A sourdough is someone who has weathered some time in Alaska. For example, one’s sourdough status might be 1 year, which means they have survived a single year. The length of time one must live in Alaska to actually be considered a sourdough is debatable. Some argue that becoming a sourdough is more of an existential transformation, waking up one day to the epiphany that you no longer look at the state as a wide eyed tourist but rather as a piece of the landscape, though with no less enthusiasm. (See “my alaska“.)
It is controversial whether a lifelong Alaskan is in fact a sourdough, as one could argue that having been in Alaska their entire life they simply don’t know any better.
alaskan vernacular 
July 4, 2008 at 11:44 pm
As someone who has lived in Alaska for almost 15 years now whose married to a lifelong Alaskan, and seen a lot of people come and go, I would have to say that it is more of an attitude than time lived up here. Your sourdough status is the length of time in Alaska which is different from being a sourdough. If all you do is gripe about how much you hate it here or wish life here was different all the time, then you’ll never be a sourdough no matter how long you’re here. On the other hand, if you have a generally positive attitude and adapt to our way of life (as opposed to trying to change it to fit the standard of where you moved here from) you’re well on your way to becoming a sourdough.
October 12, 2018 at 9:24 pm
[…] harvesters’ fingers and mouths indigo, as they also await their ultimate fate. Alaskan “sourdoughs” gather brilliant autumn fruit from dawn to dusk—packing larders with colorful taste delights […]
May 28, 2020 at 7:25 am
I was always told that you had to live in Alaska twenty years before it was a State in 1958, or born in Alaska before 1958. I was born in 1957 and received 100 acres of land. My dad read it in the paper that I was entitled to it, so he went and got it. I only have an area view of it. Elaine B Seattle