now this major refinery, the first in Alaska, is operating successfully, producing some 30,000 barrels of refined oil daily. Drilling operations offshore, such as this, exploit hidden deposits of crude oil and natural gas. Subsequent development of oil fields is proving to be a prime mover in the Alaskan economy. Continuing exploration of sources of oil will provide future power and the state's own oil products will heat its homes, power its fighting boats and fly its jets to the corners of the world. Oil is the newest partner in the growth of the economy and the result of man's labors. But the sleek, graceful fur seal was in a sense a gift from the creator. As it happens, the rocky shores of five small, misshrouded Alaskan islands, the Pribilofs, are the greatest fur farm in all the world. Here the fur seals come ashore to bear their young on the rocks above tide water. In the past these herds were several times threatened with extinction. The story behind the restoration and development of the Alaska fur seal is a singular example of intelligent wildlife conservation and international cooperation. Most pelts are taken from male fur seals, four to five years old. Processing requires about 100 different operations by workmen of great skill. Skins that have been washed, cleaned of blubber and cured in a concentrated salt solution are rubbed with additional salt, carefully rolled and tightly packed in shipping barrels. Under terms of the Alaska Statehood Act, 70% of the profit from the seal trade is returned to the state of Alaska. Finally, a fortune in furs lined up in the street like so many kegs of nails await shipment all over the world. Anglers fishing for fun in Alaskan waters say there's no finer sport fishing in the world. Your choice of game fish runs from the 6-inch Dolly Varden to the 60-pound King Salmon. Remote streams and lakes offer spectacular catches. Fishing for profit, salmon, cod, halibut, herring has always been a staple of the Alaskan economy. The king crab industry is dramatic evidence of creative development in the state. Today, this delicious deep water delicacy is enjoyed around the world. But only a few years ago, the king crab was unknown and unavailable outside the fishing community. But research, faith and good business management have made it world famous. And as so often happens in Alaska, something exists where nothing had been. The king crab industry has created jobs and transformed seasonal work into full-time employment. Farming in Alaska? Visitors are often surprised. But the Matanuska Valley near Anchorage and the Tananaw Valley of Fairbanks have produced good yields over the years. Despite a short growing season, rich soil and long days of summer sunshine result in double-sized vegetables and therefore successful harvests. Where road building is not feasible, the Alaska Marine Highway ferry serves as a road, linking all of Alaska's southeastern cities. Passengers and their cars can be moved at a fraction of the cost of building and maintaining conventional highways. The 450-mile length of its trip through the inland waterways is surely one of the most beautiful anywhere. At Skagway, ride Alaska's first railroad, the White Pass and Yukon. Its construction, a thousand miles from the nearest base of supplies blasting the roadbed through miles of solid rock, was one of the most heroic engineering feats of the early 20th century. This railroad opening up the vast Yukon and the Alaska Railroad connecting the seaport cities of Seward and Whittier with Fairbanks and the interior of the state were essential to Alaska's development. Without them, it is doubtful if Alaska would be more today than a handful of coastal settlements skirting a huge, mysterious interior. Everywhere the present exists with the past. The explosive forces of growth that hurled Alaska from the gold rush to the space race denied the state its adolescence. The relics of yesterday often lie where they fell, as the people preoccupied with the new shape of their destiny abandoned them. Along the fertile coast, huge logs awaited the knife of the Indian totem carver. The Eskimo of the treeless interior learned to liberate the hidden form from the fragment of ivory. The Eskimo is gifted with a vision of shape and color uniquely his inherited down through the generations along with unchallenged mastery of his brittle medium. In some carvings colors are added by hand, but many of the artists work with fossil ivory delicately colored by the earth salts of the ages and untouched since prehistoric times. Ever since the stars and stripes were raised in Sitka, the United States Army has served in Alaska. Modern Alaska is presently host to three major installation commands. The first of these is Fort Richardson, the largest military installation in the state, headquarters for the United States Army in Alaska. In cooperation with the United States Air Force, the Army in Alaska is responsible for some of the most ultra-modern electronic installations in the world. A $500 million telephone relay network is such a venture, sending the voice of Alaskans all over the world. Army participation in the air defense of the nation dots the landscape with intricate elements of systems providing maximum early warning and interception of air, missile or satellite operations. Just one mile from Fairbanks, the Army maintains its most northern post, Fort Wainwright. Winter this far north is a serious business, but the long warm days of summer help make up for inconveniences of cold and dark. Alaska is often called the Gibraltar of the north because of its location as a strategic outpost of the United States. The Army accordingly, in addition to participation in air defense missions, is constantly training and in readiness to defend Alaska under the most realistic conditions possible. At Fort Greeley, this training and testing program is most evident. Its climate is significantly different. It is as cold as the far north, offers terrain of trees, rocks, streams and mountains, but is actually farther below the Arctic Circle than Fairbanks. The effects of cold and the difficulties of movement in the Arctic are tackled and overcome. Living and moving through snow and ice demand courage, tenacity and a type of self-reliance to be gained only through the experience offered here at the Northern Warfare Training Center. Summer training at the center begins in May, continues until the cold weather sets in again. Skis, ice axes and snowshoes give way to the rope, piton and snap link of the mountaineer. The soldier learns to cover the ground under totally different circumstances and broadens his military knowledge. This kind of actual experience under controlled conditions of genuine hazard teaches skills that could not possibly be learned under simulated conditions. Women who may have lived all their lives on flat terrain are introduced to the many climbing techniques until they can negotiate the steepest slope. As he learns to overcome fear and handle himself on heights, the soldier learns also to care for his buddies. Mountain rescue operations are difficult. Decisions as to evacuation methods must be made in the interest of the injured man. In fact, the kind of prompt and well-organized rescue operations taught by Army instructors have more than once helped save the life of an unfortunate civilian. Although special conditions may have prolonged the life of the victim, the soldier in the Arctic knows that on the average, under winter conditions, two hours is the average limit of survival. Therefore, successful rescue depends greatly on decisive leadership, a proficient search team and the instant availability of special equipment, all factors that are stressed in military training. To some, the return of winter in Northern Alaska may not be entirely welcome, but at the U.S. Army Test Center at Fort Greeley, cold and snow are a necessary condition to their work. Their mission, put simply, is to test, to torment, to record the qualities of our Army's clothing, equipment and weapons, to certify that they will do what they are intended to do under the worst conditions of climate. The Arctic Test Center exists to define and extend the limits of men and materiel under controlled conditions. The victory of cruel winter over unprepared Army's is recorded many times in the pages of history. Alaska trained soldiers are mastering the cold and readying themselves for deployment anywhere in the world. They and their leaders know and take pride in knowing they have challenged and overcome some of the worst terrain and climate in the world. Since the majestic backgrounds of the great land, can human victories here be seen in their true size? Its summer landscapes tinted and enriched by wildflowers on hills as old as the sun are like the pot of gold at Rainbow's End. Its cities are fair, sure signs that the frontier has been thrust back, shaped in part by human hands and energies. And yet raw nature persists to prove that mankind here has paved the way to his own success. No pioneer knew when he came here what he could do. No job awaited him. He and his kind made Alaska what it is in spite of what it was. From the beginning, the United States Army and the people of Alaska have been working together. We are proud on the occasion of the Alaska Purchase Centennial to salute the state and its citizens, mindful of their past and hopeful for their future.