Drawing from History: Issues Illustrated, 1986 and Today

February

Cover illustration by Dee Boyles

In 1985, the US Olympic Committee nominated Anchorage to host the 1992 Winter Games, which further spurred conversations in the state about how to extend the tourism season out of the summer and into the winter, since in 1986 approximately 75 percent of the state’s visitors traveled here in the summer months. In “Visitor Industry for All Seasons: Up, Up and Away, or Just More Hot Air?” Paul Laird explored the challenges of convincing visitors that Alaska is a year-round destination. While Anchorage’s nomination generated visitor interest at the time, the Olympics went to Albertville, France, and the tourism struggle continued. However, fast forward thirty-five years, and off-peak tourism grew during the COVID-19 pandemic. David Kasser, senior vice president of sales at Visit Anchorage, reports that the city now has more visitors in October through April than in the summer.

March

Cover illustration by Dee Boyles

In 1986 Alaskans had similar concerns to 2016: global oil prices dropped, and while companies tightened belts and continued operations, there was simply less capital to go around for future exploration. “What Lies Over the Rainbow for the Alaskan Oil Industry?” explored the reality that Prudhoe Bay was a once-in-a-lifetime discovery, so the future of Alaska’s oil industry would depend on “‘marginal’ fields that pose higher costs in the face of lower yields and lower prices.” Contrary to those concerns, in recent years the North Slope has seen robust investment, with production through the Trans Alaska Pipeline System not only holding steady but recently increasing, and the Pikka Unit and Willow Project are set to produce even more oil soon. Additionally, advances in technology like horizontal drilling and Hilcorp’s polymer flood technique for aging fields signal many years of operations to come on the North Slope.

April

Cover illustration by Dee Boyles

The mid-‘80s saw heated competition among airlines serving the western United States, specifically the Pacific Northwest. Alaska Airlines was caught in a “fare war,” and in “Alaska Airlines Encounters Strong Headwinds at 9 ½ Cents,” Paul Laird pared down the challenge the airline was facing to that precise monetary figure. At the time, Alaska Airlines spent $0.095 on operating expenses for each seat-mile it flew. It was $0.01 to $0.03 more than its competitors. For context, Alaska Airlines had 4.2 billion available seat miles in 1985, so the cost added up quickly. According to the article, Alaska Airlines did have one leg up on the competition: a reputation for above-average service. Clearly Alaska Airlines soared through this challenging time, acquiring Hawaiian Airlines in the last few years and routinely expanding its destinations around the world.

May

Cover illustration by Dee Boyles

The Alaska Marine Highway System is a critical mode of transportation for businesses and individuals living in Southeast. But as early as 1986, with oil money already drying up, how to operate and pay for the Alaska Marine Highway was under debate. In “Alaska’s Marine Highway System: A Bad Mix of Politics and Economics,” Paul Laird weighed a few options for funding, ranging from “just keep paying for it” to full privatization, or possibly selling off parts and pieces of the system like a state-level garage sale. He saw the most potential in privatization, with several sources advocating for private, subsidized operations of the transportation system, similar to Alaska’s program for subsidizing air travel and cargo to remote parts of the state. For better or worse, the Alaska Marine Highway remains under state control—and it remains constricted by tightening stage budgets, significantly impacting service to the Southeast communities that may have few other options.

June

Cover illustration by Dee Boyles

In 1985 the federal government transferred ownership of the Alaska Railroad to the State of Alaska, and there were concerns at the time that the railroad would go the way of the Alaska Marine Highway: not enough money and a disappointing level of service. The incomparable Paul Laird used the classic tale of A Christmas Carol as a framing narrative for his article “A Caboose Carol: Can the Alaska Railroad Continue to Thrive Under State Ownership, or Will Politicians Eventually Beat the Dickens Out of It?” The ghosts of Railroad Past, Present, and Future visited “Jalmar Scrooge” (i.e., Jay Kerttula, president of the Alaska Senate during the transfer) to share warnings about what might go awry. Laird again advocated for private ownership, but the Alaska Railroad ultimately took a different track: the state owns it, but it operates like a private company, responsible for generating enough revenue to maintain its operations—which it does. While it’s not exactly the envisioned light at the end of Laird’s tunnel, it certainly is a happy ending.

July

Cover illustration by Dee Boyles

The finance industry was balancing two things as it tried to find solid footing in Alaska in 1986: a major recession and deregulation. In “Hurricane Watch: What’s in Store for Alaska’s Financial Services Industry If Recession Turns the Winds of Deregulatory Change into a Full-blown Storm?” Paul Laird stated, “The economic downturn in Southcentral not only has limited asset growth but also has put an increasing share of existing assets in jeopardy. Banks that were most aggressive in pursuing construction financing earlier in the ‘80s are the hardest hit.” As we know today, while a few iconic Alaska financial institutions were able to weather the storm, many did not, including several of the sources for this article.

