Alaska in the 60s

NEW LONDON - Virginia Ekstrand moved to Anchorage, Alaska practically on a whim in 1961, staying in the state for six-and-a-half-years before moving back to Iowa with her husband and daughter.

Ekstrand presented at the Dover Museum in New London on Sunday, Oct. 27, speaking to a crowd of twenty local residents about her experiences living in the tundra-encompassed state in the 60s. Throughout her presentation, titled 'Living in Alaska in the 1960s,” Ekstrand shared pictures and also brought a case of items she bought in Alaska, including hand-weaved baskets and an oosik, a whale penile bone.

The retired teacher began her presentation by passing around a handmade mask made by Reuban Takshaw out of whale vertebrae. Takshaw was a native from Kotzebue, a city in the northwestern part of Alaska. Ekstrand described the mask as her 'treasure,” an artifact representative of her time in Alaska.

Ekstrand initially moved to the state to follow her husband, David.

'In March of 1961, he came to see me in college and said, ‘I'm leaving for Alaska.' And I said to him if you wait ‘till I get out of school in June, I'll go with you,” Ekstrand explained.

The couple trekked their way across the country to Alaska in a Pontiac station wagon with $1,000, which they split evenly between the trip up to Anchorage and funds to buy a home. The young pair were warned about the unsustainability of being in the state long-term due to the scarcity of jobs.

'My husband went out and … came back 20 minutes later with a job,” Ekstrand said.

Throughout her presentation, the Iowa-native detailed her experience working for the Arctic Health Research Center as well as surviving the 1964 earthquake. Ekstrand noted that the center, which focused on the health and diseases faced by native people in Alaska, was ahead of the game in terms of genetic research. In particular, the center studied methemoglobinemia, a blood disorder that causes a person's skin to have a bluish hue but does not have any effect on the person otherwise and is not debilitating to those who have the condition. Ekstrand noted that it was found in other areas of the United States, including Kentucky, in places where inbreeding was especially prevalent.

Ekstrand also shared cultural tidbits she learned from her time in the state including that people become less social during the summer months and are often 'doing their own thing,” and 'not friends with anybody,” but that during winter, when travel was difficult and limited, Alaskans would host parties and gatherings.

Ultimately, Ekstrand, who returned to Alaska for the first time forty years after her initial move in 2001, noted that a lot of changes had taken place in the state due to the oil and drilling industry. Ekstrand felt strongly about the effects the industry was having on the environment and described reports that suggested the state had recovered from the Exxon Valdez oil spill, which occurred in 1989, as 'complete bull.”

'Things have changed, after we went back after forty years, and I have to tell you, I cried,” Ekstrand admitted to the audience.

'It has changed so much,” she said.