Resources for the Bar and the Public

Photo of Original Bare Beer Lunch members Back of picture with names of original Bare Beer Lunch members

Courthouses

– Old Anchorage Courthouse

– Local Bar Petitions for Courthouse, Anchorage Daily Times, Mar. 8, 1917, at 2.

– Bethel Courthouse

– Dillingham Courthouse

– Nesbett Courthouse – Building was completed in early 1996

Pictures of Nesbett Courthouse being constructed

Floating Court

– James H. Chenoweth, The Last Voyage of the Floating Court, 22 (1) Alaska Bar Rag 22 (Jan-Feb 1998)

– James H. Chenoweth, The Last Voyage of the Floating Court: Stebbins to Nome, 22 (2) Alaska Bar Rag 8 (Mar-Apr 1998)

– James H. Chenoweth, Home from the Final Voyage of Alaska’s Floating Court, 22 (3) Alaska Bar Rag 8 (May-Jun 1998)

– Claus-M. Naske, Alaska’s Floating Court, 11 W. Legal Hist. 163 (1998)

– Michael Schwaiger, Salmon, Sage-Brush, and Safaris: Alaska’s Territorial Judicial System and the Adventures of the Floating Court, 1901-1915, 26 Alaska L. Rev. 97 (2009).

– View the last trip of the floating court video here.

Great Alaska Bar Fight

– Pamela Cravez, A Revolt in the Ranks: The Great Alaska Court-Bar Fight, 13 Alaska L. Rev. 1 (1996).

Historians Luncheons

	Historians Luncheon Programs	Main Speakers	Recording
2002 (1st Year)	Constitutional Convention	Judge Seaborn Buckalew, Jack Coghill, Vic Fisher, Maynard Londborg, George Sundborg, Judge Tom Stewart, Convention Secretary, Katie Hurley	Watch the video here.
2003	Creation of State Courts on the Last Frontier	Judge James A. von der Heydt, Judge James M. Fitzgerald, Judge H. Russel Holland, L.S. “Jerry” Kurtz, Jr., Robert C. Ely
2004	Creation of the Bar Association	Judge James M. Fitzgerald, Judge Thomas B. Stewart, Russell E. Arnett, Steve Van Goor, Timothy M. Lynch (moderator)
2005	A Judiciary for Alaska: Celebrating the 50th Anniversary of Alaska’s Consistutional Convention	Justice Warren Matthews, Jack Coghill, Vic Fisher, Katie Hurley, Judge Thomas Stewart, George Sundborg
2006	No lunch program		N/A
2007	History of the Right of Privacy in Alaska	Jeff Feldman
2008	Rough Justice: The Courtroom Battles, Political Wars and Secret World of James Wickersham, the First Judge on the Yukon	Terrence Cole, Dermot Cole, Michael Carey
2009	Alaska Legal History Series 1) Voices that Carried: The Framing of Alaska’s Three Branches 2) A Judiciary for Alaska 3) Early Pioneering Judges of Juneau	Doug Pope (moderator), Joe Josephson, Hon. Karen Hunt, Talis Colberg, Justice Warren Matthews, Chief Justice Walter Carpeneti
2010	Reflections on the Early Years of the Anchorage Association of Women Lawyers	Jessica Carey Graham, Judge Karen Hunt, Judge Elaine Andrews, Linda O’Bannon
2011	Ted Stevens’ Practice in Alaska	Judge H. Russel Holland, Michael Carey, Jack Roderick
2012	Grace Under Fire: When Judges Face Public Pressure (Featuring Oral History Excerpts from Judges of Alaska: Project Jukebox)	Senior Justice Warren Matthews (Ret.), Former Justice Alex Bryner, Judge Beverly Cutler (Ret.), Karen Brewster, Michael Schwaiger
2013	The Legacy of Gideon: 50 Years in the 49th State	Quinlan Steiner, Rich Curtner, Karen Loeffler, and Judge Larry Card (Ret.)
2014	The Bar Rag: 30 Years of Not Taking Ourselves Too Seriously	Meghan Kelly (moderator), Judge Ralph Beistline, Harry Branson, Justice Peter Maassen, and Michael Schneider.
2015	The Lost Alaskans: Morningside Hospital & Mental Health in Territorial Alaska	Retired Superior Court Judge Neisje Steinkruger
2016	Ethics and Injustice: The Last Hangings in Territorial Alaska	Averil Lerman
2017	Raising the Bar: The Fairer Sex Practices Law in Early Alaska	Barbara Hood & Marilyn May	Watch the video here.
2018	Breaking the Liquor Curse: When Alaska Went “Bone Dry” – 1918-1933	Beverly Beeton, Ph. D, Barbara Hood, J.D.
2019	Watching the Watchmen: Independence, the Indigent, and the Public Defender Agency at Fifty	Dana Fabe, Barbara Brink, Quinlan Steiner, David Carroll, Victor Carlson, Susan Orlansky	Watch the video here.
2020	Centennial of the Nineteenth Amendment: Why Doubling the Size of the Electorate to Include Women Mattered	Judge Morgan Christen (moderator) Jane Angvik, Elizabeth Hensley, Elizabeth Hodes, Kimberly Pace, and Renee Wardlaw	Watch the video here.
2021	The 50th Anniversary of the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act	Dr. Emil Notti	Watch the video here.
2022	Unconventional Questions: The Hows, Whys, and Why Nots of a Constitutional Convention	Bruce Botelho	Watch the video here.
2023	A Fairbanks Murder Mystery Ted Stevens, Johnny Warren and the Unsolved Murder of Cecil Wells	James T. Bartlett	Watch the video here.

