Dateline: Dillingham

Katherine Carscallen, Dillingham.

It was a mere five days ago that former U.S. Senator Ted Stevens and four others died in a small plane crash in southwestern Alaska. The news dominated the 24/7 news cycle as pundits and politicians assessed the legacy of the man who served longer than any other Republican senator in history -- a whopping 40 years -- and steered a hugely disproportionate amount of federal money to the 49th state.

Stevens' plane crashed 17 miles north of Dillingham, a fishing village situated on Bristol Bay. Surely, a lot of people will recall that's the body of water for whom Sarah Palin's teenage daughter is named. But I imagine their knowledge of Dillingham doesn't run very deep. Well, the dateline caught my attention because that's the town where my younger sister has lived for the past 25 years or so.

To describe it as remote only scratches the surface. The town has about 2,500 full-time residents and it's situated about 375 miles west of Anchorage -- and roughly 350 miles from the Arctic Circle. I've visited her twice over the years and was struck by the similarity to what you would have seen in the old television show "Northern Exposure."

Life moves at a s-l-o-w pace there and access is limited. You can only get there by plane or boat because the gravel roads literally end a few miles out of town. There are no stop lights, no sidewalks, no bowling alley or  movie theater, and roughly 80 percent of the population is Native Alaskan. The social highlight seems to be a weekly bingo game. Even several years ago, $5 would buy you a gallon of gas or a gallon of milk. And in a community this small, it's discouraging to know there's a domestic violence shelter.

The surrounding area is beautiful, of course, with majestic mountains and trees and pristine waters that are home to a world-class sockeye salmon run.It gets mighty cold, though. My sister has told me it regularly drops to 60 degrees below in the winter. Tourist season is short-lived. Basically, just a few weeks in early summer -- and better come before the no see-ums (tiny biting flies) are out in full force.

Anyway, a day before Stevens' death dominated the headlines, I'd come across an interesting story with a Dillingham dateline. A piece by Kim Murphy of the Los Angeles Times described plans by an international corporation to develop what could be North America's largest open-pit mine at headwaters above Bristol Bay. The story illuminates what's at stake in this critical proposal pitting the environment against economic development in a region sorely in need of new jobs. As Murphy reports:

DILLINGHAM -- It is an unfortunate coincidence of geography that this lush region of wild rivers, grassy tundra and windy sea is home to two competing treasures of almost unimaginable value: the world's largest sockeye salmon run, supporting a fishery worth $440 million a year; and in the hills behind it, a massive deposit of copper, molybdemum and gold worth at least $300 billion....


"The location could not possibly be worse on the face of the Earth," said former state Senate President Rick Halford, a Republican from the Bristol Bay region. "This is a place of incredible value. It's going to be probably the biggest environmental resource fight of our lifetime."

How ironic that Dillingham would be in the national news two days in a row. Stevens' death grabbed the headlines this week but I'd venture to say this other battle over natural resources is the more important story. Read the piece here.

Photo by Kim Murphy, Los Angeles Times