Transcript for the 50th Year of Statehood Anniversary Celebration.

[music‚..] Welcome to the 50th Anniversary of Alaska's statehood, this is a recreation of the pinning of the 49th star to 48 star flag, which first happened back in 1958. It's a big event for Alaskans.

Narrator: " Just for the record, it should be noted that, somebody said to Katie,"Are you sure you want to go up on that thing?". She went,"ummmm‚". Katie has the symbolic 49th flag. Vic and Katie will be raised up to the front of the federal courthouse and they will pin the 49th star on the flag, symbolic of the fact, that, "We are in!" Hear we go give them a round of applause. "We are in , of course referring to the Anchorage Times Headline, which was "We're in!". It was the shortest headline ever published, although it was in 6 1/2 font. The original pinner of the star to the flag was actually, Rita Marcin, who was the Fur Rendezvous queen 50 years ago. Alaska's story of statehood is actually fairly tumultuous. It wasn't until after World War II, that we had enough people to become a state and it was largely do to the large military population, which of course came over because of the Japanese presence in the Pacific during the war. We actually adopted the Tennessee plan, which is to say that we elected or senators or congressmen before we had actually been admitted to the union. Which actually drone republicans to go against Alaska being part of the union because the people we elected were democrats, and this is ironic because Alaska today, is very much a republican state. When Alaska was finally admitted, it was pandemonium in Anchorage. There were horns honking and sirens going off. It was a big, big celebration. People were really happy, but the best stories actually came from Fairbanks. The Denisons decided to try to make the Chena River run gold, but it failed miserably. It actually turned the water bright, bright green. Which I'm sure fooled any visitors into thinking that they had mistaken where St. Patrick's Day was. The other fun story, is that the Shake & Steak Restaurant ran a "Move Over Texas" half off special on all dinners. Course Texas used to be the largest state, but now that Alaska was actually twice it's size. Even today Alaska likes to give Texas a hard time for that. [cheering and clapping‚..] "We're In!" [Music Star Spangled Banner] So this is the 59th anniversary of Alaska's Statehood. We're glad you took the time to join us and learn more about us. Thanks!