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Flag:Flag of Alaska
* Flag of Alaska
Art:The first official seal for Alaska was created in 1910, replacing one that had been made by the …
* The first official seal for Alaska was created in 1910, replacing one that had been made by the …
Map/Still:Alaska
* Alaska
The state of Alaska took its name from an Aleut word meaning “mainland.” Contributing to the scenic beauty of Alaska are rivers, plains, ice fields, glaciers, and the highest mountains in North America.
Alaska is sometimes called Land of the Midnight Sun. During the summer months, the sun sets very late in the day. In the northernmost regions, the sun does not go below the horizon for almost three months at a time. In the winter, however, daylight is very limited in these areas.
Other popular nicknames for Alaska are Seward's Folly and Seward's Icebox. Alaska was owned by Russia until a man by the name of William H. Seward, who was the U.S. secretary of state in 1867, made a deal in which the United States bought Alaska for 7.2 million dollars. Many Americans at the time thought it was a waste of money to buy what they considered a cold, distant land.
Geography
Map/Still:Alaska features
* Alaska features
Alaska is so large that it increased the area of the United States by a fifth when it became a state in 1959. The state's total area is 591,004 square miles (1,530,700 square kilometers).
Alaska is not connected to the other 48 states of the mainland United States. Instead, the state juts westward from Canada into the Arctic Ocean and the Bering Sea. Southwest of Alaska's mainland stretches the state's long island chain, the Aleutians. To the southeast is a strip of land called the panhandle, which borders British Columbia, Canada. This area contains the small city of Juneau, the state capital.
Alaska can be divided into four natural regions from north to south. The Arctic Slope contains treeless plains known as tundra. It lies north of the Arctic Circle. In this region the summer sun stays above the horizon for as many as 84 days in a row. The Arctic Slope does not get very warm, however, and the soil never thaws deeper than a couple of feet. South of the Arctic Slope is the Rocky Mountain System, which also is north of the Arctic Circle. It contains the Brooks Range, a wilderness of ice and snow. The Interior Plateau has millions of acres of subarctic forests. This region also contains the Yukon River, the largest river in Alaska, which passes through the center of the state. The fourth region is the Pacific Mountain System, which curves around the entire south coast. The central Alaskan part of this system is called the Alaska Range. The highest point in the Alaska Range—and in all of North America—is Mount McKinley, at 20,320 feet (6,194 meters). The Aleutian Islands are also part of this region. They were formed by volcanic eruptions.
Plants and animals
Pine forests cover many of Alaska's highlands and coastal regions. Other trees include spruce, cottonwood, Alaska birch, and larch. Alaska is home to many land animals, including black bears, grizzly bears, polar bears, reindeers, moose, caribou, elks, bison, black-tailed deer, mountain sheep, and mountain goats. Among birds found in Alaska are owls, bald and golden eagles, hawks, and falcons. The state bird is the willow grouse (ptarmigan).
People and culture
The population of Alaska is spread unevenly throughout the state, with some areas containing very few people. A little under half of the state's residents live in and around Anchorage, Alaska's largest city.
As in other states, many of the people in Alaska are descended from Europeans. About 98,000 people are Inuit (Eskimos) or other Native Americans. Many of these Alaskan native peoples have moved to cities, but some still follow a traditional lifestyle of fishing during the summer and hunting and trapping during the winter.
Recreation
Dog mushing (dog sledding) used to be the main form of transportation in the region and is now the state sport. The annual Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race, which runs about 1,100 miles (1,770 kilometers) from Anchorage to Nome, is Alaska's most famous race. Other outdoor activities include sport fishing, skiing, snowmobiling, canoeing, hiking, and biking.
Every year hundreds of thousands of people come to Alaska on cruise ships, tour buses, and airplanes. Residents and visitors alike enjoy the state's great forests, wildlife refuges, national parks, and other areas owned by the federal government. Denali National Park (formerly known as Mount McKinley National Park) and Glacier Bay National Park and Preserve are two of the better-known parks.
Education
Alaska has a system of public schools for all children, including Native Americans. The University of Alaska opened in Fairbanks in 1917. The university also has campuses at Anchorage and Juneau and runs a number of community colleges at other sites.
Economy
The Alaskan economy is based on petroleum (oil), tourism, and fishing. Oil has brought Alaska so much wealth that the state has no income tax. In addition, the state pays each resident an annual dividend check (a share of the money earned from the oil wells). Natural gas is used to meet local energy needs.
Salmon is one of the state's leading products. Other catches include pollock, halibut, herring, Alaskan king crab, Dungeness crab, shrimp, and clams.
Little of the timber in the state has been harvested because of transportation problems (including the large distances involved) and cold weather. In the panhandle, however, the forests are far easier to get into. Some land animals are caught for their fur. Some that are valued include the seal, sea otter, mink, beaver, marten, lynx, land otter, and muskrat.
There is very little manufacturing in the state except for the processing of fish and other food products. The high costs of transportation and labor, as well as the cold climate, are economic challenges.
History
Early years
Alaska was first settled thousands of years ago by hunters and gatherers from Asia. In 1728 a Russian expedition led by the Danish explorer Vitus Bering arrived there, and in 1784 Russia established a permanent settlement and fur-trading post on Kodiak Island.
Alaska and the United States
The United States bought the Alaska region in 1867. Because it was so remote, however, the United States Congress paid little attention to it. No civil government was created until 1884. Gold strikes in the Klondike area of Canada and on the Seward Peninsula brought some temporary interest in the area in the 1890s and early 1900s.
In 1912 Alaska became an official U.S. territory. In 1942, during World War II, the Japanese took over some of the Aleutian Islands. The islands were recaptured by the United States in 1943. Alaska became the 49th state in the Union in 1959. The state is considered to be important to national defense, and the United States has many military installations there.
Disasters
In 1964 a major earthquake damaged much of Anchorage and Kodiak. A tidal wave associated with the earthquake hurt Valdez, which was rebuilt on higher ground.
The discovery in 1969 of oil on Alaska's North Slope greatly changed the state's fortunes. By the late 1970s Valdez, at the southern end of the Trans-Alaska pipeline, had become a boom town. However, disaster struck again in 1989. A supertanker called the Exxon Valdez ran aground, spilling millions of gallons of oil into Prince William Sound. This event polluted a huge section of Alaska's coastline. In the early 21st century, environmental groups, government officials, and business leaders debated whether to open up additional government-owned lands in Alaska to oil exploration. Population (2000 census), 626,932.
