About the Author Evan Swensen came to the Territory of Alaska in 1957. He voted for statehood. He has never left, and he has never wanted to. Alaska has been good to him and good for him. He raised nine children here with his wife Margaret, who passed in 2002. He built businesses here-Alaska Outdoors magazine, television and radio programs, and Publication Consultants, a publishing company that has put more than a thousand books into the world. He has written several of his own, including End Property Tax, The Power of Authors (with Lois Swensen), Fishing Alaska, Hiker's Guide to Alaska, and One Last Cast. He flew more than four thousand hours over this land, wheels and floats, watching the terrain he loves pass beneath him. He has fished its waters, walked its trails, and cast his vote in its elections for nearly seven decades. His faith in Jesus Christ has shaped his life and governs his decisions. He has been an active member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints since childhood, serving in many callings over the years. That faith taught him that we are stewards of what we are given-and that we have obligations to those who come after us. He has received every Permanent Fund Dividend ever issued. He believed in the Fund before Zobel, before the first checks went out, before most Alaskans understood what Jay Hammond was trying to build. He believes in it still-not just as policy, but as an expression of something true about this place: that Alaska belongs to Alaskans, and Alaskans should benefit from what is theirs. This book grew from that same conviction: that Alaska's institutions, properly used, can help Alaskans build lives and futures here. People ask him about the cold, the dark, the distance. He tells them: "Once you've been to Alaska, you can never go all the way back home." But for Evan, it's simpler than that. Every time he leaves, he can't wait to get back. There is no other place with the same pull, the same hold, the same feeling of this is where I belong. In 2003, he married Lois Jane Schmitz. Together they watch over 27 grandchildren and 28 great-grandchildren-the next generations of Alaskans. In 2023, Publication Consultants received the Better Business Bureau's Torch Award for Ethics-recognition that how you treat people is the measure of who you are. Evan believes Alaskans deserve the same from their institutions: honest dealing, promises kept, a fair shake for working families. This book is written in that spirit.