Almanac editor to sign books

PALMER — How many people do you know who can say they’re in charge of single-handedly editing an Almanac?

Well, if you know Palmer’s Nancy Gates, editor of “The Alaska Almanac,” that answer is one. And if you don’t know her, now’s your chance. She’s signing books this evening from 4 p.m. to 6 p.m. at Fireside Books as part of Colony Christmas

“I do think it’s a good book,” Gates said.

Of course she’s not an unbiased source, but Gates said she’s more than just the person who updates it every year. There are so many facts in the almanac she isn’t able to keep them all straight in her head.

“I myself have to look at the almanac to come up with facts oftentimes,” Gate said.

The book is alphabetical. Some listings are just a few paragraphs offering a definition of an Alaska word and an explanation of its origins (i.e., “SKOOKUM: Skookum means strong or serviceable …). Others are pages long, like the listing on “History” that begins 11,000 years ago and ends with a 2012 snowfall record and a bear mauling that same year.

“It’s not just a tourism book. It’s something that people should have like the Milepost that’s useful for people here,” she said, citing lists of campgrounds and instructions on getting fishing licenses as items locals might find useful.

As her day job, Gates runs an assisted living home in Palmer. She said she fits in the almanac work in between her assisting living duties over the course of multiple months at the start of each year.

“Every year I think, ‘do I really want to do this again?’ It’s so overwhelming when you’re at the beginning of it,” she said.

But by the time she’s done she said she feels great about the accomplishment.

“I really love it when it’s done and it’s sent off,” Gate said.

And while Gates is the current almanac editor, she’s not the original one. The book was originally written in 1976 by Eric McDowell, who was at the time Southeast Editor for Alaska Magazine and the Milepost. McDowell went on to work as an economic development consultant, founding the McDowell Group.

Gates took over in 2000 and says the majority of the book changes from year to year, even things you wouldn’t think would change.

“Mt McKinley grows or shrinks a little bit from time to time,” she said.

Her facts come from state agencies and local governments, private companies and anyone, really, who is compiling facts about the state. For instance, state economist Neal Fried is a huge source of information.

In fact, she said, besides the height of a mountain changing from year to year, it’s the generosity of her sources that is the most surprising thing she encounters each year when she edits the almanac.

“If we didn’t have people like that working in fact-finding areas of our government, then I don’t know how I’d do it,” Gates said.

Contact Andrew Wellner at 352-2270

or andrew.wellner@frontiersman.com.