VERY BIG! • Alaska has 591,000 square miles (375,000,000 acres). • Alaska is two times the size of Texas. • Alaska has 29 volcanoes. • Alaska has 33,000 miles of coastline. • Alaska is 1,400 miles North to South. • Alaska is 2,700 miles East to West. • Alaska has over 1/2 the world's glaciers. • Alaska is 55 miles east of Russia. • Alaska is the only state to have coastlines on three different seas: Arctic Ocean, Pacific Ocean and Bering Sea.
Alaska’s Prudhoe Bay, on the North Slope of the Brooks Range, is the site of the largest oil U.S. discovery in 1968 (15 billion barrels). Taxation of Prudhoe Bay oil created vast new wealth for Alaskans, and the creation of the Alaska Permanent Fund dividend program in 1976 gave Alaskans a direct stake in oil production.
The Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race is a famous 1,000 mile (1,609 km) race from Anchorage to Nome each February. The Iditarod record was set in 2011 by John Quniaq Baker (also the first Native Inupiaq to win the race) in a time of 8 days, 19 hours, 46 minutes, and 39 seconds.
Alaska is the most popular state for flying in the U.S. One of every 58 Alaskans is a registered pilot, and one out of 59 owns an airplane. Lake Hood in Anchorage is the largest and busiest seaplane base in the world, averaging 234 landings and take-offs per day.
• Record high temperature: +100* F • Record low temperature: -78* F
Secretary of State William H. Seward purchased Alaska on March 30, 1867, for the all-time bargain-basement price of $7,200,000 (2 cents an acre), and the American flag was hoisted over Sitka at the Baranof Castle on October 18, 1867.
Turnagain Arm, an Alaskan fjord along the southern boundary of Chugach State Park, has one of the highest tidal variations in the world at 32 feet (10 m).
In 1913, women in Alaska were granted the right to vote—six years ahead of the 19th Amendment.
In June 1942, Fleet Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto, commander-in-chief of the Japanese navy, ordered a diversionary thrust at the Aleutian Islands, and Japanese carrier-based airplanes struck twice at Dutch Harbor, a large new U.S. naval base in Unalaska Bay. The Japanese also later attacked and briefly occupied Attu and Kiska Islands during World War II.
In the early 1950s, Steve Henson developed what is now known as ranch dressing while working as a plumbing contractor for three years in the remote Alaskan bush. In 1954, he and his wife Gayle opened Hidden Valley Ranch, a dude ranch near Santa Barbara, California, where they served it to guests.