Back to Alaska.

• Author: Gardner, Gary Robert
• Position: Business promotion in the state

Nearly 100 years ago, Alaska became a magnet to the world with the discovery of gold in the Klondike. As the 19th century closed out, the lure of Alaska gold drew many people northward, and perhaps did more to settle Alaska than any single event to date. The Gold Rush also is a defining moment in the history of Seattle, and of all the Pacific Northwest, for it was from the Northwest that the bulk of the Klondike rush was supplied, financed and populated.

Now, almost a century later, Alaska is again positioning itself as a magnet to the world under the new "Marketing Alaska Initiative" kicked off by Gov. Tony Knowles during his 1996 State of the State address. This time, however, it is not the lure of gold drawing people north; it is the lure of a state that is making it a primary goal to promote business in Alaska, while still protecting the quality of life that makes doing business there so successful.

In his speech, Knowles proclaimed that "Alaska is open for business." His Marketing Alaska Initiative has three broad goals: investing in Alaska; creating opportunities for Alaskans and their communities; and selling Alaska goods and services to the nation and the world. And the most likely place for new and additional business is the Pacific Northwest, which already has a significant toehold in the Last Frontier.

Indeed, the Marketing Alaska Initiative already has one notable success in luring business from the Northwest back to Alaska. Health Sea Inc., a joint venture owned in part by Kake Fisheries (itself a part of Kake Tribal) based in Juneau, has announced plans to expand its processing operation in Kake. Health Sea's present large-scale operation in Arlington, Wash., north of Everett, processes raw fish into various food products.

Bill Hanson with Health Sea says that the company initially located its primary facility in Arlington because it is difficult - if not impossible - to distribute and ship finished products from Alaska. The company needed the distribution network in the Lower 48 to get its products to market.

However, Hanson notes that although Health Sea still intends to ship and distribute from Washington, it will move more of its production back to Alaska, particularly the "value added" portion of its operation. According to Hanson, Health Sea intends to get much more of its raw fish beyond the cleaned and gutted stage, into a more "semi-finished form" before completing the manufacturing process in Arlington and...