Alaska facts
- Alaska's name comes from the Eskimo word Alakshak meaning “great lands” or “peninsula”.
- Sorry Texas, but Alaska is by far the largest state in the union and is over twice the size of Texas. From north to south Alaska is approximately 1,400 miles long and 2,700 miles wide from west to east.
- Alaska is a geographical marvel. When a scale map of Alaska is superimposed on a map of the 48 lower states, Alaska extends from coast to coast.
- Alaska has the longest coastline of any state. The Alaskan coastline runs for 6,640 miles, more than all the other states' coastlines combined. That’s not including the coastlines of all its islands. Including them, Alaska has 33,904 miles of shoreline.
- Alaska has over 100 volcanoes and volcanic fields which have been active within the last 1.5 million years. Over 40 of these have been active in historic times accounting for about 80% of all active volcanoes in the United States and 8% of all active above-water volcanoes on earth.
- An estimated 100,000 glaciers cover almost five percent, over 25,000 square miles of the state. There are more active glaciers in Alaska than in the rest of the inhabited world.
- In 1867, U.S. Secretary of State William H. Seward offered Russia $7,200,000 for Alaska. That works out to a mere 2 cents per acre. Alaska officially became the property of the United States on October 18, 1867. Seeing the purchase as a foolish move, many Americans derisively referred to it as "Seward's Folly".
- Contrary to popular belief, Alaska is not the least populous state in the union. With a population of over 710,000 people, Alaska ranks 47thahead of North Dakota, Vermont and Wyoming in total population. It does, however, have the lowest population density at 1.2 inhabitants per square mile. Next closest is Wyoming which averages 5.8 inhabitants per square mile.
- The Aurora Borealis, or northern lights as they are commonly called, can be seen an average of 243 days a year in Fairbanks. The northern lights are produced by charged particles from the sun striking the earth's upper atmosphere. These charges particles cause gases in the upper atmosphere to glow much like the gas in florescent lights.
- Barrow, the farthest North American city, has no sunset for about 84 days between May and August as the sun circles above the horizon. This is also known as the midnight sun.
- The trans-Alaska pipeline, completed in 1977, was built to transport oil from the North Slope to the Gulf of Alaska . At roughly $1 billion dollars per 100 miles, it cost of $48 billion to build. It reaches from Prudhoe Bay to Valdez and traverses no less than three mountain ranges - The Brooks Range, Alaska Range and the Chugach Range.
- Mount McKinley rises 20,320 feet above sea level and is the tallest mountain in North America. Its native and preferred name, "Denali", means the "The Great One" which it surely is.
- Juneau, the capital of Alaska, can not be accessed by road from the rest of the state!
- Alaska contains 17 of the 20 highest mountain peaks in the U.S.
- At its closest point, Alaska is less than 3 miles from Russia. If Sarah Palin had built her home on Little Diomede Island she would have been telling the truth about seeing Russia from her home!
- With an area of 3595 square miles, Kodiak Island is the 2nd largest island in the U.S. next to the island of Hawaii at 4021 square miles.
- Alaska is the only state to have coastlines on three different seas, the Arctic Ocean, the Pacific Ocean and the Bering Sea.
- The Alaska flag, eight stars of gold on a field of blue was designed in 1926 by 13-year-old Bennie Benson from Cognac, Alaska. Seven stars form the Big Dipper (Ursa Major) constellation and the eighth is Polaris or the North Star.
- Alaska has six times as many pilots and 16 times as many aircraft per capita as the rest of the country. Lake Hood, in Anchorage, is the world’s busiest seaplane base averaging 800 takeoffs and landings on a peak summer day.
- Alaska has both the easternmost and westernmost points in the United States, sort of! The 180th meridian, the dividing line between east and west longitudes, passes through the Aleutian Islands, part of Alaska. So, if you look at it this way, the westernmost point is Amatignak Island at 179'10” west longitude. The easternmost is Pochnoi Point at 179'46” east longitude.
- More than 1/2 of the world's active glaciers are in Alaska.
- Cheechako, a native word meaning “tenderfoot” or “greenhorn” refers to those with less than one year of residence in Alaska. A "Sourdough" is a long time Alaskan resident.
- The record high temperature in Alaska was 100 degrees Fahrenheit set in 1915 at Fort Yukon. The record low temperature of -80 degrees Fahrenheit was set in 1971 at Prospect Creek Camp.
- The Yukon River is the longest river in Alaska, the fifth largest river in North America and the third largest in the U.S.
- During World War II Japan invaded the Aleutian Islands which started the One Thousand Mile War, the first battle fought on American soil since the Civil War.