title: Alaskan People: Stories of Yesteryear and Today
author:  Edward M. May 
description: Ed dreamed of going to Alaska since his childhood years in Ohio during the sixties and seventies. It took nearly half of his life and travels halfway around the world to realize those early dreams. He has been trained and employed in various occupations to include U.S. Army medic, psychiatric nurses aid, halfway house counselor for emotionally disturbed adolescents, youth probation officer, am and fm DJ, carpenter, radio sales and copywriter, talk show host, program director, general manager of radio station, news director for public radio, employment counselor, founder and president of two non-profit organizations (Haines Animal Rescue Kennel and SeaChrist-Broadcasting), oil spill disaster response team member, foster parent, executive producer of his own audio production company, newspaper feature column writer, and author. He is also a husband and father.
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  # ![Alaska Traveler](../Images/DST_AlaskaTraveler_0730.jpg)
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  # Alaska Traveler
  
  
  ## Dispatches from America's Last Frontier
  
  
  ## —
  
  
  ## Dana Stabenow
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  # — 1 —
  
  
  ## Introduction
  
  
  I’M OLDER THAN MOST of the buildings in Anchorage.
  
  
  Hell, I’m older than the state of Alaska.
  
  
  I say things like this when I’m on tour Outside in my author persona and
  people sort of giggle nervously, not believing me, really, and not really
  understanding what I mean, either.
  
  
  But it’s true.
  
  
  I was born in Anchorage in 1952, in what was then the territory of Alaska. I
  was raised in Cordova and Seldovia, more or less. More because we were more
  ashore than we were at sea, and less because for five years we lived on the
  _Celtic_ , a 75-five foot fish tender on which my mother was deckhand.
  
  
  Seldovia was where we were living when the 1964 Earthquake hit, right in the
  middle of my twelfth birthday party. I had a great time, including being
  evacuated to the high school gymnasium along with the 