Whitby In Yorkshire With Anchorage Alaska

Introduction

While I was walking in Pannett Park, I noticed the lamp post above and found it was presented to Whitby from its sister city, Anchorage, in Alaska. Below is the plaque, and then I remember the statue of Captain Cook on West Cliff that has a similar inscription, but I don't have a personal picture of this. I found this:

This is taken from the above site

Whitby is predominantly linked to Anchorage by Captain James Cook, one of the most significant surveyors, sailors, and explorers of all time. Cook's third voyage (1776-1779) resulted in the navigation of coastal Alaska.

Today identical statues of Cook stand in both Whitby and in Anchorage to commemorate his nautical accomplishments. Captain Cook's legacy remained active in these sister cities and was the reason for its sister city relationship to be formally established.

Anchorage and Whitby formally became Sister Cities upon the 200th anniversary of Cook's third voyage and entry into Cook Inlet. British Petroleum (BP) gifted Anchorage a replica of the Cook statue in Whitby to be erected as part of their Bicentennial Celebrations in 1976 with Sister City formalities following in 1978. This statue can be found in Resolution Park here in Anchorage. The two cities celebrated the 40th anniversary of their Sister Cities relationship in 2018. ​

This is the Whitby Town Council site page for its relationship with Anchorage. Below are some of my Captain Cook photographs.

From the Whitby Council page above

In 1975 Whitby Council received a letter from BP explaining that the State of Alaska had asked for help in obtaining a full-size reproduction of the statue of Captain James Cook which stands in Whitby – to be erected as part of their Bicentennial Celebrations in 1976. This done, the statue now stands in the Cook Memorial Park near the Captain Cook hotel in Anchorage.

Soon after, an invitation addressed to the Whitby Town Mayor arrived asking the Mayor to attend the 200th Anniversary of Cook's voyage which was to discover Cook Inlet. The Mayor was unable to attend but an invitation was issued by Anchorage to become a 'Sister City'. The twinning became official on 1 June 1978.

It is thanks to the members of the Anchorage Sister Cities Commission, that Whitby has a replacement Whale Bone Arch situated on the West Cliff overlooking the harbour. Members of the sister Cities Commission learned that Whitby's original whale bone arch was in a serious condition and would need to be removed, they worked tirelessly in sourcing, cleaning and transporting the present whale jaw bones which were unveiled in April 2003 by the Mayor of Anchorage.

Conclusion

I know most of these are not my words, but it is a good way of gathering together bits about the relationship between Whitby and nchorage and thanks to my walk in Pannett Park at the weekend I was reminded of that.

Here are two more pieces on my visit to the park.

This has a Pannett Park video

Thank you for reading. I hope you found it interesting.

The music is "Alaska" by Maggie Rogers.

I wanted to use "Anchorage" by Michelle Shocked, but she has become a not forthcoming person and virtually none of her work is even available apart from via her website.