I recall a period in the seventies when they were absolutely/positively/no-question-about-it going to build a new town called Willow, which I believe was to be north-ish of Anchorage, and move the capital there. Probably what you’re talking about with “voted on and approved”?
Guess it didn’t happen.
Of course, Juneau seems to be the result of the “Just use the territorial capital when you become a state” model. Juneau made sense as a territorial capital because at the time the territory was created, land travel in the Alaska territory was incredibly difficult, and most commerce was by water. Juneau was a larger port than Sitka, which had been the old Russian capital. Anchorage didn’t exist yet.
BTW, Montpelier, Vermont is another of the “centrally located” choices, which may help explain them having the smallest state capital, population < 8000. Admittedly, they don’t have that many places that are larger, but they could have chosen Burlington or Brattleboro. Of course, they could also have gone with the capital from their 14 year “Republic of Vermont” interlude, and wound up with Windsor, which is even smaller.
That’s because the Northern main part of Alaska gets so cold!
Most of the people who went up North were goldseekers, a very transient population.
Most of the permanent population was further South. Alaska was also a huge territory and very remote. At least the Southern strip of the State was closer to British Columbia, where substantial numbers of people lived.
In the old days there were no roads in Alaska so most of the traveling was done by ship. Many people in remote towns had to use small planes before roads were later built in the 70’s.
So we can see it made sense to locate the capital in Juneau at the time.
Lansing, a village of a few dozen people, wasn’t really in the running. According to Lasning political tradition, it got chosen because it was halfway between Ann-Arbour and Marshall, the two main competing interests. You seldom see such a pure example of putting a capitol in the middle of nowhere.
To that, I would add that NYC and Upstate are very different politically. 8 of the 19 million residents live in Upstate, which is essentially an admixture of business-minded conservatism (IBM, Xerox, Kodak, GE, and other powerhouses were founded and headquartered there) and agricultural/rural; Upstaters despse the liberality of NYC liberality. In NYC, people are much more interested in individualism, social-oriented policies. The latter mindset is viewed by Upstaters as a threat to their large business employers (and the cause for the rustbelt that has appeared) and a lack of respect for the fact that Upstate provides most of the critical resources (food, water, electricity) for NYC (there isn’t a single winery - to my knowledge in Manhattan! :eek: ).
Also, since most prisons are Upstate, that’s where criminals (drugs, violence, etc) get shipped up to places like Auburn State Penitentiary. These are predominantly minorities, whose families move up to be near them, bringing NYC-style crime. Quite literally, the bus lines going from NYC to the other major cities are an artery for drugs and violent offenders. 30-40 years ago, most crime Upstate was domestics, DUIs, fights - typical small town stuff. The “Giuliani Fresh Air Program,” as it’s dubbed, has pissed a lot of people off. Once quiet towns have been over-run by ex-cons from places like the Bronx. The traditional Irish and Italian families continue to stream out to other areas.
FWIW, I grew up Upstate, moved to NYC after college and choose to live in neither anymore.
Interesting. Is this a rural conservative vs. urban liberal thing?
I grew up in Kingston so I had to mention up-thread that we were the first capital. But not the best.
But does feature the American Precision Museum! https://www.americanprecision.org/
Maybe it’s to stay out of the hair of some big city mayor? Which brings me to my question: Do “cities” like Albany and Sacramento also have municipal governments?
What do the quotes mean? These are cities.
Just an aside: the old Missouri State Pen in Jeff City now offers tours. They’re awesome and horrifying. My wife and I went there a few years ago. Right at the start of the tour, the guide (a former guard at the prison) spilled a collection of shanks onto a table. “Every one of these,” he said, “killed a man inside these walls.” :eek: It’s a pretty good tour.
:rolleyes::dubious:
Sacramento has a pop of 500,000. And yes, it has a government.
Of course they do. Why wouldn’t they? And what are the scare quotes supposed to mean? That they aren’t real cities?
FTR, Sacramento is the 35th-largest incorporated city, and the 27th-largest metropolitan area, in the country. Most Americans do not live in cities as large as Sacramento.
I grew up in Northeast Connecticut, so picking on Rhode Island is in my blood. 
Wikipedia gave me the address of the Rhode Island State House in Providence.
On Google Maps, it looks like the Watch Hill Yacht Club in Westerly is about as far from there as you can get and still be in Rhode Island (unless you count Block Island).
58.1 miles if you avoid interstates. 50.6 miles if you take I-95.
Barring traffic, there is no place in Rhode Island where you can’t drive to the capitol building in an hour. (Except for the places that aren’t connected to the mainland by bridges. Taking a ferry will slow you down.)
BTW: Westerly is lovely. It was where we’d go when we wanted to visit the ocean.
Perception that they are “(company/garrison) towns” with no real other function? (which as discussed is not necessarily the case and if even it were a one-industry town, it’s still a municipality). Or, that they may not all be incorporated municipalities, depending on each state’s local government laws.
AFAIK nothing prevents a state seat-of-government being placed by the legislature in an unincorporated/unchartered community but then it would still have a real government – that of the county. Like I said earlier no state has a legislative-ruled “capital territory” a-la DC. They don’t need it because municipalities are subordinate to the State but I believe they also could…
(Also, the legal condition of “city” in many states is independent of size. Montpelier, pop. 8000, is a city under Vermont law.)
Yeah, but for a long time the Rhode Island capital rotated between the five county court houses, and was still split between Providence and Newport until the current State House opened in Providence in 1901.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Old_State_House_%28Providence,_Rhode_Island%29
Also, unless there is a second story Roger Williams did indeed row down to Newport when he was about 70 years old, but he stayed there four days debating a group of Quakers before going home.
DC has its own local government too.
Right, it’s still high concentrations of residents needing commercial and governmental services.
Virginia’s capital, Richmond, is a city that is part of no county. Carson City, Nevada is a county that has no city. Juneau, Alaska is a city that is coterminous with its borough (Alaska has no counties).