Category: Education

Source: United States Senator for Alaska Dan Sullivan

07.21.25

WASHINGTON—U.S. Senator Dan Sullivan (R-Alaska) recognized longtime Fairbanks resident and tourism pioneer Mary Binkley on the Senate floor last week. For 75 years, Mary has been a central figure in Alaska’s visitor industry, co-founding the iconic Riverboat Discovery and helping to showcase the culture, history, and beauty of Interior Alaska to generations of travelers. She was recognized as part of Sen. Sullivan’s series, “Alaskan of the Week.”

Click here or the image above to watch Sen. Sullivan’s remarks.

Tribute to Mary Binkley

Mr. President, what I really want to do is do something that I think is probably the best highlight of Thursday speeches in the Senate—I think the pages all certainly agree; they are all nodding—for the people watching across America. It is the “Alaskan of the Week.” This is a great tradition. I have been doing it for many, many years. I try to get down here on the Senate floor on Thursday, wrapping up—not every week but a lot of weeks. And I like to talk about an Alaskan who is doing something really important for our State, community, maybe the country, maybe the world, and then talk a little bit about what is going on back home. So I am going to do that.

But we also had another neat tradition today here in the Senate: our Thursday lunch group in the Senate on the Republican side. One Senator hosts lunch for his or her colleagues and talks a little bit about their home State. Today was my opportunity to host. I am not bragging, but I do think when Senator Murkowski and I—and by the way, Senator Collins, with Maine lobster—but when Senator Murkowski and I host, we have good attendance because we have great seafood: fresh halibut, fresh salmon. We did that. I did that again today. It was great. The whole room was decorated with Alaskan perfect peonies. We have great peonies in Alaska too—holy cow. So this is a perfect time for the “Alaskan of the Week.”

First, I want to give a little snapshot of what is going on back home, what life is like in Alaska right now. The midnight sun is out. A few weeks ago, I was in Fairbanks, the home of Mary Binkley, who is our Alaskan of the Week—we are going to talk a lot about Mary—and we had our famous Midnight Sun Baseball Game. Thousands of baseball fans across the world, literally, come to see this game, which started in 1906. Some minors, some military guys came together for a baseball game in 1906. It is going strong more than 100 years later.

This year, the Fairbanks Goldpanners played the Glacier Pilots, an Anchorage baseball team that is part of the Alaska Baseball Summer League. Now, this is one of the premier collegiate summer baseball leagues in the country. It is something a lot of people don’t know about. I was talking a little bit about it at our lunch today. Great college players come to Alaska to play baseball under the midnight sun, and so many of them have gone on to do great things. So many of them have not only gone on to the majors; so many of them have gone on to the Baseball Hall of Fame and have been some of America’s greatest players. Think about it. All these guys came up to Alaska to play summer baseball: Mark McGwire, Barry Bonds, Tom Seaver, Dave Winfield, Randy Johnson, Andy Messersmith. This is hall-of-fame baseball. And we get that in Alaska. It is really a great league. So if you are a baseball fan, make sure you come up to Fairbanks for next year’s game.

We were also in Fairbanks a couple of weeks ago, and I had the opportunity to run the Midnight Sun Run 10K. It is a great run—again, people from all over the world. We had 4,000 runners this year. I do it every year. I am definitely getting slower, but it is one fun 10K. It is great. So come on up if you are a racer. You will love that one too.

So while you are in Fairbanks, if you come up for a game or the 10K, make sure you get out on Fairbanks’ beautiful rivers, the lifeblood of the community. When you do so, on a sunny summer day on the Chena River or the Tanana, chances are you will spot a vintage-style sternwheel paddleboat belonging to Riverboat Discovery gliding along the channel, carrying passengers through one of the most scenic river routes in Alaska—really, in the world. If you are one of those lucky passengers, there is a good chance you will catch sight of a familiar figure waving from the shore, and that is 99-year-old Mary Binkley, cofounder of Riverboat Discovery and our Alaskan of the Week.

So let’s dive into the Alaska institution that is Riverboat Discovery. This year, we will celebrate—the Binkley family will celebrate—the 75th anniversary of this incredible institution. Now, it is made up of three iconic paddleboats: Discovery I, Discovery II, and Discovery III. Riverboat Discovery shows off the best of Alaska’s interior landscape, including a bush plane demonstration, a visit to a recreated Athabascan Native village, and learning about traditional subsistence lifestyles. For tourists, it is a 3-hour snapshot of Alaskan history. For locals, it is a beloved institution and a summer job for many young Fairbanksans, including my sister-in-law Janine, who many, many years ago worked for Riverboat Discovery.

