ANCHORAGE — Walter J. Hickel never lacked for critics during either of his stints as governor of Alaska. Many took umbrage at his staunchly pro-development views, which he once summarized this way: "Virginity is a good thing, but birth is necessary for progress."
But nobody ever accused Wally Hickel of failing to think big. And even today, at 86, excitedly pacing the floor in his investment-company offices at the Hotel Captain Cook, Hickel predicts that his biggest dream of all will yet come to pass.
"Someday, they'll build it," he says, holding up an old promotional poster for his "Alaska-California Sub-Oceanic Fresh Water Transport System" -- a $150-billion pipeline that would tap the glacier-fed wild rivers of the Last Frontier and deliver the water 2,000 miles to Los Angeles.
"I may be dead by then," adds Hickel, "but they'll build it."
Asked how much Angelenos would have to pay for the water, he replies: "Depends how thirsty they are."
Outlandish, perhaps, though so is another unrealized Hickel brainchild -- a $30-billion, 55-mile rail and highway tunnel under the Bering Strait, connecting Alaska with Siberia.
In this most giant of all the states, with vast natural resources and an edge-of-the-world mentality, Hickel is just one of many Alaskans who dream of carving the landscape or reaping its resources on a fantastic scale.
From its frontier territory days through its admission as a state in 1959 and on to the present, Alaska has attracted, and even elected, the biggest dreamers of all.
It hasn't been a great year for Alaskan schemers, of course: The state's three-person congressional delegation has been widely ridiculed for backing federal projects that critics describe as silly "bridges to nowhere," textbook examples of porkbarrel spending run amok.
And in the 1970s, then-Sen. Mike Gravel (D-Alaska) proposed advancing federal funds to build a huge Teflon dome above the Tokositna River. As he envisioned it, "Denali City" would have contained malls, condos, a golf course, hotels and a conference center, boasting year-round 72-degree temperatures and a stunning view of Mt. McKinley, America's highest peak. (He hasn't gained a lot of traction with another grand scheme: Now 76 and out of office for 25 years, Gravel announced recently that he was running for president.)
Although many Americans look at Alaska and see a magnificent wilderness that should largely be left alone, many Alaskans look at Alaska and see much to be done.
