Alaska is wild, enormous, and a place that fascinates many people. The state captures the imagination and many dream of Alaska for years before ever arriving on its shore. This stunningly beautiful land has a lot of great things in abundance. Here are some facts that you may not know about the great land.
1. Alaska has more bald eagles than all the other states combined.
2. Over 40 active volcanoes are found in Alaska.
3. Alaska has more than 3 million lakes. The largest, Lake Iliamna, encompasses over 1,000 square miles.
4. The Alaskan coastline extends for 6,640 miles, a distance greater than that of all the other states' coastlines combined.
5. Alaska is 586,400 square miles, larger than Texas, California, and Montana combined.
6. Alaska has over ten thousand glaciers – one that is larger than the state of Rhode Island. Over 1/2 the world’s glaciers are in Alaska!
7. The coldest temperature ever officially recorded in the US was -79.8°F at Prospect Creek Camp in the Endicott Mountains of northern Alaska on Jan. 23, 1971. Brrr...
8. The northernmost town in the U.S. is Utqiagvik (formerly Barrow) and it has the longest night of anywhere in the U.S. There is no daylight for 64 days in Barrow straddling the winter solstice on Dec. 21.
9. Gray wolves inhabit 85% of Alaska!
10. In the winter of 1952–1953, 974.1 inches of snow fell on Thompson Pass near Valdez, the most ever recorded in one season in Alaska, and the U.S. at the time.
11. Alaska was purchased from Russia on March 30, 1867 for $7.2 million, less than 2 cents an acre.
The check reads: With this check, the United States completed the purchase of almost 600,000 square miles of land from the Russian Government. This treasury warrant issued on August 1, 1868, at the Sub-Treasury Building at 26 Wal, New York, New York, transferred $7.2 million to Russian Minister to the United States Edouard de Stoeckl.
12. Juneau is the only capital of a U.S. state that can only be accessed by air or sea.
13. The Alaska state fish is the King Salmon.
14. Alaska has 17 of the 20 highest mountains in North America. Denali is the highest at 20,320 ft, second is Mt Saint Elias at 18,008 ft.
15. All three species of North American bears flourish in Alaska: Polar, Black and Grizzly.
16. Alaska’s moose are the largest of their species. Average size: 1,350 pounds, 5 feet high to shoulder; antlers span: 72 inches.
A mama and her baby raid the flower bed.
17. During hibernation, the body temperature of the arctic ground squirrel drops to the lowest of any living mammal.
18. Alaska has the northernmost point (Point Barrow) and westernmost point in the U.S. - Cape Wrangell on the Aleutians is further west than Hawaii!
19. The 1964 Good Friday Earthquake was the largest recorded earthquake in North America at magnitude 9.2. Of the ten strongest earthquakes ever recorded in the world, three have occurred in Alaska.
20. Alaska has the highest number of pilots per capita of any U.S. state: out of the estimated 663,661 residents, 8,550 are pilots, or about one in every 78.
Want to know more? Check out Here Are 20 Benefits Of Living In Alaska That We Shouldn’t Ever Take For Granted.
Were you surprised by any of these facts? Tell us about it in the comments below.
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