Alaska General Information
GENERAL
Alaska is the largest (about 20%) and northernmost state in the United States and the largest exclave in the world.
Nickname
Last Frontier
Capital
Juneau
Biggest town
Anchorage
Area
Rank (within the US): 1st out of 50 states
Total: 1,717,854 km²
Land: 1,481,347 km²
Water (%): 236,507 km² (13.77%)
Residents
Rank (within the US): 48th out of 50 states
Total (2000): 626,932
Density: 0.4 / km²
State membership
Place: 49th
Since: January 3, 1959
GEOGRAPHY
Time zone: Alaska: UTC –9 / –8 Aleutian: UTC –10 / –9
Latitude: 54 ° 40’N to 71 ° 50’N
Longitude 130 ° W to 173 ° E
Width: 1,300 km
Length: 2,380 km
Highest position: 6,914 m
Average location: 3,060 m
Lowest position: 0 m
Abbreviated as AK on ABBREVIATIONFINDER.ORG, Alaska is a geographically separated US state in the extreme northwest of North America. It is bordered to the east by the Canadian Yukon Territory, to the south by the Gulf of Alaska in the Pacific Ocean, to the west by the Bering Sea and the Chukchi Sea and to the north by the Beaufort Sea in the Arctic Ocean. In the southwest lies the elongated chain of islands of the Aleutian Islands and in the southern central part the mountains of the Alaska range, some of which are over 6,000 m high, to which Mount McKinley – at 6,193 m the highest mountain in North America – belongs. The Brooks range rises in the arctic north (up to 3,000 m). The remaining areas are characterized by densely forested hillsides and countless fjords on the coast. In the southeast lies the Alaska Panhandle (headland), a narrow strip along the Pacific, west of the Canadian province of British Columbia, which can only be reached by ship / plane. The capital Juneau is also located there.
Breeding and cultivation
Cultivation opportunities are only possible in the river valleys (for example on the Yukon). Grains, vegetables and forage crops are grown, although there is very little cultivation area. Mainly fur animals are bred.
HISTORY
The first immigrants from Siberia came 22,000 to 20,000 years ago, when the Bering Strait was not yet flooded. In 1728 and 1729 the Danish researcher and explorer Vitus Bering (1680–1741) traveled to “Alaska” on behalf of Tsar Peter the Great in vain. On July 4, 1741, Bering and the Russian Tschirikow set sail again with two ships and searched from Siberia for the unknown land. On July 16, 1741 Bering anchored off Kodiak, whereby the second ship under Tschirikow had reached the coast about 600 km to the south a day earlier. Both ships had been torn apart in a storm. On the way back, the ship Berings had to land on the island that was later named after him, where he died on December 8, 1741. The rest of the crew arrived in Siberia in August 1742.
From 1745 the Russians explored their future colony Russian Alaska in search of sea otters and their valuable furs. 1774–1779 came the Spanish from the south and 1776–1780 James Cook explored the coast of Alaska. In 1784 the Russians founded the first settlement. George Vancouver explored the coasts of Northwest America from 1791 to 1795. Alaska was the only overseas colony for the emerging world power Russia. For more than a century, the North American peninsula was only a very distant country for Russia (hence the original Russian name: Dalný Východ = Far East), where only a few trappers, fur traders and a few Russian Orthodox missionaries were active.
Over time the fur animals became less and less and the country less and less attractive to Russia. The native Indians gradually reclaimed their land. In order to replenish the treasury after the lost Crimean War, Tsar Alexander II agreed to a treaty that his ambassador to the USA, Baron Eduard von Stoeckl, had signed with US Secretary of State Seward in Washington on March 30, 1867. After that, the Tsarist Empire sold Alaska to the United States for $ 7.2 million. The first gold was discovered in 1867, which led to the famous gold rush. Gold mining in the Klondike area from 1896 was particularly important until around 1945.
On January 3, 1959, Alaska became the 49th state in the United States of America.
POPULATION
Alaska has 620,000 residents, of which 50,000 are Inuit, Aleutian and American Indians (highest percentage in the US). In addition to the capital Juneau, Anchorage and Fairbanks are important cities.
ECONOMY
With Alaska’s abundance of forest, the wood and paper industry is of course an important source of income. Gold, copper, silver, lead, tin and iron are mined in the mountains. In the fishery, salmon and cod are the main exports. Alaska has coal deposits and an oil line discovered in 1968 (1,300 km long). This lets Alaska play up in the world market.
TRAFFIC
Very few paved roads open up the vast state. The Alaska Highway, which connects Alaska with the American mainland, has existed since 1942. Also of importance is the Alaska Marine Highway – a ferry service from Bellingham in Washington State to the Aleutian Islands – which drives to numerous towns along the Inside Passage.
Alaska Boroughs and Administrative Cities
According to Countryaah, there are a total of 16 counties in the state of Alaska.
- Aleutians East Borough (County Seat: Sand Point)
- Municipality of Anchorage (County Seat: (no borough seat; is a unified municipality))
- Bristol Bay Borough (County Seat: Naknek)
- Denali Borough (County Seat: Healy)
- Fairbanks North Star Borough (County Seat: Fairbanks)
- Haines Borough (County Seat: Haines)
- City and Borough of Juneau (County Seat: (no borough seat; is a unified city-borough))
- Kenai Peninsula Borough (County Seat: Soldotna)
- Ketchikan Gateway Borough (County Seat: Ketchikan)
- Kodiak Island Borough (County Seat: Kodiak)
- Lake and Peninsula Borough (County Seat: King Salmon (actually located in adjacent Bristol Bay Borough))
- Matanuska-Susitna Borough (County Seat: Palmer)
- North Slope Borough (County Seat: Barrow)
- Northwest Arctic Borough (County Seat: Kotzebue)
- City and Borough of Sitka (County Seat: (no borough seat; is a unified city-borough))
- City and Borough of Yakutat (County Seat: (no borough seat; is a unified city-borough))
