# 4374 PB - 2009 42c Alaska Statehood
Alaska Statehood
Issue Date: January 3, 2009
First-day City: Anchorage, AK
Untamed Arctic beauty is captured on the 2009 U.S. stamp honoring 50 years of Alaska statehood. The woodcut cachet pictures Sitka, a seaside village that was once the capital of Alaska.
Breaking with the U.S.P.S. tradition of not picturing living people on U.S. stamps, the design uses a photograph of DeeDee Jonrowe, taken as she competed in the 2000 Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race.
From the majesty of the mountain peaks to Jonrowe herself, the stamp captures the rugged Alaskan spirit. At the age of 49, the hearty Alaskan resident competed in the grueling race just three weeks after completing chemotherapy for breast cancer in 2003.
The Iditarod commemorates the 1925 “Great Race of Mercy,” when a diphtheria epidemic threatened Nome. When modern transportation failed, twenty teams of “mushers” and about 150 sled dogs relayed the serum over 674 miles from Anchorage to Nome to save thousands of lives.
Also known as the “Land of the Midnight Sun,” Alaska was purchased from Russia in 1867 for $7.2 million. The discovery of gold brought thousands of people to the territory during the late 1800s. In 1959, Alaska became the 49th state admitted to the union. Nearly 65% of the state is managed by the U.S. government as public land and national parks.
Alaska’s Final Dog Sled Mail Route
Mail delivery in Alaska has long been more of a challenge than in other parts of the United States. The extreme temperatures and long stretches of undeveloped land in the 1800s made mail delivery difficult.
Letters sent from the continental US could take weeks or even months to reach their destinations. Often, mail would be sent to Washington where it was loaded on to steamships in the Puget Sound. These ships would then carry the mail to southeastern coastal towns. From there, the mail was transported into the interior sections of Alaska by river steamers and later trains. However, trains couldn’t reach some of the most remote areas and ships couldn’t pass frozen rivers, so other methods of delivery were needed.
By 1901, Alaska had a system of mail trails that ran along almost the entire length of the Yukon River. Much of the mail was carried along the 2,300-mile Iditarod Trail from Seward to Nome.
Alaska Statehood
Issue Date: January 3, 2009
First-day City: Anchorage, AK
Untamed Arctic beauty is captured on the 2009 U.S. stamp honoring 50 years of Alaska statehood. The woodcut cachet pictures Sitka, a seaside village that was once the capital of Alaska.
Breaking with the U.S.P.S. tradition of not picturing living people on U.S. stamps, the design uses a photograph of DeeDee Jonrowe, taken as she competed in the 2000 Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race.
From the majesty of the mountain peaks to Jonrowe herself, the stamp captures the rugged Alaskan spirit. At the age of 49, the hearty Alaskan resident competed in the grueling race just three weeks after completing chemotherapy for breast cancer in 2003.
The Iditarod commemorates the 1925 “Great Race of Mercy,” when a diphtheria epidemic threatened Nome. When modern transportation failed, twenty teams of “mushers” and about 150 sled dogs relayed the serum over 674 miles from Anchorage to Nome to save thousands of lives.
Also known as the “Land of the Midnight Sun,” Alaska was purchased from Russia in 1867 for $7.2 million. The discovery of gold brought thousands of people to the territory during the late 1800s. In 1959, Alaska became the 49th state admitted to the union. Nearly 65% of the state is managed by the U.S. government as public land and national parks.
Alaska’s Final Dog Sled Mail Route
Mail delivery in Alaska has long been more of a challenge than in other parts of the United States. The extreme temperatures and long stretches of undeveloped land in the 1800s made mail delivery difficult.
Letters sent from the continental US could take weeks or even months to reach their destinations. Often, mail would be sent to Washington where it was loaded on to steamships in the Puget Sound. These ships would then carry the mail to southeastern coastal towns. From there, the mail was transported into the interior sections of Alaska by river steamers and later trains. However, trains couldn’t reach some of the most remote areas and ships couldn’t pass frozen rivers, so other methods of delivery were needed.
By 1901, Alaska had a system of mail trails that ran along almost the entire length of the Yukon River. Much of the mail was carried along the 2,300-mile Iditarod Trail from Seward to Nome.