Alaska’s standard of living fell hard during the Second Great Depression. The influx of American conveniences dried up quickly when the cargo ships missed a few shipments, but the land could provide if you had the skills. Most people did not have those skills. That was especially true in the Juneau Panhandle where government administration was the primary employment opportunity. Learning how to shuffle papers does little to prepare you for the end of modern civilization as we know it. The Second Great Depression was not truly that bad, but for many places it might as well have been. The Juneau Panhandle was one of those places, and it would never be the same afterwards.