{"id":29424,"date":"2017-07-04T10:39:12","date_gmt":"2017-07-04T17:39:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/spijue.wpengine.com\/news\/seward-statue-takes-place-in-front-of-capitol\/"},"modified":"2017-07-04T10:39:12","modified_gmt":"2017-07-04T17:39:12","slug":"seward-statue-takes-place-in-front-of-capitol","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/news\/seward-statue-takes-place-in-front-of-capitol\/","title":{"rendered":"Seward statue takes place in front of Capitol"},"content":{"rendered":"

U.S. Rep. Don Young thinks about William Henry Seward every time he flies over Alaska. Now, he\u2019ll be able to see Seward every time he goes to the Alaska State Capitol.<\/p>\n

Young was one of six speakers who introduced the long-awaited Seward Statue on Monday. The statue, which depicts the former Secretary of State who engineered the country\u2019s purchase of Alaska from Russia in 1867, was installed in the Dimond Courthouse Plaza across the street from the Capitol.<\/p>\n

A crowd of well over 100 people gathered in the drizzling rain Monday afternoon, and heard politicians and a professor wax nostalgic about Seward and express their pride in the 49th state. Young said that whenever he flies into Alaska from Washington, D.C. and elsewhere he thinks about Seward and the purchase he orchestrated.<\/p>\n

Lt. Gov. Byron Mallott spoke along similar lines, expressing hope for Alaska reaching the potential that Seward saw when he negotiated the Treaty of Cession to purchase the territory.<\/p>\n

\u201cI just can\u2019t help but believe that his vision will be realized over time,\u201d Mallott said, \u201cas Alaska more and more becomes a place in which the kind of America that we can be, the kind of America that we aspire to be, the kind of America that can take riches and create opportunity for every single one of us, will truly be realized.\u201d<\/p>\n

The statue is almost four years in the works, costing about $250,000<\/a> and traveling 4,500 miles from New York to its final stop in Juneau. The statue was mostly funded by grants and donations, including a $25,000 donation from the City and Borough of Juneau. The 6-foot bronze statue is meant as a tribute to Seward and his vision for Alaska, also commemorating the 150-year anniversary of the Treaty of Cession. The statue holds the treaty in one hand and a straw hat that Seward was known to wear in the other.<\/p>\n

In addition to politicians from around the state, seven of Seward\u2019s descendants were in attendance as well. Seward\u2019s great, great, great, great, great grandchildren Jayden and Joy Dates, stood just a few feet from the statue as the sculptors \u2014 David and Judith Rubin of Ketchikan\u2014 removed the plastic covering to reveal the statue.<\/p>\n

Robert Venables, whose father John Venables led the charge for the statue prior to his death in 2015, also stood nearby, smiling as his father\u2019s vision became a reality. Wayne Jensen, the co-chair of the Seward Committee along with Mary Becker, was pleased with the turnout Monday and with the final product.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s very rewarding,\u201d Jensen said. \u201cThe outcome is just incredible. I think it\u2019s just an incredible piece of public art to add to Juneau\u2019s historic tours. We\u2019re very proud of it and very happy with the outcome.\u201d<\/p>\n

Becker and Jensen both spoke briefly, but left the majority of the talking to Mayor Ken Koelsch, Mallott, Young and University of Alaska-Anchorage Professor Emeritus Steve Haycox<\/a>. Koelsch and Haycox (who specializes in Alaskan history) spoke mostly about Seward\u2019s life and accomplishments.<\/p>\n

Mallott and Young, on the other hand, spoke much more about current politics instead of 1860s politics. Young in particular spoke about the importance of working together in a time where political divisiveness is dominating the state and the country. In seeing the statue go up, Young thought of everything that the state has to offer and said that sometimes Alaskans don\u2019t appreciate all of the different aspects of the state.<\/p>\n

\u201cI encourage Alaskans that, before you go to Europe or you go to Hawaii,\u201d Young said, \u201cgo see part of Alaska.\u201d<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

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\u2022 Contact reporter Alex McCarthy at alex.mccarthy@juneauempire.com.<\/b><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

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 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

U.S. Rep. Don Young thinks about William Henry Seward every time he flies over Alaska. Now, he\u2019ll be able to see Seward every time he goes to the Alaska State Capitol. Young was one of six speakers who introduced the long-awaited Seward Statue on Monday. The statue, which depicts the former Secretary of State who […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":428,"featured_media":29425,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_stopmodifiedupdate":false,"_modified_date":"","wds_primary_category":4,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"yst_prominent_words":[],"class_list":["post-29424","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29424","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/428"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=29424"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29424\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/29425"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=29424"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=29424"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=29424"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=29424"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}