as part of our year-long 50 capitals tour, the c-span bus recently made the long journey to juneau, alaska, capital of the 49th state. this weekend on c-span, we feature stops across alaska, showing the state's natural beauty, unique history, and literary culture. juneau is the capital city of alaska, located in the panhandle 30,000.opulation of it is the most remote capital city in the country. no roads connecting it to the rest of the state. despite this, it is a popular destination for cruise ships and tourists coming to ride the mount roberts tram and visit the glacier. we continue our special look at alaska with a visit to its capitol building, built in 1931. the alaska state

that startedilding construction in 1929 and was completed in 1931. was originally the federal and territorial building and the transition of alaska to a state. juneau was the designated capital in -- .s the capital of the district the primary industry and alaska at the time was gold-mining, and gold was discovered in juneau in 1880. it was the biggest town in the area, certainly the center of it wasy in the area, so the most important city at the time. the traditional capital, from thena, was in cognac, and it went to -- then congress designated juneau as the capital of the district.

this building was originally constructed for $712,000, about eight dollars per square foot. the total cost, including furnishings, was about $1 million. this is a modest rendition of art deco architecture. it is a masonry building, primarily. brooke, stone, terra-cotta. it was probably originally intended to be a federal building with a territorial component. about three fourths of the building was dedicated to federal offices and agencies, and the other one fourth or one third was dedicated to territorial government. it was more of a federal or territorial building, the type when it was built in 1939 -- a porticostic,

supported by four large marble columns, marble that comes from a mine in southeast alaska. they are about 25 feet high, no mistaking the front entrance of the building. this sounds like a lot, but since the building takes up the entire lot, there's very little like in other capitals. but there are some interesting associations with the capital. one is across the street, in the plaza, the statue of william henry seward. he was the secretary of state for president abraham lincoln. in 1867, he negotiated a treaty with the russian minister to the united states that resulted in transferring russian america at , to the united states,

when it became alaska. -- constructing of a statue of henry seward across the capital, and that is prominent in the foreground of many photographs of the capital today. right now, we are standing in the lobby of the ground floor, a very low ceiling space. not as dynamic as some of the other capitals where you enter and there's a big rotunda, it is a very welcoming place. the lobby is surrounded by the same marble as used in the columns outside, used here in the floor and on the walls. it is another representation of using alaska resources in the construction of the building. we have moved to the chambers for the house of representatives on the east wing, the end of the east wing, the second floor of the capitol building. the is the same location

original house of representatives was housed. at that point, there were only 16 members of the house. today, we have 40. you'll notice one place with large columns in the building, and those are original construction columns, structural loading columns. building columns. it takes more room now for the greater number of legislators. the interesting thing is in 1931, when they first opened here, they didn't have offices, so the legislators work at their desk. the historical photos we have of them during their sessions shows papers all over their desks, and that is not the case today. every legislator has their own office. it was a plane room, plastered ceiling, plastered walls. larger wainscot.

the ceiling has been raised, better lighting. they used to be like small tables that each legislator had, but now it is a significant improvement -- with the house chamber being bigger than the senate chamber, there's also a large dais at the front where the speaker presides. in state studio was adopted the district area. it includes representation of the different industries, including logging, fishing, mining, agriculture. , theifferent populations indigenous population, a considerable one and alaska. about 25%, i think. and they are active in the legislature as well. >> we just moved into the senate chambers. the senate has room for 20

senators. it used to be the territorial .useum on the second floor the second chamber was originally in the southeast corner of the second floor. they moved the senate chambers because there were more senators, and they would not all fit in the small senate chambers. so they created a new room in the west wing of second floor. it is decorated exactly the same as the house chambers, but smaller. it houses 20 senators, as opposed to the house, which fits 40. piece oferesting legislation alaska has is the alaska permanent fund. when oil was discovered and started to be produced from audeau bay, alaska had windfall in revenue. wasof the issues discussed

how we deal with that influx of cash knowing that this is a resource that will eventually run out or be depleted. was set upent fund to handle some of the revenue from the oil industry. spentrpus cannot be without a certain amount of approval from the constituents, but the revenue that spun off of that is available for revenue. right now, i think there's something like $70 billion in that fund. it has a unique feature, which is a permanent fund today and, which every year, residents of the state would be given a dividend check, just like if you were a stockholder. it is based on the revenue produced by the corpus of the permanent fund. it varies from a few hundred dollars up to a couple thousand dollars.

it's very significant. just now, it is being considered that some of that will be used for state operations, because it was always set up as a "rainy day fund," and now that oil revenue is decreasing, the cost of state government has not decreased significantly, and we're looking for new ways to fund. one of the ways is to use some of the revenue from the permanent fund to finance the state government. >> we have moved into the governor's office. it has always been located in this portion of the building, however, it has been totally remodeled from the earlier days. during the recent reconstruction of this building, all of the exterior walls were removed. from this building, you could see directly to the outside. everything has been restored, constructed and restored to the way it was prior to renovation. one of the interesting things is

that during alaska being a district and territory, governors were appointed by the presidents of the united states. prior to statehood, they were elected by constituents. alaska has been fortunate to have distinguished governors. the first governor of the state of alaska served two different ,erms and was from valdez instrumental in helping to draft the state constitution and was an important governor. governor greening was another important governor during territorial days. isska's current governor governor bill walker, independent, who will be seeking a second term this fall. and byron awalker milod --a democrat

-- this building is a good representation of alaska, i think. collegial routinely with membes of the other body and the executive branch. it is a very modest representation that fits with alaska values. they want to get the best for their buck. a good representation of the history of that era, the 1920's, 1930's, a good fit for the alaska capital. announcer: tour staff recently traveled to alaska to learn about the rich history. learn more about alaska and other stops on the tour, at www.c-span.org/citiestour.