Alaska (, ) is a state in the United States of America, in the extreme northwest portion of the North American continent. It is the largest U.S. state by area (by a substantial margin), and one of the wealthiest and most racially diverse. Vallano, Elissa: Cruising America's 'Last Frontier', Retrieved on May 24, 2007The area that became Alaska was purchased from Russian interests on March 30 1867. The land went through several administrative changes before becoming an organized territory on May 11, 1912 and the 49th state of the U.S. on January 3, 1959. The name "Alaska" is derived from the Aleut alaxsxaq, meaning "the mainland", or more literally "the object towards which the action of the sea is directed".Ransom, J. Ellis. 1940. Derivation of the Word ?Alaska?. American Anthropologist n.s., 42: pp. 550-551

Geography

Alaska is one of two U.S. states not bordered by another state, Hawaii being the other. Alaska has more coastline than all the other US states combined. It is the only non-contiguous state in North America; about of Canadian territory separate Alaska from Washington State. Alaska is thus an exclave of the United States, part of the continental U.S. but is not part of the contiguous U.S.The other three exclaves of the United States are the Northwest Angle of Minnesota, Point Roberts, Washington, and Alburgh, Vermont. Alaska is the one of two states whose capital city is inaccessible by land - no roads connect Juneau to the rest of the state, the other one is Hawaii.The state is bordered by Yukon and British Columbia, Canada to the east, the Gulf of Alaska and the Pacific Ocean to the south, the Bering Sea, Bering Strait, and Chukchi Sea to the west, and the Beaufort Sea and the Arctic Ocean to the north.Alaska is the largest state in the United States in land area at , more than twice as large as Texas, the next largest state. It is larger than all but 18 sovereign nations. in Southwest Alaska.]] in the Wrangell Mountains.]] on the Kenai Peninsula.]]One scheme for describing the state's geography is by labeling the regions:

• South Central Alaska is the southern coastal region and contains most of the state's population. Anchorage and many growing towns, such as Palmer, and Wasilla, lie within this area. Petroleum industrial plants, transportation, tourism, and two military bases form the core of the economy here.
• The Alaska Panhandle, also known as Southeast Alaska, is home to many of Alaska's larger towns including the state capital Juneau, tidewater glaciers and extensive forests. Tourism, fishing, forestry and state government anchor the economy.
• Southwest Alaska is largely coastal, bordered by both the Pacific Ocean and the Bering Sea. It is sparsely populated, and unconnected to the road system, but incredibly important to the fishing industry. Half of all fish caught in the western U.S. come from the Bering Sea, and Bristol Bay has the world's largest sockeye salmon fishery. Southwest Alaska includes Katmai and Lake Clark national parks as well as numerous wildlife refuges. The region comprises western Cook Inlet, Bristol Bay and its watersheds, the Alaska Peninsula and the Aleutian Islands. It is known for wet and stormy weather, tundra landscapes, and large populations of salmon, brown bears, caribou, birds, and marine mammals.
• The Alaska Interior is home to Fairbanks. The geography is marked by large braided rivers, such as the Yukon River and the Kuskokwim River, as well as Arctic tundra lands and shorelines.
• The Alaskan Bush is the remote, less crowded part of the state, encompassing 380 native villages and small towns such as Nome, Bethel, Kotzebue and, most famously, Barrow, the northernmost town in the United States, as well as the northern most town on the contiguous North American continent (cities in Greenland, the Northwest Territories, and Nunavut that are farther north are on islands).

