Grog. A Journal of Navy Medical History and Culture. Issue 43.

摘要

The Last Frontier. Land of the Midnight Sun. Seward's Folly. Since 1867 when it was purchased from Tsar Alexander II for a meager $7.2 million, Alaska has been known by many names. Throughout it all, it has held our fascination as a land of beauty, ancient traditions, natural resources and, more recently, as a reality TV show dynamo. Although unconfirmed, it is believed by some that everytime a bell rings Alaska gets a new reality show. Long before it became the 49th U.S. State in 1959, and even before it was granted territory status in 1906, Alaska was a "U.S. Department." From 1867 to 1884, when its first civilian governor was appointed, the Department of Alaska was governed by a succession of Army, Cutter Service (Coast Guard) and Navy personnel from the village of Sitka. Located on Alaska's southeastern coast, Sitka was an ancestral home of the Tlingit people and capital of Russian- America. Until 1906, when Juneau became the territorial capital, Sitka was Alaska's cultural and political center. Today, Sitka may best be known for its Russian roots, its totem poles, as home to the oldest national park in the state and being the largest city by area in the United States (some 4,811 sq. miles!) In this edition of THE GROG, we look back at the Navy's unique history in Sitka from the arrival of USS Jamestown and Cdr. Beardslee's "commandership" of Alaska to the establishment of the little-known U.S. Naval Hospital Sitka. We follow this with a bountiful array of original articles. As always, we hope you enjoy this tour on the high seas of Navy Medicine s past!