Fun Facts About Alaska

Alaska is the largest state in the United States by area. It is situated in the northwest extremity of the North American continent, with Canada to the east, the Arctic Ocean to the north, and the Pacific Ocean to the west and south, with Russia further west across the Bering Strait. Alaska is the 4th least populous and the least densely populated of the 50 United States. Approximately half of Alaska's 722,718 residents live within the Anchorage metropolitan area.




Fun Facts About Alaska:

Alaska has 6,640 miles of coastline and, including islands, has 33,904 miles of shoreline.



The Alaska Highway was originally built as a military supply road during World War II. 


Alaska's name is based on the Eskimo word Alakshak meaning great lands or peninsula. 


Dog mushing is the official state sport. The Alaska Legislature adopted it in 1972. 


Alaska was purchased from Russia on March 30, 1867, for $7.2 million ($113 million in today's dollars) at approximately two cents per acre!



Alaska accounts for 25% of the oil produced in the United States.


Joe Juneau's 1880 discovery of gold ushered in the gold rush era.


In 1926 13-year-old Bennie Benson from Cognac, Alaska designed the state flag.


Alaska has an estimated 100,000 glaciers, ranging from tiny cirque glaciers to huge valley glaciers. There are more active glaciers and ice fields in Alaska than in the rest of the inhabited world. The largest glacier is the Malaspina at 850 square miles. Five percent of the state, or 29,000 square miles, is covered by glaciers.










Travel Alaska

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