The northeast corner of Alaska is covered by the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, which covers . Much of the northwest is covered by the larger National Petroleum Reserve?Alaska, which covers around million acres. The Arctic is Alaska's most remote wilderness. A location in the National Petroleum Reserve?Alaska is miles from any town or village, the geographic point most remote from permanent habitation in the USA.With its numerous islands, Alaska has nearly of tidal shoreline. The island chain extending west from the southern tip of the Alaska Peninsula is called the Aleutian Islands. Many active volcanoes are found in the Aleutians. For example, Unimak Island is home to Mount Shishaldin, a moderately active volcano that rises to above sea level. The chain of volcanoes extends to Mount Spurr, west of Anchorage on the mainland.One of North America's largest tides occurs in Turnagain Arm, just south of Anchorage - tidal differences can be more than . (Many sources say Turnagain has the second-greatest tides in North America, but several areas in Canada have larger tides.)Alaska has 3.5 million lakes of or larger http://www.knls.org/English/akfact.htm. Marshlands and wetland permafrost cover (mostly in northern, western and southwest flatlands). Frozen water, in the form of glacier ice, covers some of land and of tidal zone. The Bering Glacier complex near the southeastern border with Yukon, Canada, covers alone.The Aleutian Islands cross longitude 180°, so Alaska can be considered the easternmost state as well as the westernmost. Alaska, and especially the Aleutians, are one of the extreme points of the United States. The International Date Line jogs west of 180° to keep the whole state, and thus the entire continental United States, within the same legal day.According to an October 1998 report by the United States Bureau of Land Management, approximately 65% of Alaska is owned and managed by the U.S. federal government as public lands, including a multitude of national forest, national parks, and national wildlife refuges. Of these, the Bureau of Land Management manages 87 million acres (350,000 km²), or 23.8% of the state. The Arctic National Wildlife Refuge is managed by the United States Fish and Wildlife Service.Of the remaining land area, the State of Alaska owns 24.5%; another 10% is managed by 13 regional and dozens of local Native corporations created under the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act. Various private interests own the remaining land, totaling less than 1%.Alaska is administratively divided into "boroughs", as opposed to "counties." The function is the same, but whereas some states use a three-tiered system of decentralization — state/county/township — most of Alaska uses only two tiers — state/borough. Owing to the low population density, most of the land is located in the Unorganized Borough which, as the name implies, has no intermediate borough government of its own, but is administered directly by the state government. Currently (2000 census) 57.71% of Alaska's area has this status, with 13.05% of the population. For statistical purposes the United States Census Bureau divides this territory into census areas. Anchorage merged the city government with the Greater Anchorage Area Borough in 1971 to form the Municipality of Anchorage, containing the city proper and the bedroom communities of Eagle River, Chugiak, Peters Creek, Girdwood, Bird, and Indian. Fairbanks has a separate borough (the Fairbanks North Star Borough) and municipality (the City of Fairbanks).

Climate

The climate in Juneau and the southeast panhandle is best described as a cooler version of Seattle. It is a mid-latitude oceanic climate (Köppen climate classification Cfb) in the southern sections and a subarctic oceanic climate (Köppen Cfc) in the northern parts. On an annual basis, this is both the wettest and warmest part of Alaska with milder temperatures in the winter and high precipitation throughout the year. Juneau averages over of precipitation a year, while other areas receive over . Mean Annual Precipitation in Alaska-Yukon. Oregon Climate Service at Oregon State University. Last accessed 23 October 2006. This is also the only region in Alaska in which the average daytime high temperature is above freezing during the winter months.The climate of Anchorage and south central Alaska is mild by Alaskan standards due to the region's proximity to the seacoast. While the area does not get nearly as much rain as southeast Alaska, it does get more snow, although days tend to be clearer. On average, Anchorage receives of precipitation a year, with around of snow, although there are areas in the south central which receive far more snow. It is a subarctic climate (Köppen Dfc) due to its short, cool summers. is the northernmost city in the United States.]]The climate of Western Alaska is determined in large part by the Bering Sea and the Gulf of Alaska. It is a subarctic oceanic climate in the southwest and a continental subarctic climate farther north. The temperature is somewhat moderate considering how far north the area is. This area has a tremendous amount of variety in precipitation. The northern side of the Seward Peninsula is technically a desert with less than of precipitation annually, while some locations between Dillingham and Bethel average around of precipitation.The climate of the interior of Alaska is best described as extreme and is the best example of a true subarctic climate. Some of the hottest and coldest temperatures in Alaska occur around the area near Fairbanks. The summers can have temperatures reaching into the 80s°F (near 30 °C), while in the winter, the temperature can fall below ?60 °F (-52 °C). Precipitation is not much in the Interior, often less than a year, but what precipitation falls in the winter tends to stay the entire winter.The highest and lowest recorded temperatures in Alaska are both in the Interior. The highest is 100 °F (38 °C) in Fort Yukon on June 27, 1915, tied with Pahala, Hawaii as the lowest high temperature in the United States. The lowest Alaska temperature is ?80 °F (-64 °C) in Prospect Creek on January 23, 1971, one degree above the lowest temperature recorded in North America (in Snag, Yukon, Canada).The climate in the extreme north of Alaska is as expected for an area north of the Arctic Circle. It is an Arctic climate (Köppen ET) with long, very cold winters and short, cool summers. Even in July, the average low temperature is barely above freezing in Barrow, at 34 °F (2 °C). History for Barrow, Alaska. Monthly Summary for July 2006. Weather Underground. Last accessed 23 October 2006. Precipitation is light in this part of Alaska, with many places averaging less than per year, mostly in the form of snow which stays on the ground almost the entire year.

