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Place Name
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Alaska
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Place Status (Type)
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state
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Capital is
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JUNEAU
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Population
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603,617 (1995)
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Location
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Alaska, United States, North America
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Latitude
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65°17'N
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Longitude
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151°39'W
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Alaska
, state (
656,424 sq mi/1,700,135 sq km, including 86,051 sq mi/222,871 sq km of water
surface; 1995 est. pop. 603,617), NW N. Amer., admitted 1959 as the
49th state;  Juneau; 65°17'N 151°39'W. Nearly ⅕ the size of the rest of the U.S., Alaska (AK) is the
largest state in the Union, but ranks 49th in pop. The 1990 census
marked the first time in Alaskan history it did not rank last in pop.
Anchorage is the largest city, with approximately
½ the state's pop. living in its metropolitan area
(from Willow to Wasila); Fairbanks is 2d largest, along with
Juneau. Nome was founded when gold was discovered (1898) in
the sand on the beaches of the Seward Peninsula. Alaska is a large
peninsula land at the NW extremity of N. Amer., bet. the Arctic Ocean
and Beaufort Sea on the N and the Gulf of Alaska and the Pacific Ocean
on the S. It is bounded on the E by Canada (Yukon and B.C.) and on the
W by the Bering Sea, Bering Strait, and Chukchi Sea. The tip of the
Seward Peninsula is only a few miles from Rus. Far East; the two are
separated by the narrow Bering Strait. Seward Peninsula is chiefly
tundra-covered and sparsely inhabited. The Bering Strait widens in the
N to the Chukchi Sea, which slices into Alaska with Kotzebue Sound; in
the S the strait widens to the Bering Sea, which cuts into Alaska with
Norton Sound and Bristol Bay. The state again extends toward Russia in
the Alaska Peninsula and the Aleutian Isls., reaching out a total of
1,200 mi/1,931 km toward the Komandorski
Isls.; together they divide the Bering Sea from the Pacific. The
Aleutian Range, which is the spine of the Alaska Peninsula, continues
in the grass-covered, treeless Aleutian Isls., where the climate is
foggy, damp, and cold in the winter and subject to violent winds (the
williwaws). Once heavily populated by Aleuts and traversed by Rus. fur
traders hunting sea otters, the Aleutians today are chiefly of
strategic and fishing importance and constitute a wildlife refuge. The
S shore of Alaska is deeply indented by 2 inlets of the wide Gulf of
Alaska, Cook Inlet and Prince William Sound; the Kenai Peninsula bet.
them extends SW toward Kodiak Isl. The narrow Alaska Panhandle dips SE
along the coast from the Gulf of Alaska, cutting into B.C. It consists
of the offshore isls. of the Alexander Archipelago and the
narrow coast, which rises steeply to the mts. of the Boundary Range and
the St. Elias Mts. Winters in the Panhandle are relatively mild, with
heavy rainfall and, except on the upper slopes of the mts.,
comparatively little snow. The interior of Alaska, on the other hand,
can have extremely cold winters and short, hot summers. In Arctic
Alaska, N of the Brooks Range, the temp. in winter reaches
−10°F/−23.3°C to −40°F/−40°C. The
land here is mostly tundra, cut by many rivers, the longest being the
Colville. Alaska's major river is the Yukon, which crosses the state
from E to W for 1,200 mi/1,931 km, from the
Can. border to the Bering Sea. The northernmost reach of Alaska is
Point Barrow. Alaska's climate and terrain (rough coast and high mt.
ranges) divide it into relatively isolated regions, and transportation
relies heavily on airlines. Anchorage and S central Alaska is the most
populous region. The Panhandle's connection with Seattle is by ships, which ply the Inside Passage bet. the coast and the offshore isls. In S central Alaska, Anchorage is the center
for the Alaskan RR and for airways; it is also connected with the
Alaska Highway. The ports of Seward and Anchorage are the major
terminus for the Alaska RR and highway system. Cordova and Kodiak
depend on the ocean lanes and aircraft. In the N, the entire Arctic
coast is icebound most of the year; the ground remains permanently
frozen. Alaska has very little agr.; in number of farms and in the
value of its farm prods., it ranks last in the nation. The state's
best arable land is in its S central region, in the Matanuska Valley
and the Tanana Valley and delta (the area around Fairbanks).
