Alaska
Largest state of the USA, on the northwest extremity of North America,
separated from the lower 48 states by British Columbia; nicknamed Last
Frontier; territories include the Aleutian Islands
Total area:
1,530,700 sq km/591,004 sq mi
Land area:
1,478,457 sq km/570,833 sq mi
Capital:
Juneau
Towns and cities: Anchorage, Fairbanks, Fort Yukon, Holy Cross, Nome
Physical:
Much of Alaska is mountainous and includes Mount McKinley (Denali),
6,194 m/20,322 ft, the highest peak in North America, surrounded by
Denali National Park. Caribou (descended from 2,000 reindeer imported
from Siberia in early 1900s) thrive in the Arctic tundra, and elsewhere
there are extensive forests; Wonder Lake; Glacier Bay National Park,
a marine reserve; Katmai National Park, a volcanic area, including Mount
Katmai, which erupted 1912 and formed the Valley of Ten Thousand Smokes;
the Arctic Wildlife Range; Tongass national forest; Wrangell-St Alias
National Park, the largest in the USA; Kenai Fjords National Park; Little
Diomede Island, only 4 km/2.5 mi from the Russian Big Diomede; hot springs
N of Fairbanks; Aleutian Islands; Yukon River
Features:
Remains of Russian settlements, including the Russian Bishop's House
in Sitka, capital of Russian America until the sale of Alaska 1867;
Ketchikan, with collections of totem poles at Totem Bight state historical
park and Totem Heritage Center; gold rush town of Nome; Skagway historic
district; St Nicholas Russian Orthodox Church (1894), Juneau; Alaska
State Museum, Juneau; Anchorage Museum of History and Art; Living Museum
of the Arctic, Kotzebue; University of Alaska near Fairbanks; Klondike
Gold Rush National Park
Industries:
Oil, natural gas, coal, copper, iron, gold, tin, fur, salmon fisheries
and canneries, lumber; tourism is a large and growing industry (tourists
outnumber residents each year)
Population:
(1996 est) 607,000; including 15% Native Americans, Aleuts, and Inuit
History:
Migrants from Asia first crossed the Bering land bridge about
15,000 years ago; the Inuit began to settle the Arctic coast from
Siberia about 2000 BC; the Aleuts settled the Aleutian archipelago
about 1000 BC. The first European to visit Alaska was the Danish
navigator Vitus Bering 1741, leading a Russian expedition. Alaska
was a Russian colony from 1744 until purchased by the USA 1867
for $7,200,000; gold was discovered five years later. It became
a state 1959.
A Congressional act 1980 gave environmental protection to 420,000
sq km/162,000 sq mi. Valuable mineral resources have been exploited
from 1968, especially in the Prudhoe Bay area to the SE of Point
Barrow. An oil pipeline (1977) runs from Prudhoe Bay to the port
of Valdez. Oilspill from a tanker in Prince William Sound caused
great environmental damage 1989. Under construction is an underground
natural-gas pipeline to Chicago and San Francisco.
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