At the recent Alaska Oil and Gas Association conference, Alaska LNG developer 8 Star Alaska Co-President Rex Cannon said he expects there will be a final investment decision on pipeline construction this year. If it’s a “no,” 2025 will simply be another footnote in the saga of the state’s attempts to bring stranded North Slope gas to local and international markets. If it’s a “yes,” then Alaskans should hope that local leaders have learned from past mega projects to ensure that we reap the short and long-term benefits. And if that’s the case—if Alaska can capitalize on both a construction boom for a few years and longer-term revenue from an LNG line to improve the state’s outlook for the next fifty years—then 2025 will instead go down in history as a turning point (or at the very least go down in future letters from the editor).

Those who spend any time with our cover this month will see that we’ve included an LNG line as a notable feature in Alaska’s “future” topography, as well as other favorite “If only…” Alaska projects: a rail connection to Canada, the Susitna-Watana hydroelectric project, and just an endless number of bridges. All the bridges, really.

Choosing projects and details to include on the map (check out the full version of the map—it folds out!—in the Top 49ers Special Section) was a fun exercise, made even more rich by our many recent dives into Alaska Business history. In addition to discussing projects, we had multiple conversations about how controversial some of the depicted projects are. Bristol Bay salmon are valued worldwide—is an Iliamna fish farm a good thing? Drawing more tourists to Alaska creates statewide wealth, but does anyone really want to see an amusement park, much less an East Coast-style boardwalk, at Lake Clark? I hope that our readers see the optimism in this publication’s vision for the future. This map is not an assertion that every development project is actually right for the state; it’s a love-map of just how much potential Alaska holds.

What do Alaskans want our future to look like? Maybe it’s this map, and maybe it’s not. But for the record, I absolutely believe we should aim for reindeer nuggets.