Fall comes to the Last Frontier

Join us in celebrating Alaska Day here at beautiful Mendenhall Lake, just a stone’s throw from the state capital of Juneau. It seems a timeless sight, but the lake actually began to form in the early 1900s as Mendenhall Glacier receded, leaving a deeply carved valley in its wake that was soon filled with glacial melt. Today, the glacier still feeds the lake, much to the delight of the many visitors who arrive in Juneau each summer on cruise ships.

Alaska Day commemorates the day in 1867 when the Russian Empire transferred Alaska to the United States in a sale for $7.2 million, or just around 2 cents per acre. It seems an astonishingly small price today, but at the time, opponents called it ‘Seward’s Folly’ after then-Secretary of State William H. Seward, who negotiated the deal. Few Americans moved to the ‘Last Frontier’ at first, but after 1898, when gold was discovered, a rush of prospectors and others began a wave of settlers in the territory. Ever since, Alaska, with its vast natural resources and staggering beauty, has been a prized American domain and an enduring symbol of American wilderness.

Daily Pic ^10/18/17

Windmills in Consuegra, Castilla-La Mancha, Spain