History column: The Pocket Guide to Alaska, which was given to service members arriving here in the 1940s and '50s, offers a window into what the military thought newcomers should know. (Cue the warnings about bears and mosquitoes)
on local history by local historian David Reamer. Have a question about Anchorage history or an idea for a future article? Go to the form at the bottom of this story.Today, the military seems like a fundamental part of the Alaska landscape. Yet, hard as it might be to imagine, this was not always the case, even in the past century. In the 1930s, the only permanent military presence in the territory was the roughly 300 soldiers at Fort Seward in Haines.
The Pocket Guide to Alaska was repeatedly updated. Old copies litter the corners of antique stores, eBay and libraries. While no longer a definitive authority, the Pocket Guide to Alaska does offer a particular window into the past. That is, what the Department of Defense chose to include — and exclude — is both interesting and illuminating. And there are cute cartoons.
The text includes a few essential warnings. Regarding the people, the best advice is to mind your business, especially regarding how things are done elsewhere. “Every person strongly believes he has the right to think, act, and do as he pleases as long as he does not interfere with the rights of others.” The idea Is familiar, though as difficult to keep then as now.
Anchorage falls within the Pacific Coast section, with the Prince William Sound region, Kenai Peninsula, Cook Inlet, Matanuska Valley and as far north as Denali. The primary attractions are the Fur Rendezvous, winter sports, watersports and Denali National Park, where the “animals seem to sense that the use of firearms is prohibited.”The Interior and Arctic are as you would roughly conceptualize them today.
In general, the 1956 Pocket Guide to Alaska leaves out some of the grittier realities experienced by servicemen in Alaska. Important details left out of the Pocket Guide included the impact of the isolation from family and the price shock . Perhaps foremost, it does not mention the ongoing housing shortage that directly impacted many military families.
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