Continuing...like myself, despite being born elsewhere and later moving here, his familial ties to Alaska go back before his birth.  His fellow senator, Ron Rettig, was responsible for bringing attention to the senior Thomas's 1914 visit to Alaska through the bank he ran during the 1970s.  Lowell Thomas went on an adventure with Bobby Sheldon down the Valdez Trail (Richardson Highway) and wrote about it, concluding with the statement "I never believed I would pay anyone $150 for the privilege of pushing an automobile 371 miles across Alaska".