Joe L. Hayes

His uncle, Herman Cotter, worked throughout the Territory of Alaska during World War II and convinced the Hayes family to accompany him and his family in their move to Alaska.

Making the trip in June 1946, they were among the first civilians to travel the Alaska Highway.

In 1981 and 1983, Hayes served as speaker of the house, gaining the office as a result of a leadership coup in which dissident Democrats formed a coalition with members of all three parties (which included two Libertarians), deposing the Democratic House leadership and incumbent speaker Jim Duncan.

He spent nearly a million dollars of his own money but fared little well in the crowded field, gaining 5.3 percent of the vote among fourteen candidates in the blanket primary and coming in a distant fourth among Republicans, behind Arliss Sturgulewski, Wally Hickel and Dick Randolph.

He reunited with his cousin in June 2016 in Anchorage to recall his trip up the Alaska Highway; the two were the only surviving members of that party at the time.