| Captain Cook Monument | |
|---|---|
 The statue in 2018 | |
 | |
| Artist | Derek Freeborn |
| Year | 1976 |
| Medium | Bronze |
| Subject | James Cook |
| Location | Anchorage, Alaska, U.S. |
| 61°13′09″N149°54′14″W / 61.219305°N 149.903948°W | |
The Captain Cook Monument is a life-size bronze statue of Captain James Cook installed in Anchorage, Alaska's Resolution Park. [1]
During the third voyage of James Cook to discover the Northwest Passage, much of what would later be named the Cook Inlet was explored in 1778 by HMS Resolution. In 1976, a statue of James Cook created by Derek Freeborn was installed in Resolution Park in Downtown Anchorage. [2] The statue is a replica of one in the city's sister city, Whitby, England, and was donated by British Petroleum to commemorate the United States Bicentennial. [3] [4]
In 2008, the statue appeared on the finale of The Amazing Race 12 . [5]
In the aftermath of the murder of George Floyd, some residents sought the removal of the statue due to Cook's links to colonialism and exploitation of Indigenous people. [6] [7] On June 25, 2020, Anchorage Mayor Ethan Berkowitz stated that the native village of Eklutna would determine the monument's fate. [8]
Captain James Cook was a British explorer, cartographer and naval officer famous for his three voyages between 1768 and 1779 in the Pacific Ocean and to New Zealand and Australia in particular. He made detailed maps of Newfoundland prior to making three voyages to the Pacific, during which he achieved the first recorded European contact with the eastern coastline of Australia and the Hawaiian Islands, and the first recorded circumnavigation of New Zealand.
Eklutna is a native village within the Municipality of Anchorage in the U.S. state of Alaska. The Tribal Council estimates the population at 70; many tribal members live in the surrounding communities.
Cook Inlet stretches 180 miles (290 km) from the Gulf of Alaska to Anchorage in south-central Alaska. Cook Inlet branches into the Knik Arm and Turnagain Arm at its northern end, almost surrounding Anchorage. On its southern end, it merges with Shelikof Strait, Stevenson Entrance, Kennedy Entrance and Chugach Passage.
Chugach State Park covers 495,204 acres covering a hilly region immediately east of Anchorage, in south-central Alaska.
The Denaʼina, or formerly Tanaina, are an Alaska Native Athabaskan people. They are the original inhabitants of the south central Alaska region ranging from Seldovia in the south to Chickaloon in the northeast, Talkeetna in the north, Lime Village in the northwest and Pedro Bay in the southwest. The Denaʼina homeland is more than 41,000 sq mi (110,000 km2) in area. They arrived in the south-central Alaska sometime between 1,000 and 1,500 years ago. They were the only Alaskan Athabaskan group to live on the coast. The Denaʼina have a hunter-gatherer culture and a matrilineal system. The Iditarod Trail's antecedents were the native trails of the Denaʼina and Deg Hitʼan Athabaskan Native Alaskans and the Inupiaq Inuit.
After congress approved the completion of the Alaska Railroad from Seward to Fairbanks in 1914, it was decided that a new town should be built as a port and rail hub along the route. The decision was made to develop a site near Ship Creek on Cook Inlet. Survey parties visited the area in 1914 and researched possible routes for the rails and options for siting the new town. Anchorage was originally settled as a tent city near the mouth of Ship Creek in 1915, and a planned townsite was platted alongside the bluff to the south. Anchorage was mostly a company town for the Alaska Railroad for its first several decades of existence.
The Eklutna River is approximately 11.8 miles (19.0 km) long and is located in the Southcentral region of the U.S. state of Alaska. A portion of the river flows through a canyon up to 400 feet (120 m) deep, emptying into the Knik Arm of Cook Inlet approximately 17 miles (27 km) northeast of Anchorage. This degraded anadromous stream historically originated from Eklutna Lake, which itself is fed by Eklutna Glacier. Eklutna River is now fed primarily by groundwater before being joined by Thunderbird Creek. Thunderbird Creek, which enters the south bank about 1 km (0.62 mi) upstream from where the river exits the canyon and forms an alluvial fan. Due to water impoundments on the Eklutna River for power generation, Thunderbird Creek is currently the main source of water in the lower portion of the Eklutna River. The river is located entirely within the limits of the Municipality of Anchorage.
The Municipality of Anchorage is the largest city in the U.S. state of Alaska by population. With a population of 291,247 at the 2020 census, it contains nearly 40 percent of the state's population, and has more people than all of Northern Canada and Greenland combined. The Anchorage metropolitan area, which includes Anchorage and the neighboring Matanuska-Susitna Borough, had a population of 398,328 in 2020, accounting for more than half the state's population. At 1,706 sq mi (4,420 km2) of land area, the city is the fourth-largest by area in the United States and larger than the smallest state, Rhode Island, which has 1,212 sq mi (3,140 km2).
Lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) persons in the U.S. state of Alaska may face some legal challenges not experienced by non-LGBT Alaskans. Since 1980, same-sex sexual conduct has been allowed, and same-sex couples can marry since October 2014. The state offers few legal protections against discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity, leaving LGBT people vulnerable to discrimination in housing and public accommodations; however, the U.S. Supreme Court's ruling in Bostock v. Clayton County established that employment discrimination against LGBT people is illegal under federal law. In addition, four Alaskan cities, Anchorage, Juneau, Sitka and Ketchikan, representing about 46% of the state population, have passed discrimination protections for housing and public accommodations.
Nicholas Galanin is a Tlingit and Unangax̂ multi-disciplinary artist and musician from Alaska. His work often explores a dialogue of change and identity between Native and non-Native communities.
Eklutna Annie is the name given to an unidentified murder victim whose body was discovered in a wooded area, one mile south of South Eklutna Lake Road in Eklutna, Anchorage, Alaska, in July 1980. She was aged between 16 and 25 at the time of her death, and her body was discovered several months after her murder. An autopsy report concluded that she had been killed by a single stab wound to the back.
The Eklutna Dam, also referred to as the New Eklutna Dam or Upper Eklutna Dam, is an embankment dam on the Eklutna River about 30 mi (48 km) northeast of Anchorage in Alaska, United States. The primary purpose of the dam is hydroelectric power generation and it supports a 47 MW power plant. It was first completed in 1929 but was rehabilitated or rebuilt on several occasions over its history. Ownership of the dam and power plant is shared by Chugach Electric and Matanuska Electric.
The 2020 United States Senate election in Alaska was held on November 3, 2020, to elect a member of the United States Senate to represent the State of Alaska, concurrently with the nationwide presidential election, as well as other elections to the United States Senate, elections to the United States House of Representatives and various state and local elections. Incumbent Republican Senator Dan Sullivan won re-election to a second term in office, defeating Democratic nominee Al Gross, the son of Avrum Gross, who ran as an independent candidate. John Wayne Howe, the nominee of the Alaskan Independence Party, was also on the ballot and finished a distant third.
The 2020 United States House of Representatives election in Alaska was held on November 3, 2020, to elect the U.S. representative from Alaska's at-large congressional district. The election coincided with the 2020 U.S. presidential election, as well as other elections to the House of Representatives, elections to the United States Senate and various state and local elections.
Eklutna Glacier is a land terminating glacier in Chugach State Park and the Chugach Mountains near Anchorage, Alaska. Runoff from Eklutna Glacier contributes to Eklutna Lake, the main source of drinking water for the Anchorage community as well as hydroelectric power via the Eklutna Hydroelectric Project. However, Eklutna Glacier is shrinking in response to climate change which will inevitably affect downstream water resources. Eklutna Glacier is also known by the Dena'ina name: Idlu Bena Li'a.
The Mitre is a 6,651 ft (2,030 m) mountain summit located in the western Chugach Mountains, in Anchorage Municipality in the U.S. state of Alaska. The mountain is situated in Chugach State Park, 30 mi (48 km) east of Anchorage, three miles (4.8 km) northeast of Bellicose Peak, and 5.5 mi (9 km) south-southeast of Eklutna Lake. The nearest higher peak is Benign Peak, 2.4 mi (4 km) to the west-northwest, on the opposite side of the Eklutna Glacier. Although modest in elevation, relief is significant since the western aspect of the mountain rises 4,000 feet above this glacier in approximately half a mile. In Europe, "mitre" is the term used for a sharp, symmetrical rocky peak such as this one. The Mitre's descriptive name was submitted for consideration by the Mountaineering Club of Alaska as suggested by Dr. Rodman Wilson (1921–2003) of Anchorage after he returned from a European vacation. The Mitre name was officially adopted in 1966 by the U.S. Board on Geographic Names. In the Denaʼina language, this mountain is known as Idlu Bena Dghelaya, meaning Mountain of Plural Objects Lake.
Shortly after protests seeking justice for George Floyd, an African-American who was murdered during a police arrest, began in the United States, people in New Zealand protested to show support for similar protests in the United States and to demonstrate against perceived issues with police brutality and structural discrimination in New Zealand. Vigils and protests of thousands of participants took place in June 2020 throughout the nation.
A statue of Captain James Cook stood in Victoria, British Columbia, from 1976 until 2021, when it was toppled in a protest. It was a fibreglass copy of a bronze statue of 1912 by John Tweed in Whitby, Yorkshire, England. The Victoria Environmental Enhancement Foundation commissioned the work from Derek and Patricia Freeborn to mark the 200th anniversary of Cook's departure on his third voyage in 1776. The statue was unveiled on July 12, 1976, by William Richards Bennett, Premier of British Columbia. It stood on the Causeway, facing the Fairmont Empress hotel, with its back to the Inner Harbour.
A number of monuments and memorials in Canada were removed or destroyed as a result of protests and riots between 2020 and 2022. These included six sculptures of Sir John A. Macdonald, the first prime minister of Canada, three of other figures connected to the Canadian Indian residential school system, two of Canadian monarchs, one of the British explorer Captain James Cook and one of John Deighton, a bar-owner whose nickname inspired the name of Vancouver's Gastown district.
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