Anchorage: You'd Think That Captain Cook Had Grown Up Here

Captain Cook serenely surveys Cook Inlet.

Captain James Cook sure got around. He took three international voyages in uncharted waters. Which was tricky, back in the 1700's. For a kid who grew up in a humble British farm family of eight children, and who failed at his first job as grocer's helper, he launched quite a career -- especially for the time. Cook was in the Royal Navy, and spent much of his life at sea. He was the equivalent of an astronaut in his day. He traveled around Cape Horn, and went to New Zealand, and Australia, and Tahiti. He almost got to Antarctica, and went to Easter Island, and New Caledonia, and then back again past Cape Horn. Explorers thought they could rename everything they came across, because they had "discovered" it. So, he gave the Hawaiian Islands their very forgettable English name, "The South Sandwich Islands."

The record of his adventures is harrowing though, and the maps that show his routes are truly remarkable, skirting all the major continents, and then doubling back and doing it all over again. In his voyages, he came up the coast of Alaska, and came by what was to be called "Anchorage."

The statue of the Captain in Anchorage is tucked away, and barely visible to most visitors. Although you can't see it from this picture, in many ways, Anchorage turns its back on its coastal heritage. While you're in much of the city, you'll barely sense that the huge Pacific is right there, running along the edge of the town. This statue of Captain Cook is one of many, all over the world. Some of the statues are quite extreme. For example, in Cairns, Australia, Captain Cook is performing a sort of "Heil Hitler!" salute. The statue in Anchorage is exactly the same as one in Hawaii (Cook was murdered in Hawaii when he antagonized the Natives there.)  It's also identical to one in England.

The list of Captain Cook statues goes on, throughout the world, at practically every point where Cook touched land -- which was just about everywhere. There are hundreds of Captain Cook statues with funny hats, and statues where he's holding a telescope and pointing at nearby land, and statues where he's holding a map... He was a man of many lands (and statues) and Alaska is only one of them.