Editing George Alexander Parks (section)

==Governorship==
While President [[Warren G. Harding]], [[Hubert Work]], and [[Herbert Hoover]] were visiting Alaska, Parks was assigned as a tour guide for the dignitaries.  The group was impressed by their guide's detailed knowledge of the territory.  When President [[Calvin Coolidge]] was later looking for a new territorial governor, Work and Hoover, who by then were both members of the [[Cabinet of the United States|Presidential Cabinet]], recommended Parks.<ref name="real alaskan"/>  Coolidge nominated Parks to be Governor of Alaska Territory on February 14, 1925, and the new governor took his oath of office on June 17, 1925.<ref name="appointment">{{cite news |title=Parks is Nominated Governor of Alaska |page=2 |newspaper=New York Times |date=February 15, 1925  }}</ref><ref name="oath of office">{{cite news |title=New Governor for Alaska |page=2 |newspaper=New York Times |date=June 18, 1925  }}</ref>

Transportation was a major issue for the territory during the Parks administration.  To offset running deficits and reduced federal subsidies, rates for the [[Alaska Railroad]] were raised and a toll was implemented on the [[Richardson Highway]].  One area that saw an improvement however was air travel.  In 1925 funds for landing fields was authorized by the territorial legislature.  Two years later subsidized air travel between the Alaska Railroad and [[Seward Peninsula]] was initiated.  Parks became an avid enthusiast of air travel, using it to inspect much of the territory in May and June 1929.<ref name="McMullin & Walker"/>  The speed and increased mobility even allowed him to attend his niece's graduation in California.<ref name="Flies">{{cite news |title=Governor Flies From Alaska |page=18 |newspaper=San Jose News |date=May 13, 1984 | url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=9VIiAAAAIBAJ&pg=6258,6586195}}</ref>

Much of Parks' term of office was largely uneventful.  Among the issues he dealt with were the reduction in federal funding for the [[United States Geological Survey]] and elimination of the territory's agricultural experimentation stations.<ref name="McMullin & Walker"/>  He also initiated a contest among school children to design a [[Flag of Alaska|territorial flag]].<ref name="Obit">{{cite news |title=George Parks |page=A17 |newspaper=Toledo Blade |date=May 13, 1984 | url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=FQAaAAAAIBAJ&pg=6798,6018334 }}</ref>

Parks was reappointed for a second term by President Hoover on September 27, 1929.
<ref name="reappointment">{{cite news |title=Names Alaska Governor |page=4 |newspaper=New York Times |date=Sep 28, 1929  }}</ref>  He left office on April 19, 1933, following the completion of his term.<ref name="ADNobit"/><ref name="McMullin & Walker"/>