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Alaska

Alaska ( , Аляска Alyaska) is a state in the United States of America, in the northwest of the North American continent. It is the largest U.S. state by area (by a substantial margin), and one of the wealthiest (per capita) and most racially diverse. The area that became Alaska was purchased from the Russian Empire on March 30 1867, for 7.2 million dollars (at 2 cents per acre, about 5 ¢/ha) after Congress concluded its resources could be vitally important to the nation's future growth. The land went through several administrative changes before becoming an organized territory on May 11, 1912 and the 49th state of the U.S. on January 3, 1959. The name "Alaska" was already introduced in the Russian colonial time, when it was only used for the peninsula and is derived from the Aleut alaxsxaq, meaning "the mainland," or more literally, "the object towards which the action of the sea is directed." It is also known as Alyeska, the "great land", an Aleut word derived from the same root. (more)

Type: place

Genres: politics, science, business, biology

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  • Anton Anderson Memorial Tunnel: The Anton Anderson Memorial Tunnel (often referred to simply as the Whittier Tunnel) is a tunnel through Maynard Mountain in the U.S. state of Alaska. It links the Seward Highway south of Anchorage with the relatively isolated community of Whittier.
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  • Anchorage Symphony Orchestra: The Anchorage Symphony Orchestra (ASO) is a semi-professional symphony orchestra located in Anchorage, Alaska. The Anchorage Symphony Orchestra was founded in 1946, more than a decade before Alaska became a state, by a consortium of like-minded music
  • Sydney Laurence: Sydney Mortimer Laurence (1865–1940) was a Romantic landscape painter and is widely considered one of Alaska's most important historical artists. He was born in Brooklyn, New York and studied at the Art Students League of New York. He married Alexan
  • Flag of Alaska: The flag of Alaska consists of eight gold stars, forming the Big Dipper and the North Star, on a dark blue field. It was designed in 1927 by Benny Benson, a 13-year-old Alaska Native residing in Seward, for a contest to create a flag for the then-Ala
  • Pamyua: Pamyua ( in English) is a Yupik musical group from Anchorage in the U.S. state of Alaska.
  • Southwest Alaska: Southwest Alaska is a region of the U.S. state of Alaska, part of the Alaska Bush.
  • Akutaq: Akutaq or agutak, also known as Eskimo ice cream, is a common food in western Alaska, consisting of whipped fat mixed with berries, with optional additions such as fish and sugar. There are many variations, but most are based around mixing berries, m
  • Anchorage Opera: Anchorage Opera (AO) is a professional opera company located in Anchorage, Alaska and is a member of OPERA America
  • Halibut Cove, Alaska: Halibut Cove is a census-designated place (CDP) in Kenai Peninsula Borough, Alaska, United States. The population was 35 at the 2000 census. Originally a fishing village, Halibut Cove is now home to several artists and businesses. One of the only flo
  • Lake Hood Seaplane Base: Lake Hood Seaplane Base is an aircraft and seaplane base located three miles (5 km) southwest of the central business district of Anchorage in the U.S. state of Alaska. A gravel runway located adjacent to the seaplane base is known as Lake Hood Airst
  • Juneau Symphony: The Juneau Symphony is a semi-professional symphony orchestra located in Juneau, Alaska.
  • Alaska Folk Festival: The Alaska Folk Festival is an annual celebration of folk music from Alaska, the Northwestern United States, and Canada, held in Juneau, Alaska. It most commonly occurs in the second week of April. It features performances from a wide variety of solo
  • Alaska's Flag: "Alaska's Flag" is the state song of Alaska. Its flag and song are unique among the USA's 50 states in the characteristic that they mirror one another; the song explains the symbolism of the flag, and the flag graphically represents the sentiments of
  • Elmer E. Rasmuson Library: The Elmer E. Rasmuson Library is the largest library in the U.S. state of Alaska, housing more than 2 million volumes. It is located on the University of Alaska Fairbanks campus. It is named in honor of Elmer E. Rasmuson, who supported its expansion.
