Bridges to Statehood, the Alaska-Yugoslav Connection

Celebrating Alaska’s 50-year statehood anniversary, Bridges to Statehood features the last territorial governor, Mike Stepovich.
Over the Chilkoot Trail’s icy steps, these immigrants came—Stepovich, Butrovich, Dapcevich, Begich, Paskvan, and Peratrovich—to guide Alaska from a raw land to statehood, from southeast to the arctic, from gold camps to the forty-ninth star! Names so Alaskan that their Slavic stories went untold, they represented the world’s former empires and today’s Balkan states and shaped all of Alaska. 395 pages with maps, timeline, and historic photos on every page. Bridges to Statehood features not only the last territorial governor Mike Stepovich but also the longest serving territorial and state senator John Butrovich, including as well, Balkan pioneers and European Jews throughout all of Alaska. Bridges to Statehood is Alaska, from mining to fishing, from fur to bars, from retail to sports, from aviation to politics. Bridges includes the building of the Alaska Highway, bringing communication to the Great Land, and the Alaska state constitutional convention.
This is the Great Land, told by the talented immigrants who shaped Alaska. Two books in one, Bridges concludes with a short international story of former Yugoslavia through the Hajdukovichs, Stepovichs, Mellicks as well as Ferguson's friends, portraiting the evolution of "the Balkan powder keg," told firsthand by those who lived it. Finally Ferguson brings the story back to Alaska with Nedjo Spaic of Palmer, Alaska; Bridges is a global personal story of Alaska and the Balkans.

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