August

Cover illustration by Dee Boyles

Strap in because this gets weird. The cover of August 1986 refers to the issue’s spotlight article as “American Standoff.” Internally, the article, penned by Paul Laird, is titled “Mad as Hell.” It documents a standoff between a private company, Meteor Data, and a collaborative effort of several federal agencies called the Alaska Meteor Burst Communications System (AMBCS). Both entities provided meteor burst communications services, which is essentially using the reflective trails of electrically charged particles created by meteors burning up in the Earth’s atmosphere to transmit data from one place to another. The federal agencies involved used the technology to collect climatologic data. The owner of Meteor Data asserted that AMBCS interfered with his ability to do business; AMBCS representatives didn’t feel it was the government’s responsibility to stop offering services in favor of a private company just because the company wanted it. The argument today seems settled; Meteor Data is no longer operating, and federal agencies continued using meteor burst communications to collect data as recently as 2023.

September

Cover illustration by Dee Boyles

Alaska Business readers will be familiar with the subject of the September cover: The New 49ers, as they were called at the time. It was the second year that Alaska Business published what would become the Top 49ers, now a fixture in October. In addition to the ranks by revenue, the informal special section also included a ranking by number of employees, an introduction by then-staff writer Judith Fuerst, and an executive summary-type article by Paul Laird.
In 1986 the top five by revenue were Carr-Gottstein Foods Co., Sealaska, Alaska International Industries (owner of MarkAir), TravelCenter, and National Bancorp of Alaska. At the time, the criteria for the Top 49ers were “the largest for-profit companies—those owned at least 51 percent by Alaskan residents with the greatest sales volume.” The criteria have since been refined to reflect that the companies were launched in Alaska, remain headquartered here, and have not been acquired, and companies report gross revenue as defined by the IRS.

October

Cover illustration by Dee Boyles

The October 1986 cover story is far less terrifying than the cover illustration would indicate. Kijik Corporation, the village corporation for Nondalton, was planning to develop the land it owns adjacent to Lake Clark National Park and Preserve, established in 1980, several years after Kijik and other Alaska Native corporations made their land selections (but before many of those lands were actually conveyed). In the article “Kijik’s Keyes to Profit,” Paul Laird explores the development plans and the concerns expressed by Lake Clark National Park officials. The concerns, though, were mild; the concluding quote of the article is from Boyd Evison, then-Alaska regional director for the National Park Service, saying, “Kijik has been darn sensitive to park values, and we recognize their efforts in developing the area in concert with the National Park Service rather than in conflict.” Skip forward to March of 2000, when Kijik Corporation established the Keyes Point subdivision with recreational lots in and around Lake Clark, some of which are available for sale to the public today.

November

Cover illustration by Jarrett Holderby

When Alaska was trying to dig out of an economic recession, one potential remedy was international investment. Alaska may have been strapped for cash, but it was resource rich. In “Getting By with a Little Help from Our Friends,” Chuck Kleeschulte explored the pros and cons of foreign capital and explained the reality that, for better or worse, foreign interests had already landed in the 49th State. In 1986, foreign sales accounted for approximately 80 percent of the income for the state’s seafood processing industry, and more than 90 percent of the state’s pulp and timber production was sold to international markets. Foreign investors were already investing in coal exports; mining for molybdenum, gold, silver, lead, and zinc; tourism opportunities; and natural gas exports. Today, international trade remains a vital piece of Alaska’s economic picture.

December

Cover illustration by Susan Berry

If debates could produce electricity, conversations about drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Reserve (ANWR) would power Alaska for decades. According to Paul Laird in “Bambi Versus Godzilla: The Battle of ANILCA, Round 2,” environmentalists had framed the debate as a conflict between Bambi (representing the fragile and beloved Arctic, including the Coastal Plain) and Godzilla (the insatiable and destructive oil industry). Laird felt the representations were backward: a monster conglomerate of advocacy groups was on a rampage, hell-bent on destroying opportunities for a fragile Alaska economy while “reaping thousands of new members and millions in well-intentioned contributions.”

Environmental interests obstructed exploration until December 2020, when the US Bureau of Land Management held a lease sale in ANWR. The response was not robust, and the leases that were awarded were then cancelled. Those cancellations were challenged in court, yet the cancellations were then rescinded by a new administration. If only this back-and-forth energy could be stored in a battery, there would never be a need to drill in ANWR.