George Alexander Parks - Governorship

Governorship

While President Warren G. Harding, Hubert Work, and Herbert Hoover were visiting Alaska, Parks was assigned as a tour guide for the dignitaries. The group was impressed by their guide's detailed knowledge of the territory. When President Calvin Coolidge was later looking for a new territorial governor, Work and Hoover, who by then were both members of the Presidential Cabinet, recommended Parks. Coolidge nominated Parks to be Governor of Alaska Territory on February 14, 1925 and the new governor took his oath of office on June 17, 1925.

Transportation was a major issue for the territory during the Parks administration. To offset running deficits and reduced federal subsidies, rates for the Alaska Railroad were raised and a toll was implemented on the Richardson Highway. One area that saw an improvement however was air travel. In 1925 funds for landing fields was authorized by the territorial legislature. Two years later subsidized air travel between the Alaska Railroad and Seward Peninsula was initiated. Parks became an avid enthusiast of air travel, using it to inspect much of the territory in May and June 1929. The speed and increased mobility even allowed him to attend his niece's graduation in California.

Much of Parks' term of office was largely uneventful. Among the issues he dealt with were the reduction in federal funding for the United States Geological Survey and elimination of the territory's agricultural experimentation stations. He also initiated a contest among school children to design a territorial flag.

Parks was reappointed for a second term by President Herbert Hoover on September 27, 1929. He left office on April 19, 1933 following the completion of his term.