History

during the Klondike Gold Rush.]]At the end of the Upper Paleolithic Period (around 12,000 BCE), Asiatic groups crossed the Bering Land Bridge into what is now western Alaska. At the time of European contact by the Russian explorers, the area was populated by Alaska Native groups.The first European contact with Alaska occurred in the 1741, when Vitus Bering led an expedition for the Russian Navy aboard the St. Peter. After his crew returned to Russia bearing sea otter pelts judged to be the finest fur in the world, small associations of fur traders began to sail from the shores of Siberia towards the Aleutian islands. The first permanent European settlement was founded in 1784, and the Russian-American Company carried out an expanded colonization program during the early to mid-1800s. Despite these efforts, the Russians never fully colonized Alaska, and the colony was never very profitable. William H. Seward, the U.S. Secretary of State, engineered the Alaskan purchase in 1867 for $7.2 million.In the 1890s, gold rushes in Alaska and the nearby Yukon Territory brought thousands of miners and settlers to Alaska. Alaska was granted territorial status in 1912.During World War II, three of the outer Aleutian Islands?Attu, Agattu and Kiska?were the only part of the United States to have land occupied by the enemy during the war. The battle became a matter of national pride, defending the nation against the first foreign military campaign on U.S. soil since the War of 1812. The construction of military bases also contributed to the population growth of some Alaskan cities.Alaska was granted statehood on January 3, 1959.In 1964, the massive "Good Friday Earthquake" killed 131 people and leveled several villages.The 1968 discovery of oil at Prudhoe Bay and the 1977 completion of the Trans-Alaska Pipeline led to an oil boom. In 1989, the Exxon Valdez hit a reef in the Prince William Sound, spilling between 11 and 35 million US gallons (42,000-130,000 m³) of crude oil over 1,100 miles (1,600 km) of coastline. Today, the battle between philosophies of development and conservation is seen in the contentious debate over oil drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.

Demographics

In 2006 Alaska had an estimated population of 670,053, an increase of 6,392 (0.96%) from 2005 and 43,121 (6.9%) from 2000. In 2000 Alaska ranked 48th out of 50 states by population.http://www.census.gov/population/cen2000/phc-t2/tab01.txt Alaska is the least densely populated state, at 0.42 people per square kilometer (1.1 per square mile), with the next state, Wyoming, at 1.97 (5.1 per square mile), and the most densely populated, New Jersey, at 437.6 people per square kilometer (1,134.4 per square mile).

