Alaska on Right Track With Railroad Purchase

Alaska took control Sunday of the 530-mile Alaska Railroad, the nation’s northernmost railway and the last major flagstop line in the country.

The state bought the ailing 61-year-old railway from the federal government for $22.3 million.

“This may just be the best deal since William Seward bought (Alaska) from Russia,” Gov. Bill Sheffield told a crowd of about 800 persons at the Nenana Civic Center. Alaska was sold to the United States in 1867 for $7.2 million.

Officials and spectators rode special “celebration trains” from Fairbanks and Anchorage for the ceremony.

“We’ve finally cut it loose,” said Frank Chapados, vice president of the new railroad corporation’s board of directors, aboard the train from Fairbanks. “Alaska’s growing up and I think we’re on the verge of some development that will be very significant.”

John Riley, the Federal Railroad Administration official in charge of the Alaska Railroad, accepted an oversized check for $22.3 million and gave Sheffield a switchkey made of Alaskan gold nuggets.

“What we’re doing today is removing that last vestige of Alaska’s territorial status,” Riley said.

Local volunteers butchered a buffalo and peeled mountains of vegetables to make 250 gallons of buffalo stew for the celebration. Nenana was chosen for the transfer because it was there that President Warren G. Harding tapped a golden spike on July 15, 1923, commemorating the line’s completion.