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UAF marks centennial of Wickersham's bold cornerstone bluff

On July 4, 1915, no buildings could be found amid the birch and aspen trees covering the home of the Alaska Agricultural College and School of Mines.

The college had no class schedule, no students, no employees and no budget. The one thing it had, however, as of that day, was a 24-cubic-foot cornerstone.

This was no chicken-or-egg situation. The cornerstone came first, at a time when the college didn't exist, even on paper.

But it already lived in the imagination of James Wickersham, the Alaska delegate to Congress who dedicated a 3,600-pound cornerstone that day to give substance to his college dream.

On Monday, hundreds of people gathered at the University of Alaska Fairbanks to commemorate the centennial of Wickersham's bold publicity stunt, with reflections on the past and future of higher education in Alaska.

Wickersham, who had long since earned the nickname "Fighting Jim," pushed Congress to approve a bill earlier in 1915 giving the Alaska Territorial Legislature the option of accepting lands and starting the school. The Legislature had yet to approve the college and wouldn't do so for two more years, but Wickersham paid no heed.

He said he would bluff and pretend the college, later to become the University of Alaska, was a going concern. This is how the cornerstone became a reality before the college.

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"It must not be allowed to stop. The interest of the people must not be permitted to lag," he wrote of his plan for an official-looking stone. Reluctant legislators would find it hard to argue the point if the college had moved close enough to reality to warrant a concrete cornerstone that looked real.

"So I am pushing forward the organization, though without authority of law, just 'in the name of the great Jehovah and the Continental Congress,' " he wrote in his diary, echoing words that Ethan Allen was supposed to have uttered when the British questioned his right to demand a surrender at Fort Ticonderoga in 1775.

Wickersham did not surrender. In 1917, the Legislature approved creation of the college by a one-vote margin, over the objections of those who said the institution should be closer to the new town of Anchorage. The college didn't open until 1922.

In advance of his cornerstone ceremony, Wickersham said, he didn't get much assistance, "but it is because, I suppose, I am doing it without asking much assistance."

When volunteers removed the wooden frame from the freshly poured concrete, some of the letters in the word "cornerstone" crumbled, leading Wickersham to cover the rest of the word with concrete.

No matter, he said.

"If they're smart enough to come to college, they'll know that this is a cornerstone," Wickersham said, according to a UA history by the late Bill Cashen.

With "cornerstone" gone, all that remained on the stone was this:

A.A.C-S.M.

July 4, 1915

L.D. 5915

The bottom line represents the Masonic calendar, in which 4,000 years is added to the date.

Those who gathered Monday at UAF, on a sweltering, smoke-free afternoon, could see that time has taken a toll on the monument, which never became part of a building because it was deemed too close to the side of the hill.

The block, 3 feet by 4 feet by 2 feet, has been repaired and patched over the years and spent recent years in storage because of construction on the engineering building.

Wickersham's decision to dedicate a cornerstone represents, as much as anything, an attitude about faith in the future, despite the obstacles of the moment.

There may be lessons in this episode for Alaskans today, especially given the uncertain funding future with the collapse in oil prices.

That was not lost on the many speakers during the two-part ceremony that also took note of the centennial of the meetings of tribal chiefs from Interior Alaska with Wickersham and other government officials on July 5-6, 2015.

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The day began with a ceremony on the upper campus, designated by the university as the site of the proposed Troth Yeddha' park and indigenous studies center. A $25 million campaign has started, with nearly a quarter-million raised to date.

A century ago, Native leaders talked with Wickersham and other federal officials about health, land, jobs and education, Tanana Chiefs Conference president Victor Joseph told 300 or so people who gathered in late morning in the open space between the University of Alaska Museum and the Reichardt Building.

He said the event offered a chance to review the past, look ahead and ask the question, "What will our people be saying 100 years from now?"

Joseph said Native Alaskans "celebrate UAF's commitment to Native education" and plans for a new studies center.

He said it could become the "bridge between the tribes and the university system" and a way to gain greater understanding of the challenges ahead.

After the participants walked to the lower campus at noon, UAF Chancellor Brian Rogers spoke of how the university today is part of the foundation of Fairbanks and the state.

"The cornerstone represents hopes. It reminds us of the audacity and fortitude of the people who started this university 100 years ago, dreaming one day that their children, their children's children, would have a place where free-thinking, exploration and inquiry would enrich their lives," he said. "So may this cornerstone also represent our commitment to those ideals as the university enters its second century."

Dermot Cole

Former ADN columnist Dermot Cole is a longtime reporter, editor and author.

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