Geography and Industry

Alaska is beyond big, larger than large, more than massive. Alaska has so much land area in it that it would take 20 percent of the states that make up the forty-eight continental United States to equal the size of Alaska alone! When it comes to population, though, Alaska is on the other end of the spectrum. Only the states of Vermont and Wyoming have fewer people living within their borders.

Alaska is separated from the continental United States by western Canada, and is closer to Russian Siberia than to the rest of America. The northern part of the state is made up mostly of the Seward Peninsula, and lies above the Arctic Circle. This includes the North Slope, which is where most of Alaska's oil is produced. This region also contains Point Barrow.

The Yukon River runs out of the Yukon Territory in neighboring Canada, crosses Alaska from east to west, then empties into the Bering Sea, which borders Alaska on the west. Southwest of the Yukon River Valley lies the Alaska Peninsula, which stretches out into the islands chain known as the Aleutians. These islands separate the Bering Sea from the northern Pacific, and are storm-ravaged, small, rocky, and barren. Few people live there these days.

Separating the Alaska Peninsula from the rest of southern Alaska is the massive Gulf of Alaska. The Kenai Peninsula pushes south of Anchorage (Alaska's largest city) and into the gulf in the direction of Kodiak Island.

Across the Gulf of Alaska from the Alaska Peninsula lies the so-called Alaskan Panhandle. It's made up mostly of small islands and a narrow coastal strip of land that rises quickly into the steep Coastal Range of mountains. The state capital of Juneau is in this region, which has a climate similar to that of western Washington state: lots of rain, not much snow (in Alaska, one of the snowiest states!).

To the north of Anchorage lies the Alaska Range of mountains, which are very snowy and very rugged. The Alaska Range's highest point is the summit of Mount McKinley.

Because it is so close to the fish-rich North Pacific, Alaska is home to a large year-round fishing fleet that catches millions of pounds of commercial fish per year. In 1968 oil was discovered on Alaska's North Slope, and petroleum extraction remains a very important industry in the state to this day. In fact, Alaska's oil reserves are the largest in North America. Alaska is also the only place in the United States where fur-trapping is still done to any noticeable extent.

WORDS TO KNOW

Mount McKinley

Mount McKinley, which rises to a height of 20,320 feet, is the tallest mountain in America. Local Native American tribes called it “Denali,” which means the Great One. (It is now commonly known by both names.) It was named for then-president William McKinley in 1897. The mountain sits at the center of Denali National Park.

History

Beginning in 1741 Russian fur traders explored much of southern Alaska, including the Aleutian Islands and the Alaskan Panhandle. They established their first permanent settlement on Kodiak Island in 1784.

Russia controlled Alaska for the next eighty years, and at various times tried to expand southward along the coast as far as Vancouver Island. In fact, in 1812 Russian settlers established a trading post in northern California at Fort Ross, near the Russian River (which they also named).

By the 1860s the Russian fur trade in Alaska had become so costly that there was no more profit to be made by continuing it, and the Russian Czar (king) sought to get something in return for it. He found a buyer in U.S. Secretary of State William Seward, who arranged for the United States to pay $7,200,000 for Alaska.

Seward spent the rest of his career (and his life) defending this purchase. Alaska was known far and wide as either Seward's Icebox or Seward's Folly, because it seemed to be nothing more than an icy desert, virtually worthless.

Alaska did not even get a governor or official territorial government until after gold was discovered there in 1880. After that, things began to pick up, as other minerals were found and mined, including petroleum in 1968. Seward was proven to not just be right in the end, but to be brilliant, because Alaska has repaid its purchase price many times over since the United States acquired it. Alaska became the forty-ninth state in January of 1959.

Big and Small

Alaska is one of the largest states while Rhode Island is one of the tiniest. Just how different in size are they? Figure out the following equations and you will learn how many times you could fit the state of Rhode Island into the state of Alaska!