For over 50 years, travelers heading south out of Anchorage towards the Kenai Peninsula have passed a road sign advertising t-shirts, underwear, and other “Hardcore Alaskan Gifts.” Diamond Jim’s Liquor Store is gone, but the sign that remains was the subject of a years-long standoff involving the Federal Highway Administration, the Alaska Department of Transportation, three Alaskan elected officials, and small business owner Mary Lou Redmond. After a devastating earthquake struck Portage, Alaska in 1964, Diamond Jim’s Liquor Store relocated to a spot along the Seward Highway. The land chosen…