Most of Alaska's farms are dairies and the state's most valuable farm
commodities are dairy prods., potatoes, feed grains, beef cattle, and
vegetables. Fishing is a leading industry. Alaska heads the nation in
the value of its commercial catch—chiefly salmon, crab,
shrimp, halibut, herring, and cod. Its largest mfg. enterprise is food
processing, particularly the freezing and canning of fish. Lumbering
and related industries are important. The state has many natl. parks,
wildlife refuges, and 2 natl. forests. Mining, principally of
petroleum, natural gas, sand, gravel, zinc, lead, coal, and other
metals is the state's most valuable industry. Gold, which led to the
opening of the area in the 19th cent., is still mined in quantity. Fur
trapping, Alaska (AK)'s oldest industry, endures, on a limited scale; pelts
are obtained from a great variety of animals, but fur farming is now
gone. The Kodiak bear of the Alaska Peninsula is a major attraction, as
is sport fishing. The govt.—Federal, state, and
local—is Alaska's major source of employment. The state's
strategic location has generated considerable defense activity,
including the establishment of permanent military bases. In 1968 vast
reserves of oil and natural gas were discovered on the Arctic N Slope
near Prudhoe Bay. The petroleum reservoir was determined to be
twice the size of any other field in N. Amer. In 1969 the lease sale of
oil fields yielded over $900 million. The
800-mi/1,287-km-long Trans-Alaska pipeline
(4 ft/1.2 m in diameter and raised on stilts),
extending from the Arctic N Slope to the ice-free port of Valdez,
opened in 1977 after bitter opposition from environmentalists, and oil
has dominated the state economy ever since, although production has
declined in the 1990s. Many of the state's exports to foreign
countries are exported through Seattle. Trade with the Rus. Far East
and Siberia is growing. The Alaska Permanent Fund was created in 1977,
into which goes 25% of Alaska's oil royalty income. The fund,
designed to provide the state with income after the oil reserves are
depleted, pays dividends to all residents. Offshore oil
drilling in the Beaufort Sea and onshore drilling on the coast of the
Arctic Natl. Wildlife Refuge are opposed by environmentalists.
Alaska's tourism has increased dramatically with the help of
improvements in transportation; it ranks as one of the state's top
industries. The state abounds in natural wonders, and many natl. parks
and wildlife refuges were added when the Alaska Natl. Interest Lands
Act was enacted to close most of the state to prospecting. In the
Panhandle, the scenic beauty of the mts. and the rugged fjord-indented
coast are augmented by such attractions as the Malaspina
Glacier and the acres of blue ice in Glacier Bay National
Park and Preserve. In the Alaska Range of S central Alaska stands the
highest point in N. Amer., Mt. McKinley (Denali) in Denali National
Park and Preserve, while the Alaska Peninsula and the Aleutian Isls. have
numerous volcanoes; Katmai National Park and Preserve contains the Valley of Ten Thousand Smokes, scene of a volcanic eruption in 1912.
The 1,049-mi/1,688-km Iditarod sled dog race from Anchorage
to Nome is a major attraction and a celebration of Alaskan heritage.
The voyage of Vitus Bering and Aleksey Chirikov in 1741 climaxed the
march of Rus. traders across Siberia. The survivors who returned with
fur seal skins started a rush of fur hunters to the Aleutian Isls.
Grigori Shelekhov in 1784 founded the 1st permanent settlement in
Alaska on Kodiak Isl. and sent (1790) to Alaska the man who was to
dominate the period of Rus. influence, Aleksandr Baranov. A monopoly
was granted to the Rus. Amer. Company in 1799, and it was Baranov who
directed its Alaskan activities. Baranov extended the Rus. trade far
down the W coast of N. Amer. and even, after several unsuccessful
attempts, founded (1812) a settlement in N Calif., Fort Ross. Rivalry
for the NW coast was strong, and Br. and Amer. trading vessels began to
threaten the Rus. monopoly. In 1821 the czar issued a ukase (imperial
command) claiming the 51st parallel as the S boundary of Alaska and
warning foreign vessels not to transgress beyond it. Br. and Amer.
protests, the promulgation of the Monroe Doctrine, and Rus. embroilment
elsewhere resulted (1825) in a negotiated settlement of the boundary at
lat. 54°40'N (the present S boundary of Alaska). Rus. interests in
Alaska gradually declined, and after the Crimean War, Russia sought to
dispose of the territory altogether. In 1867, Alaska (AK) was sold to the
U.S. for $7,200,000. The U.S. purchase was accomplished through the
determined efforts of Secretary of State William H. Seward.