  • Alaska State Library: The Alaska State Library and Historical Collections is located in Juneau, Alaska, with an office in Anchorage featuring the Talking Book Center.
  • Whale Fest: Whale Fest is a celebration of local marine wildlife, specifically cetaceans, held every November in Sitka in the U.S. state of Alaska. Guest speakers and researchers are brought to Sitka for a weekend of whale watching cruises, presentations, sea ch
  • Russia: Russia (Россия, Rossiya), also the Russian Federation ( , Rossiyskaya Federatsiya), is a transcontinental country extending over much of northern Eurasia. It is a semi-presidential republic comprising 83 federal subjects. Russia shares land borders w
  • Borough: A borough is an administrative division of various countries. In principle, the term borough designates a self-governing township although, in practice, official use of the term varies widely. The word 'borough' derives from a common Indo-European la
  • Arctic: The Arctic is the region around the Earth's North Pole, opposite the Antarctic region around the South Pole. The Arctic includes the Arctic Ocean (which overlies the North Pole) and parts of Canada, Greenland (a territory of Denmark), Russia, the Uni
  • Jade: Jade is an ornamental stone. The term jade is applied to two different rocks that are made up of different silicate minerals. Nephrite jade consists of the calcium- and magnesium-rich amphibole mineral actinolite (aggregates of which also make up one
  • Aleutian Islands: The Aleutian Islands (possibly from Chukchi aliat, "island") are a chain of more than 300 small volcanic islands forming an island arc in the Northern Pacific Ocean, occupying an area of 6,821 sq mi (17,666 km²) and extending about 1,200 mi (1,900 km
  • Northern Exposure: Northern Exposure is an Emmy Award-winning dramedy series. It was created by Brand-Falsey Productions, which was recognized with a rare pair of consecutive Peabody Awards in 1991–92 for the show's "depict[ion] in a comedic and often poetic way, [of]
  • Bering Sea: The Bering (or Imarpik ) Sea is a body of water in the Pacific Ocean that comprises a deep water basin (the Aleutian Basin) which rises through a narrow slope into the shallower water above the continental shelves. The Bering Sea is separated from th
  • Yukon River: The Yukon River is a major watercourse of northwestern North America. Over half of the river lies in the U.S. state of Alaska, with most of the other portion lying in and giving its name to Canada's Yukon Territory, and a small part of the river near
  • Bering Strait: thumb|200px|right|Webcam across the Bering Strait The Bering Strait (Берингов пролив) is a sea strait between Cape Dezhnev, Russia, the easternmost point (169°43' W) of the Asian continent and Cape Prince of Wales, Alaska, the westernmost point (168°
  • Mushing: Mushing is a general term for a sport or transport method powered by dogs, and includes carting, pulka, scootering, sled dog racing, skijoring, freighting, and weight pulling. More specifically, it implies the use of one or more dogs to pull a sled o
  • Nome, Alaska: Nome is a city located on the southern Seward Peninsula coast on Norton Sound of the Bering Sea. It is in the Nome Census Area of the U.S. state of Alaska. According to 2005 Census Bureau estimates, the city population was 3,590. Nome was incorporate
  • Picea sitchensis: The Sitka Spruce (Picea sitchensis) is a large coniferous evergreen tree growing to 50-70 m tall, exceptionally to 90 m tall, and with a trunk diameter of up to 5 m. It is by far the largest species of spruce, and the third tallest conifer species in
  • Alaska purchase: The Alaska Purchase (otherwise known as Seward's Folly or Seward's Icebox) by the United States from the Russian Empire occurred in 1867 at the behest of Secretary of State William Seward. The territory purchased was 586,412 square miles (1,518,800 k
  • Vitus Bering: Vitus Jonassen Bering (also, less correctly, Behring) (August 1681-December 19, 1741) was a Danish-born navigator in the service of the Russian Navy, a captain-komandor known among the Russian sailors as Ivan Ivanovich. He was born in the city of Hor
  • Inupiat: The Inupiat or Iñupiaq (from inuit- people - and piaq/t real, i.e. 'real people') are the Inuit people of Alaska's Northwest Arctic and North Slope boroughs and the Bering Straits region. Barrow, the northernmost city in the United States, is in the
