Former Rep. Peggy Wilson bears a pair of license plates which she helped to reintroduce last year. The grizzly bear plates were recently named the best in the nation by the Automobile License Plate Collectors Association, whose connoisseurs annually pick out the most eye-catching plates.
Wrangell resident and former legislator Peggy Wilson last month learned the license plate she had shepherded through was named as the country's best for 2015 by the Automobile License Plate Collectors Association.
The design consists of a standing grizzly bear in the plate's center, and is modeled after the 1976 bicentennial design, which had been discontinued in the late 1970s. It was added as an alternative to the state's plain blue-on-gold standard issue.
During her time as the Majority Whip in 2014, Wilson sponsored House Bill 293 to bring back the bicentennial bear design. The rereleased plates were made available to the driving public in May 2015. An online poll conducted at the time featured bears in other poses and with different backgrounds, but the bicentennial bear won out among respondents.
"It was kind of exciting for me to learn that this one won," Wilson said. "It gave me a warm feeling that our plate in Alaska got chosen, and that I had a little part in it."
On its website, ALPCA indicated Alaska's grizzly plate received 34 percent of votes cast. The last time an Alaska design won Best Plate was in 1998, with its special centennial design highlighting the Gold Rush. Founded in 1954, the association is the largest for license plate collectors in the world, with 2,638 members from all 50 states and 19 countries.
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