Since Alaska appeared to offer no immediate financial return,
it was neglected. The U.S. army officially controlled the area
until 1876. After a small lapse, during which govt. was in the hands of
customs men, the U.S. Navy was given charge (1879). It was not until
after the discovery of gold in the Juneau region in 1880 that Alaska
was given a governor and a feeble local administration (under the
Organic Act of 1884). Missionaries, who had come to the region in the
late 1870s, exercised considerable influence. Most influential was
Sheldon Jackson, best known for his introduction of reindeer to
help the Alaska Eskimo (Inuit). Sealing was the subject of a long
internatl. controversy, which was not ended until the treaties of 1912.
The Klondike strike of 1896 brought a stampede, mainly of
Americans, and most of them came through Alaska to Dawson, Yukon
Territory. The big discoveries in Alaska itself followed—Nome
in 1898-1899, Fairbanks in 1902. The miners and prospectors (the
sourdoughs) took over Alaska, and the era of the mining camps reached
its ht.; a criminal code was belatedly applied in 1899. Not until 1906
did Alaska get a territorial representative in Congress. The
longstanding controversy concerning the boundary bet. the Alaska
Panhandle and B.C. was aggravated by the large number of miners
traveling the Inside Passage to the gold fields. The matter was finally
settled in 1903 by a 6-man tribunal, composed of Amer., Can., and
Br. representatives. The decision was generally favorable to the U.S.,
and a period of rapid bldg. and development began. Mining, requiring
heavy financing, passed into the hands of Eastern capitalists, notably
the monopolistic Alaska Syndicate. Opposition to the “interests”
became the burning issue in Alaska and was catapulted into natl.
politics; Gifford Pinchot and R. A. Ballinger were the chief
antagonists, and this was a major issue on which Theodore Roosevelt
split with President William Howard Taft. A new era began for Alaska
when local govt. was established in 1912 and it became a U.S. territory
(Juneau had officially replaced
Sitka as the capital
in 1900, although it did not begin to function as such until 1906). The
building of the Alaska RR from Seward to Fairbanks was commenced with
govt. funds in 1915. The commercial fishing industry, which started
with canneries in 1879, spread rapidly and became a major industry by
1900. Alaska enjoyed an economic boom during World War II. The
Alaska Highway was built, supplying a weak but much-needed
link with the U.S. After Jap. troops occupied the Aleutian isls. of
Attu and Kiska, U.S. forces prepared for a counterattack. Attu was
retaken in May 1943, after intense fighting, and the Japanese evacuated
Kiska in Aug. after intensive U.S. bombardments. Dutch Harbor, Adak,
Kodiak, and Sitka became major bases in World War II. The growth of air
travel after the war, and the permanent military bases established in
Alaska, particularly the DEW line, resulted in tremendous growth; bet.
1950 and 1960 the pop. nearly doubled. In 1958, Alaska (AK)ns approved
statehood by a 5-to-1 vote, and on Jan. 3, 1959, Alaska (AK) was
officially admitted into the Union as a state, the first since
Ariz. in 1912. On Mar. 27, 1964, the strongest earthquake ever recorded
in N. Amer. occurred in Alaska, taking approximately 114 lives and
causing extensive property damage, particularly in Valdez, Seward, and
parts of Anchorage. The fishing industry was especially hard hit, with
the loss of fleets, docks, and canneries from the resulting tidal
waves. Reconstruction, with large-scale Federal aid, was speedily
completed. In 1989 the tanker Exxon Valdez ran aground in
Prince William Sound, releasing over 10 million gallons of oil
into the water, resulting in the worst oil spill in U.S. history.
Alaska operates under a constitution drawn up and ratified in 1956
(effective with statehood). Its executive branch is headed by
a governor and a secretary of state, both elected (on the same ticket)
for 4-year terms. Alaska's bicameral legislature has a senate with
20 members elected for 4-year terms and a house of
representatives with 40 members elected for 2 years. The state
sends 2 senators and 1 representative to the U.S. Congress and has 3
electoral votes. Alaska has a state-wide system of vocational schools,
cols., and graduate programs under the Univ. of Alaska with major
campuses in Fairbanks, Anchorage, and Juneau. The Alaska natives
(Inuit) are organized into 13 regional corporations under the Alaska
Native Claims Settlement Act.
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