  • University of Alaska System: The University of Alaska is a land-grant, sea-grant, and space-grant university founded in 1917 in Fairbanks, Alaska. The UA System consists of three main universities, each with several satellite campuses in smaller communities. They are: * Universi
  • Forget-me-not: Myosotis is a genus of flowering plants in the family Boraginaceae that are commonly called Forget-me-nots. There are about fifty species in the genus, with considerable variation. A considerable number of the species have small (1 cm diameter or les
  • Kuskokwim River: The Kuskokwim River is the 9th. largest river in the United States of America, ranked by average discharge volume at its mouth; 17th. largest by basin drainage area. The Kuskokwim River (Kusquqvak in Central Yup'ik) is a river, approximately 724 mi (
  • Frank Murkowski: Francis Hughes Murkowski (born March 28, 1933) is an American politician and a member of the Republican Party. He was a United States Senator from Alaska from 1981 until 2002 and Governor of Alaska from 2002 until 2006. Murkowski was born in Seattle,
  • Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act: The Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act, commonly abbreviated ANCSA, was signed into law by President Richard M. Nixon on December 18, 1971, the largest land claims settlement in United States history. ANCSA was intended to resolve the long-standing
  • Russian-American Company: The Russian-American Company was a semi-official colonial trading company started by Grigory Shelikhov and Nikolai Rezanov and chartered by Tsar Paul I in 1799. Records of the Russian-American Company National Archives and Records Administration The
  • Braided river: Not to be confused with the River Braid, Ballymena, Northern Ireland. For other uses see Braid (disambiguation). A braided river is one of a number of channel types and has a channel that consists of a network of small channels separated by small and
  • Matanuska-Susitna Valley: Matanuska-Susitna Valley (known locally as the Mat-Su Valley) is an area in Southcentral Alaska south of the Alaska Range north and northeast of Anchorage, Alaska. It is over 23,000 mile² (60,000 km²) in size, comprising the valleys of the Matanuska
  • Dall Sheep: The Dall Sheep (originally Dall's Sheep, sometimes called Thinhorn Sheep), Ovis dalli, is a wild sheep of the mountainous regions of northwest North America, ranging from white to slate brown and having curved yellowish brown horns. There are two put
  • Bob Bartlett: Edward Lewis "Bob" Bartlett (April 20, 1904 - December 11, 1968) was an American politician, and was a member of the Democratic Party. Bartlett was born in Seattle, Washington. After graduating from the University of Alaska in 1925, Bartlett began hi
  • Alaska Interior: The Alaska Interior covers most of that U.S. state's territory. It is largely wilderness. Mountains include Mount McKinley (Denali) in the Alaska Range and the Wrangell Mountains. The largest city in the interior is Fairbanks, Alaska's second-largest
  • Willow Grouse: The Willow Grouse (Europe) or Willow Ptarmigan (North America), Lagopus lagopus, is a medium-sized gamebird in the grouse family. It is a sedentary species, breeding in birch and other forests and tundra across northern Eurasia, and in Alaska and nor
  • 1925 serum run to Nome: During the 1925 serum run to Nome, also known as the "Great Race of Mercy", 20 mushers and about 150 sled dogs relayed diphtheria antitoxin 674 miles (1,085 km) by dog sled across the U.S. territory of Alaska in a record-breaking five and a half days
  • Tom Bodett: Tom Bodett (pronounced "Boh-DETT"; born February 23, 1955 in Champaign, Illinois) is an American author, voice actor and radio host. He is also the current spokesman for the hotel chain Motel 6 and is famous for popularizing the phrase, "We'll leave
  • Second Kamchatka expedition: The Second Kamchatka expedition (Russian: Вторая Камчатская экспедиция) was led by Dane Vitus Bering after being chosen by Peter I to lead the first Kamchatka expedition. The second expedition lasted roughly from 1733-1743. The goal of the expedition
  • Nenana Student Living Center: The Nenana Student Living Center is a boarding home for students from all over Alaska located in Nenana, Alaska. It is one of three in the state of Alaska. The students attend the regular Nenana City Public School and are not segregated in a separate



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