History of Alaska Federal & State Courts

– Russ Arnett, Formation of the Alaska Court System, 2 (8) Alaska Bar Rag 5 (1979)

– Mildred R. Hermann, Building a State Judiciary, 39 Neb. L. Rev. 265 (1960)

– Claus-M. Naske, Alaska Court System and University of Alaska, A History of the Alaska Federal District Court System, 1884-1959, and the Creation of the State Court System (1985).

– Claus-M. Naske, The Shaky Beginnings of Alaska’s Judicial System, 1 W. Legal Hist. 163 (1988)

History of the Attorney General's Office

– Stephen M. Haycox, The Law of the Land: A History of the Office of the Attorney General and the Department of Law in Alaska (1998).

Judge Nora Guinn

– Clip of Judge Nora Guinn’s first proceeding as Bethel District Judge on April 1, 1968

– Clip of Judge Nora Guinn proceeding on April 19, 1968

Judge Von der Heydt

Judge Von der Heydt in chambers

Picture of Judge Von der Heydt

Michael Carey is an Alaska journalist. For 16 years he wrote editorials and columns for the Anchorage Daily News. He continues to write columns for the ADN. For more than a decade, he was the host of Alaska Edition, a news analysis show, and Running, a candidate interview show, on Alaska Public Broadcasting. He presents an occasional series of luncheon programs sponsored by the Historians Committee on subjects related to Alaska legal history.

Date	Topic	Recording
3/1/2005	The Rise and Fall of Maurice Johnson: Attorney, Founding Father of Alaska, and Thief
9/13/2005	The Great White Slavery Trial
5/10/2006	Annals of the Law: Fairbanks Lawyer Tom Marquam & His Creative Camera
1/11/2007	Prelude to the Presidency – Bunnell
4/5/2007	The Best-Looking Guy Who Ever Hit Fairbanks: Bank Robber Dick Woodring and the Law
1/17/2008	Cleaning Up Fairbanks: The War on Crime and Vice in the 1950s
8/14/2008	The Election of 1958: Alaska Lawyers and the First State Election
1/21/2009	Dr. Joseph Weyerhorst Has His Day In Court – And Then Another And Another
5/19/2009	Regulating Morals in Territorial Alaska
9/28/2010	The Disappearance of Charles Thompson and the Legal Complications
11/30/2010	1953 Murder of Cecil Wells
5/24/2011	Alaska and Divorce: The Territorial Period	Audio unavailable
1/10/2012	Everett Hepp, Fairbanks Attorney at Law
3/27/2012	Leroy Tozier, Attorney at Law
7/10/2012	Fairbanks Militiamen on Trial
4/23/2013	Homicide, Insanity, Polygamy and the Law in Fifties Fairbanks
1/28/2014	Dentistry on Trial: The Case of Dr. Smith
7/15/2014	The Right to a Public Trial, US v. Tanksley
1/8/2015	Judge Vernon D. Forbes, Fairbanks’ Last Territorial Federal Judge
9/17/2015	Death Arrived at Day Break: Regina Bowker and the Law
9/20/2016	Three Judges In Early Alaska: Their Intertwined Stories.
8/31/2017	John Noonan: Lawyer, Professor, Judge, and Scholar and his vision of the Law