Pictures of the Year - 2000

A selection of my favorite photos from the Millennium year.

Copyright © Jim Lavrakas/ Anchorage Daily News

At ground zero on New Years' Eve 2000 workers fire off a barrage of firworks in celebration of the Millinium.
Y2K fireworks 		Author Bill Sherwonit searches for tadpoles at the Airport pond near Anchorage International Airport. The pond is home to a surprising group of creatures for such an urban setting.
Airport pond 		Melinda Sue Graham, left, her son Harold, 13, and Misty Evans, 15, were friends of Alfred O'Brien who died when he stole his guardian's vehicle and crashed it. Even though O'Brien lived with his guardian in a nice home in East Anchorage, he hung out with friends at the Brookside Manor Mobile Home Court.
Alfred's friends 		Icicles from melting ice stranded on Ship Creek frame the Anchorage skyline on a frigid February afternoon.
Anchorage skyline		 Randall Ashby, owner of the historic Copper Center Roadhouse, heads over to his office, converted from the old gas station that stopped pumping gas to locals years ago.
Copper Center garage
Someone placed a makeshift cross at the place where Della Brown's body was found. Brown was one of several Native Alaska women who's murders had remained unsolved.
Della Brown cross 		Anchorage firefighter Scott Anderson watches a demonstration of a new fire resistant paint-like coating at the Anchorage regional fire training center.
Fire demo 		East Anchorage forward Richard Rider crashes into West High goalie Kevin Rogers during an offensive rush in the first period of play at Ben Boeke Ice Arena.
Hockey crash
Howitzer salute		 Mike Huelsman and his Shelty, Lilly, kayak across Westchester Lagoon in Anchorage. Huelsman, who has been kayaking for four years, is getting into shape to be a guide on kayaking tours in Prince William Sound this summer.
Kayaking dog
Kluti-Kaah traditional chief Harry Johns says that as long as Princess Tours hires Native corporation shareholders, he wonÕt object to the building of the new hotel.
Kluti-Kaah chief 		Slitlamp illumination across Andrea Payne's eye helps magnify the eye so the doctor can make markings on the cornea. The needle is used to make a little dimple on the cornea so that he can check for rotation of the eye when the patient lies down.
Laser eye surgery 		Katya Kuznetsova dances with partner Eber Sanchez at Club Soraya. Known at the club as &quotLa Rusa", she has been dancing all her life.
Latino dance 		Dutch Harbor longshoremen, U.S. Coastguardsmen, INS agents and local police officers bring the first cargo container from the Manoa, the one crewmen cut a hole in, into a work area to search it. looking for stowaways, they found only human hair for wigs.
Stowaways?		 Four generations of the Maroudas family pose in Pizza Olympia, the restaurant they have owned and operated for the last 16 years in Spenard. Athina, Georgia, baby Hristos, Dionisios, George, patriarch George, Kyriaki, Christina, and Dimitrios.
Maroudes family
Anchorage fire department rescuers pull Arthur Brown, Jr. of Chugiak up a steep embankment where he was stuck in the mud Wednesday afternoon. Standing on plywood boards and using a pole they placed in front of him, Brown was able to get out of the mud mainly using his own power.
Mud rescue 		Amanda Jolly dances the role of the Queen of Flowers in the &quotNutcracker Sweets". AND/JIM LAVRAKAS 12/10/2000
Nutcracker Sweets 		Marie Meade listens to the sounds of different drums made by her cousin Phillip &quotOssie" Kairaiuak at his crafts booth in the Anchorage Federal Building.
Ossie drum 		Amy Bridges most recent play, &quotThe Inheritance", is currently being performed at UAA's Mainstage theater. The young writer is becoming known for creating risky material.
Playwright 		Sunlight reflecting off the windows of the ARCO tower and the Atwood building in downtown Anchorage projects hologram-like beams through shifting fog.
Skyscraper hologram
Snow that fell on the upper end of Arctic Valley Road outside Anchorage balls up on the skeleton of cow parsnip.
Snow & cow parsnip 		Mayor Rick Mystrom displays a cigar that former Greater Anchorage Area Borough chairman John Asplund put in the Soroptomist time capsule in 1971. The cigar was included as a gift from the borough chairman to whomever opened it. Mystrom smoked it.
Time capsule 		A recreational boat follows the channel markers leading into Iliuliuk Harbor near Unalaska's Church of the Holy Ascension.
Unalaska Cathedral