Why "Alaska Diamonds"?

If you ask my dad where he was born he will always say "I was raised in Alaska!" And it took me almost 50 years to visit that beautiful state and come to a better understanding as to why he said that. Having learned at a very young age that I was not an Eskimo in spite of dad being "raised in Alaska" I was nevertheless always intrigued by "Alaska" and it's rugged frontier nature sparked many a daydream. When my sister, Lynnie, and I had the great fortune to fly to Fairbanks and meet Dad and his wife there it was a dream come true. We discovered why dad's love for Alaska was so strong, it is a beautiful, wild, rugged, friendly place. Well, the people are friendly, the land is obviously not. Not knowing exactly where Dad's fox-farm had been we made a journey 50 miles outside of Fairbanks. We pulled off the road at a spot where Dad knew he could walk back to the lake that had been behind his home. As I was recovering from a broken foot, I stayed in the car with Jo while Lynnie and Dad ventured back and found the lake. They came back with pictures of a cow Moose with her calf dining in the lake and I was feeling a bit saddened by my disability.

So, working up my courage we decided to do a little adventuring just around the area we had parked. The Lord was smiling on me that special day! In a moment of reverent quiet, surrounded by beautiful birch trees and evergreens that were dense and dark having survived many harsh winters we came upon the very fox pens that my father's father had made in 1925! Many were in the same condition that they had been left in when Dad had left this land in 1942. It was truly a sacred moment.

From the front of the property the Tanana river spread and flowed with promises of violent runoff in days gone by and days to come. Rising above the river in the distance the Denali mountains glistened like diamonds. The air fresh and clean, the sounds of leaves rustling in laughter at their own beauty, the rushing of the waters overwhelmed my soul and etched a sacred memory and love for a land that my father loved.

I can't say I was ever "raised in Alaska" or have any right to claim the land for myself. My heart belongs to another place. But forever, Alaska is a diamond to me. Proud, strong, valiant, the things I see in my dad.