While Riverboat Discovery preserves the history of the interior, the Binkley family, who has owned and operated Riverboat Discovery for 75 years, has its own great history of Alaskan grit and innovation and hospitality and generosity. The center of that history and that great family, the Binkleys, is Mary Binkley, our Alaskan of the Week.

She was born in Vernonia, OR, in 1926—the youngest of six children. You know that is a tough time in our country’s history. Mary’s story began in hardship. Her mother passed away soon after her birth. Her father, a logger, couldn’t raise the children alone. Her siblings were scattered, but they were bonded for life.

Her brothers, who went on to become fishermen off the coast of rugged Kodiak, AK—rugged but beautiful Kodiak, AK—wanted something for their baby sister Mary. They scraped together a college scholarship fund, determined that Mary would be the first in the family to attend college. Isn’t that great—brothers taking care of the little sister?

So Mary, from Oregon, journeyed north to the University of Alaska Fairbanks, where she had a cousin who was a professor there. It was at UAF, as we call it in Alaska, that she met a young, handsome riverboat captain named Jim Binkley, a third-generation steamboater from Wrangell, AK. They married back in Mary’s home State of Oregon in 1946 but quickly returned to Fairbanks that same year.

With nothing more than a $4,000 loan and a dream, Jim and Mary purchased their first vessel, the Godspeed, and began a river cruise business that would become synonymous with Fairbanks tourism and the interior Alaska river culture. Mary greeted every guest personally, often serving as a tour guide, a deckhand, and a hospitality manager all in one. To her, they weren’t just tourists; they were her guests.

She worked alongside her husband Jim, the captain. And the popularity in Alaska—in America—of this riverboat cruise on one of Fairbanks’ great rivers grew and kept growing. By 1955, the Godspeed could no longer keep up with the demand, so Jim built the Discovery I in his backyard with Mary by his side. Jim called her his “lifeline and anchor.”

Mary did it all: first mate, deckhand, ticket taker, mother of four kids—who, by the way, have grown up to be pillars of the Alaska community in so many ways. I could do whole speeches on the Binkley kids. Later, she was a grandmother while watching three generations of Binkleys get involved in this great family business. And they have expanded into other things really important to Alaska. Taking tickets with Mary remains a rite of passage for Binkley grandchildren to this day.

As the tour company expanded, Mary remained its heart—greeting travelers on the riverbanks, hiring Alaska Native guides to share their knowledge and traditions of Native Athabascan life during Chena Village visits, and helping to craft that Alaskan hospitality that guests feel to this day. “My grandma has the ability to make meaningful connections with perfect strangers,” her granddaughter Kai recently said. “She treats them less like tourists and more like family.” That is Mary. Everybody who meets her thinks she is incredible.

So this fleet, the Binkley fleet, would grow and continue to grow to Discovery II, launched in 1971, which was a converted freighter; then Discovery III, in 1987, a grand, 900-passenger vessel, launched fittingly on the Fourth of July in Fairbanks. That day, as the boat pulled away from the dock, generations of Binkleys waved from the deck. Waving from the shore was Mary, and she still is waving from that same Fairbanks riverbank at 99 years young.

So what began in 1950 as a modest river tour on a converted missionary boat has grown into the cornerstone of Fairbanks’ tourism economy, and Mary has been at the center of it all—welcoming guests, sharing the experience, and setting a tone of genuine hospitality that endures to this day. At 99 years young, Mary is still part of the fabric of the business, waving from the riverbank as Discovery III rounds the river bend.

This weekend, the Binkley family will gather together to celebrate 75 years of operation but, more importantly, 75 years of a family legacy with Mary at the front and center. More than 500 family members and friends and guests from across America and from across Alaska will join Mary at Steamboat Landing this Saturday for a nighttime cruise on the Discovery III, which will be a fitting celebration for this incredible woman and incredible family behind an Alaskan institution.

So congratulations, Riverboat Discovery, to 75 years. And to Mary: Congratulations on one of the most prestigious awards you can ever receive—the Alaskan of the Week from the U.S. Senate.