General Manager Jason Martin crashed his way into my office about a fortnight ago, frothing at the mouth and waving a sheaf of printed spreadsheets. “Anderson!” he spluttered, slamming his hammy fists on my desk, knocking pens and crusty coffee cups onto the floor. “What in tarnation is going on here?”

Wiping some spittle off my face, I took a quick peek at the papers still crushed in his grasp, praying to catch a glance of a word or a number I could extrapolate into an answer that might send him packing. “Top 49ers” and “1998” flashed in my view, and I quickly stifled a sigh of relief. “Of course, Mr. Martin,” I said, sweet as grandma’s cookies. “That’s historic Top 49ers data.”

“Obviously!” he bellowed, turning red in the face and testing the tensile strength of his necktie. “Why’s it in the vault?”

Well, because you put it in the vault, I thought. “I have no idea, sir,” I said.

“Use it!” he choked out, throwing the pages in my face and lumbering away from my desk.

So, here’s some historic Top 49ers data.

Today gathering information from the Top 49ers is a huge undertaking on the part of our Customer Service Representative (and survey extraordinaire) Emily Olsen, who manages our primarily online data collection; but in 1991 then-Assistant Editor Clifford Gerhart “tracked new leads and formerly listed companies via mail, telephone, and fax, as well as through independent research,” according to Griffin.

Starting with the first directory, the information published included the company name, headquarters city, revenue, number of Alaska employees, subsidiaries, and business activities, and in 1985 we also ranked the Top 49ers by Alaska employees. In that very first edition, the number one spot was filled by Carr-Gottstein Co., which reported revenue of $355 million and 2,250 employees, also making it the company with the largest number of employees. As a comparison, that same year the forty-ninth Top 49er was Alaska United Drilling, which reported $22 million in revenue and listed 134 employees. In 1985, 16 percent of the Top 49ers were Alaska Native Corporations, and at the time they were all regional corporations. Highest on the list was Sealaska, which landed in the number 2 spot that year. In total in our first year, the Top 49ers reported revenue of nearly $3 billion and 18,999 Alaska employees.

Since 1985, Alaska Business has featured 201 unique Top 49ers.

UCM has moved up and down the rankings throughout the years, hitting its top rank in 1989 at number 18; however, the company’s highest reported revenue was $112 million in 2013. In a 1996 profile about UMC, freelance writer Julie Stricker reported that production at the time was 1.5 million tons per year. Last year UCM celebrated its 75th anniversary, stating “Much has changed over the decades, but the pioneering spirit of Emil Usibelli [UCM’s founder] still guides the company today. We look forward to producing affordable energy, while protecting the quality of environment, for many decades to come.”

ASRC originally landed in the Top 49ers at rank 13 in 1985, reporting just under $55 million in revenue and a total of 400 employees. ASRC moved steadily up the ranks year over year until 1995, when it hit the number 1 slot—from which it hasn’t moved—reporting $466 million. That was an 83 percent jump from 1994, when the company was ranked number 2 and reported $255 million in revenue. In a 2000 profile on ASRC, then-President Jacob Adams pledged that ASRC would reach $1 billion in sales by the end of the year, and sure enough in 2001 the company reported just more than $1 billion in revenue in 2000.

Many other companies have made a splash on the Top 49ers list, though for some it was a relatively short lived stay. Twenty-six Top 49ers made one appearance in the rankings without a repeat performance, including several from the original list: Alaska Commercial Co., Alaska Pacific Bancorp, D&A Supermarkets, Lease Kissee Construction Co., Wein Air Alaska, and Yukon Office Supply. The 1985 introduction to the special section notes that Alaska Pacific Bancorp, Yukon Office Supply, and Wein Air Alaska were all acquired by outside companies in 1995, making them ineligible for later rankings.

Other notable one-time Top 49ers are Brice Inc. in 1991, Allen & Peterson in 2000, The Alaska Club in 2002, Denali State Bank in 2004, Fairbanks Memorial Hospital in 2006, and PND in 2016. (There are three newcomers in 2019 that technically fit this bill, but we expect to see more of them in the future, so we anticipate they won’t fit these criteria for long.)

The historic Top 49er that’s been operating in Alaska the longest is Alaska Electric Light & Power, which serves approximately 17,500 people in Juneau; the utility (today ineligible as it’s owned by Lower 48-based Avista) was established in Alaska in 1893 and was listed as a Top 49er in 1987 and 1988.

While most long-term Top 49ers move up and down in the rankings, several made huge leaps up the list. Harbor Enterprises, Klukwan, and Chugach Alaska all jumped up 22 spots in the ranks in 1987, 1987, and 1988, respectively. But in 2011 CIRI jumped 24 spots; in 2009 Cape Fox Corporation jumped 27 spots; and in 2000 Unit Company jumped an amazing 28 spots up the list. In 1999 Unit Company reported $16 million in revenue and ranked number 48, but in 2000 the company’s revenue grew by 236 percent to $54 million and the company ranked at number 20.

Afognak Native Corporation is also unique; premiering in 2006, Afognak reported $522 million in revenue and snagged the number 7 spot on the list in its first year as a Top 49er, making it the corporation that debuted with the highest revenue on a Top 49ers list.

Alaska Native corporations have always comprised a significant portion of the Top 49ers rankings; as mentioned, in 1985, 16 percent of the Top 49ers were Alaska Native corporations, all regional corporations. The first village corporation made the list the next year in 1986, with Klukwan, the village corporation for Haines, joining the ranks at number 32 with reported revenue of $28 million. In 1988, Ukpeaġvik Iñupiat Corporation, the village corporation for Utqiaġvik, reported revenue of just under $26 million landing it at number 31. But the next village corporation didn’t join the Top 49ers list until eight years later in 1996, when Goldbelt, an urban corporation based in Juneau, came onto the scene at number 35 with $25 million in revenue.

Alaska Native corporation participation has continued to rise over the years. In 1990 the number of Native corporations was 20 percent of the total list; 20 percent in 1995; 20 percent in 2000; 31 percent in 2005; 45 percent in 2010; 40 percent in 2015; and almost 50 percent this year. All twelve of the regional corporations have been Top 49ers since 2009 when Bering Straits Native Corporation joined the list, and more and more village corporations are making their way into the ranks year after year. It’s an amazing boon to Alaska, as these corporations are passionate about building economic opportunities throughout the state.

In October 2007, the late Vern McCorkle wrote a Letter from the Publisher in which he said: “It is often easier to make a profit (frequently a one-shot deal) than earn a profit, which requires ethical integrity and top-rate goods and services for established clients and customers over a period of time… Making a profit at any cost, costs too much… If there ever was a time when businessmen and women needed to step up to the plate, as people often say, and make a difference for Alaska, this is surely that time.”

There are, shockingly, still some numbers in our Top 49ers data vault that haven’t made it onto this page [General Manager’s Note: Pathetic! Get them all on here, ASAP, Anderson!], but those that are represented paint a clear picture of Alaska’s homegrown companies that are meeting McCorkle’s expectations, working their capes off with courage and integrity to earn the revenue that creates jobs, pays benefits to employees, and builds communities.