The name Alaska means “Great Land”. The Alaska Highway, originally built as a military supply road during the WWII runs 1523 miles from Dawson Peak, British Colombia, Canada to Delta Junction, Alaska.
It has over 3000 rivers, the largest of these is the Yukon, which flows for 1980 miles into the Bering Sea. Wrangell St. Elias is the nation’s largest National Park, it encompasses over 12.4 million acres.
Its capital was Sitka when it belonged to Russia. It was bought from Russia in 1867 at two cents per acre. The capital now is Juneau although Anchorage is the largest city. The Alaskan state flower is ‘forget-me-not’ the state sport is ‘Dog Mushing’ and the official gemstone is ‘jade’.
The ‘Great Alaskan Pipeline’ carries oil from the North Slope to Valdez, distance of 800 miles, up to 88,000 barrels move through it every hour. Alaska is the nation’s largest producer of zinc. The other minerals mined are silver, gold and coal.
The Flag of Alaska was adopted on 2nd May, 1927. The design was created by Benny Benson, selected from among roughly 700 entries in a contest. Benny was only 13 years old and later Mount Benson Kodiak Benny Benson State Airport are named after him.
During fall and winter, Alaska hosts the world’s largest group of Bald Eagles. More than 10,000 Bald Eagles gather along the Chilkat river as they are attracted by large number of salmon on this spot.
It borders Pacific and Arctic Oceans. The state has 33,000 miles of coastline, more than the lower 48 states combined.
Alaskan Malamute is one of the oldest Arctic sled dogs, member of ‘Spitz’ breed as they share similar characteristics. It is the oldest breed on the North American continent and probably the breed longest associated with man.
There are around 100,000 glaciers and cover about 5% of the state. The most notable glacier ‘Bagley Icefield’ is 127 miles long, 6 miles wide and up to 30,000 feet thick.
The Northern Lights can be seen 243 days a year in Fairbanks which is cited as the best place to see the lights because of its location under the ‘Auroral Oval’. The Aurora Season is from August 21st to April 21st.
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Good read!