Race and ancestry

According to the 2000 U.S. Census, 75% of Alaska residents are white. 19% are American Indian or Alaska Native, the largest proportion of any state. Multiracial/Mixed-Race people are the third largest group of people in the state, totaling 6.9% of the population. The largest self-reported ancestry groups in the state are German (16.6%), Alaska Native or American Indian (15.6%), Irish (10.8%), British (9.6%), American (5.7%), and Norwegian (4.2%).The vast sparsely-populated regions of northern and western Alaska are primarily inhabited by Alaska Natives, who are also numerous in the southeast. Anchorage, Fairbanks, and other parts of south-central and southeast Alaska have many whites of northern and western European ancestry. The Wrangell-Petersburg area has many residents of Scandinavian ancestry and the Aleutians contain a large Filipino population. Most of the state's black population lives in Anchorage. Fairbanks also has a sizable black population.

Languages

According to the 2000 U.S. Census, 85.7% of Alaska residents aged 5 and older speak English at home. The next most common languages are Spanish (2.88%), Yupik (2.87%), Tagalog (1.54%), and Iñupiaq (1.06%).http://www.mla.org/map_data_results&state_id=2&county_id=&mode=state_tops&zip=&place_id=&cty_id=&a=&ea=&order=&ll=all A total of 5.2% of Alaskans speak one of the state's 22 indigenous languages, known locally as Native languages.

Religion

Alaska has been identified, along with Pacific Northwest states Washington and Oregon, as being the least religious in the US.http://www.adherents.com/Na/Na_472.html According to statistics collected by the Association of Religion Data Archives, only about 39% of Alaska residents were members of religious congregations. Evangelical Protestants had 78,070 members, Roman Catholics had 54,359, and mainline Protestants had 37,156. After Catholics, the largest single denominations were Southern Baptists with 22, 959, Orthodox with 20,000, and Mormons with 19,019. The large Eastern Orthodox population is a result of early Russian colonization and missionary work among Alaska Natives.http://sled.alaska.edu/akfaq/akchron.html In 1795: First Russian Orthodox Church established in Kodiak. Alexander Baranov had a great influence in promoting the Russian Orthodox Church. With the marriage of Alaskan Natives to these Russians, and the speaking of their native tongues, these Russian immigrants were more accepted. And, gradually more and more Russian Orthodox churcheshttp://vilda.alaska.edu/u?/cdmg11,4904 An early Russian Orthodox Church became established within Alaska. Alaska also has the largest Quaker population (by percentage) of any state.http://www.thearda.com/mapsReports/maps/map.asp?state=101&variable=201 Association of Religion Data Archive In 2003 there were three thousand Jews in Alaska.http://www.census.gov/compendia/statab/population/religion/ 75 - Christian Church Adherents, 2000, and Jewish Population, 2003--States 27k

Economy

transports oil, Alaska's most important export, from the North Slope to Valdez]]The 2005 gross state product was $39.9 billion. Its per-capita GSP for 2005 was $60,079, 3rd in the nation. Alaska's economy relies heavily on petroleum extraction, with more than 80% of the state's revenues derived from this industry. Alaska's main export product (excluding oil and natural gas) is seafood, primarily salmon, cod, pollock and crab. Agriculture represents only a fraction of the Alaska economy. Agricultural production is primarily for consumption within the state and includes nursery stock, dairy products, vegetables, and livestock. Manufacturing is limited, with most foodstuffs and general goods imported from elsewhere. Employment is primarily in government and industries such as natural resource extraction, shipping, and transportation. Military bases are a significant component of the economy in both Fairbanks and Anchorage. Its industrial outputs are crude petroleum, natural gas, coal, gold, precious metals, zinc and other mining, seafood processing, timber and wood products. There is also a growing service and tourism sector. Tourists have contributed to the economy by supporting local lodging.Alaska's economy is heavily dependent on increasingly expensive diesel fuel for heating, transportation, electric power and light. Though wind and hydroelectric power are abundant and underutilized, proposals for state-wide energy systems (e.g. with special low-cost electric interties) were judged uneconomical (at the time of the report, 2001) due to low (