Alaska may be the next-to-youngest state, but it also the largest state of the United States of America. Alaska shelters Point Barrow, which is the northernmost point in the United States, as well as Mount McKinley, the highest mountain in all of North America. Though Mount McKinley was named for William McKinley (the 25th President of the United States), the native name for this peak is "Denali", the Great One. The land seems to be covered in snow most of the time and for good reason: almost a third of this huge state already belongs to the Arctic Circle.

The State of Alaska is a peninsula, just like the state of Florida. The main land territory of Alaska protrudes out of the northwest corner of the North American continent resembling a big thumb on a doubled-up fist. Alaska contains hundreds of islands, with the Aleutians as its biggest chain. On the western side, the state is only 55 miles from the Asian continent, which comes as no surprise since the mainland of the two continents used to be connected thousands of years ago. Now, they are separated by the Bering Strait while the international date line runs between Alaska and Russia's Big Diomede Island.

The Alaskan coast is ragged with a huge number of bays, sounds and inlets. From the air, the Alaskan Peninsula looks like a long, carrot shaped piece of land. The state includes four major land forms of the US: the Pacific Mountain region, the Arctic slope, the Interior Plateau and the Brooks Range. Most of Alaska is flat and treeless with permanently frozen subsoil known as tundra. The Yukon is the great river of Alaska, which crosses the Interior Plateau at the distance of more than 1200 miles and empties into the Bering Sea. The state also has many naturally lakes, the largest of which is the Ileamna Lake which covers about 1000 mi. at the northern end of the peninsula. The general coastline of Alaska is longer than the general coastline of all 48 continental states. Its total shoreline is almost 34000 miles long.

Alaska is inhabited by three major groups - Eskimos, Indians and the Aleuts. They refer to their state as "the Great Land". Most Alaskans are adventurous people who have lived most of their lives answering the challenges of the last United States frontier.

Alaska had no government of its own to develop its rich natural resources for many years. Its history has been spotted with gold rushes and men trying to strip the land of furs and fish. Russia had even owned Alaska for more than a hundred years. During this time, so many fur seals were killed that only a fraction of them survived. Even then, uncontrolled hunting almost left the sea otter extinct. Then, the United States bought Alaska in 1867 and the land lay almost forgotten for many years. Interest in Alaska returned in 1896 with a new gold rush calling men back to it. However, many of the gold seekers returned to home disappointed. At the end of the Gold Rush, some Alaskans compared their land to Cinderella, whose riches were depleted at the stroke of midnight. This continued until 1959, more than 90 years after the purchase, when Alaska gained control of its resources and was granted statehood.

Michael Russell
http://alaska.guide-to.info/
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Picture: Alaska