For more than a century, Americans have viewed this great northern land as the nation's last frontier -- both a treasure house of natural resources, and a vast and fragile wilderness.

In 1968, North America's largest oil field was discovered in Prudhoe Bay on Alaska's North Slope. To bring the oil south, engineers were challenged to construct an 800-mile-long pipeline across three mountain ranges, three major earthquake zones, vast expanses of permafrost, and scores of rivers and streams. The pipeline project also had to navigate state and national politics, address land claims of Alaska Natives, twist its way through new environmental regulations, and span competing visions of Alaska and its future.