{"id":2576,"date":"2012-07-17T22:00:24","date_gmt":"2012-07-18T02:00:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/capitalcitiesusa.org\/?p=2576"},"modified":"2024-12-03T17:01:19","modified_gmt":"2024-12-03T22:01:19","slug":"to-the-max","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/capitalcitiesusa.org\/?p=2576","title":{"rendered":"To The Max"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Linda Burton and grandson Samuel Shumate, age 9, posting from Juneau, Alaska <\/em>\u2013 \u201cReporting live from Juneau, Alaska,\u201d is the sound I hear coming from just outside the door. It\u2019s grandson Sam, now a Steven Spielberg wannabe. Yesterday I showed him the Nikon\u2019s video capabilities; today he\u2019s into Point of View, recording everything in sight \u201cas he sees it.\u201d Right now he\u2019s filming Mt Juneau, the front of our building, and every raven flying overhead. I decide we\u2019ll use this force for good today. \u201cHey Sam,\u201d I call enthusiastically, \u201clet\u2019s go downtown and find the capitol. You can make a video.\u201d And so, enthusiastically, we start walking. Seven blocks or so, along the waterfront and up the hill; thumbs up at last; we made it to the door. The Tour Sign at the front invites us in; an arrow points us to the information spot; a young man greets us with a friendly smile. \u201cThe next tour in 10 minutes,\u201d he said. Enough time for some post-hillclimb rest; then here is Max, his bright red vest sporting the Tour Guide badge. \u201cWe\u2019ll begin in the lobby,\u201d he said. \u201cI\u2019ll start with the basics.\u201d The crowd gathered; Sam\u2019s finger was poised on the video button. <\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>This six-story building was named the Federal and Territorial Building when it opened in 1931. It once housed a federal courthouse and a post office; it served as the Territorial Capitol until statehood in 1959 when it became the Alaska State Capitol. Today it contains the offices of the Governor, Lieutenant Governor, and the State Legislature. Made of brick-faced reinforced concrete, sporting no dome, and lacking a large area of landscaped grounds, you might mistake this capitol for an ordinary office building. But Max points out the finer touches; the brilliantly-colored hand-stenciled ceiling (original); the Tokeen marble columns on the portico; the Indiana limestone \"\"<\/a>on the lower floors. Gold trim abounds, Alaska is, after all, a wee bit famous for its gold-mining heritage. Max points to the gold embellished symbols extending around the room at ceiling height \u2013 an igloo, a whale, a tree, and the mining pick and shovel. \u201cThis was an artist\u2019s mistake,\u201d he explained, \u201ctwo of these are wrong as a representation of Alaska.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ears perked up at that remark \u2013 which two? \u201cAlaskans don\u2019t live in igloos,\u201d Max explained, \u201cthat\u2019s a misconception. And though whales abound in Alaska, the whaling industry had ended by the time this building was built. The other two symbols correctly depict our timber and mining industries.\u201d Max took us to the fifth floor next; a large meeting room \"\"<\/a>outfitted with high-tech equipment; electronic communications can take place from far and near around the state. We wend our way down, floor by floor; the House and Senate chambers; the Governor\u2019s Office; the wall of portraits of former territorial and state governors. The eleven photographs on the governor\u2019s wall had an uneven row. \u201cI see they\u2019ve left room for the next one,\u201d Sam commented to Max.<\/p>\n

The Alaska constitution allows governors to serve multiple-terms \u2013 they may succeed \"\"<\/a>themselves once, but they have to wait four years after their second term in a row before they can run again. The lieutenant governor takes over should the governor\u2019s office become vacant, as it did in 2009 when Sarah Palin resigned. Nine people have served as governor of the State of Alaska over 11 distinct terms. William Egan and Wally Hickel were elected to multiple non-consecutive terms; Hickel also is noted for a rare third party win, having been elected in 1990 in the Alaskan Independence Party. Egan was elected three times and served nearly 12 years. The current governor is Sean Parnell, who took office when Palin resigned, but was elected to a full term in 2010.<\/p>\n

Sam has been busy recording what he sees; we\u2019re back in the lobby now; our tour is coming to an end. Max and Sam have reached buddy status by \"\"<\/a>this point, chatting about the capital cities, chatting about Juneau, chatting about everything there is to see and do in this town where he lives. \u201cAny more questions?\u201d Max finally asked. Sam took this as a cue. \u201cYes. Can I interview you now?\u201d Reporting live from Juneau, Alaska.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Linda Burton and grandson Samuel Shumate, age 9, posting from Juneau, Alaska \u2013 \u201cReporting live from Juneau, Alaska,\u201d is the sound I hear coming from just outside the door. It\u2019s grandson Sam, now a Steven Spielberg wannabe. Yesterday I showed him the Nikon\u2019s video capabilities; today he\u2019s into Point of View, recording everything in sight […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[4586,754],"tags":[777,784,785,779,579,781,782,778,780,786,783],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/capitalcitiesusa.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2576"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/capitalcitiesusa.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/capitalcitiesusa.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capitalcitiesusa.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capitalcitiesusa.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2576"}],"version-history":[{"count":18,"href":"https:\/\/capitalcitiesusa.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2576\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2578,"href":"https:\/\/capitalcitiesusa.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2576\/revisions\/2578"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/capitalcitiesusa.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2576"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capitalcitiesusa.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2576"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capitalcitiesusa.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2576"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}