Photo: Statehood Day parade, July 4, 1959

This photograph features Mary Joyce and her sled dog team at the Statehood Day parade on July 4, 1959, when Alaska became the 49th state. Joyce earned her fame in Southeast by driving a dog team from the Taku River to Fairbanks. On Dec. 22, 1935, Joyce hitched five dogs to a sled and headed north with the idea that she would arrive in Fairbanks to attend the fledgling Ice Carnival in early March. After her record-setting journey, Joyce and her dogs returned to the Taku River, where she took up flying and became one of the first female pilots in Juneau.

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