Pioneering Spirit: The Sisters of Providence in Alaska

Chapter One
A Place of
Promise and Peril
To outsiders, Alaska is a place of the imagination.
Its trem endous size and beauty, fierce
extremes of terrain and climate, and vast riches
won only at great hardship create an image of a
laiger-than-life world, full of people and animals
equal to the task of coexisting with its unique
environments. Alaska and its image have prom ­
ised much to all kinds of people, but the land has
only yielded its rewards at the cost of great energy
and commitment.
Comprehending Alaska
Alaska is remarkable in a num ber of ways, but
its size overwhelms other considerations. The
largest of the fifty states by more than twice the
size of Texas, its nearest competitor, Alaska's
boundaries contain 586,112 square miles. Alaska
straddles the Eastern and Western Hem ispheres
with a span of twenty-seven hundred miles from
east to west, and covers fourteen hundred miles
from north to south. In Alaska four time zones
have been consolidated into two, but only a sharp
westward bend by the creators of the international
date line keeps the state in the same day.
Although scientists have not yet reached a consensus
about Alaskan geology, a num ber of ideas
have gained credence Geologist H. Glenn
Richards believes that Alaska may be com posed
of two tectonic plates that were once separate.
During the Paleozoic and early Mesozoic eras, the
plates drifted closer, then finally collided and
coalesced in the late Jurassic-early Cretaceous
period. In the last few million years, glaciers have
been the primary tool for shaping the Alaskan terrain.
Their final retreat about ten thousand years
ago created the p resen t topography and
geography of the state.
Alaska is a land of geographic contrasts.
Alaskan vistas include arctic plains, glaciers, ice
fields, broad valleys and fjords, expansive forests,
swamps, and great mountains. Permafrost, a condition
in which layers of the earth remain frozen
for extended periods of time, dominates the
geography of all but the coastal parts of the state.
In the southern and panhandle areas, warm currents
from the south produce a more temperate
climate. Although m uch of Alaska is north of the
timberline and other parts are well above
timbered elevation, the state is also hom e to
forests so thick as to recall the earliest images of
the New World.
a t 7- M c / e s A / t ^ y
The beauty of the
Alaskan landscape is
captured in a single
moment of geologic
time.
Photo courtesy of The
Anchorage M useum of History
and Art.
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