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About Alaska

ABOUT ALASKA

Alaska was Admitted to Statehood:

January 3, 1959

Capital: Juneau

Nicknames: Great land and Last Frontier

Motto: "North to the Future"

Bird: Willow Ptarmigan

Fish: King Salmon

Flower: forget me not

Gem: Jade

Tree: Sitka Spruce

Song: "Alaska's Flag"

The tremendous land mass of Alaska—equal to one-fifth of the continental U.S.—was unexplored in 1867 when Secretary of State William Seward arranged for its purchase from the Russians for $7,200,000. Despite a price of about two cents an acre, the purchase was widely ridiculed as “Seward's Folly.” The first official census (1880) reported a total of 33,426 Alaskans, all but 430 being of aboriginal stock. The Gold Rush of 1898 resulted in a mass influx of more than 30,000 people. Since then, Alaska has contributed billions of dollars' worth of gold, oil, wood and other products to the U.S. economy.

Nickname: The state is commonly called “The Last Frontier” or “Land of the Midnight Sun”

Origin of name: Corruption of Aleut word meaning “great land” or “that which the sea breaks against”

10 largest cities (2005 est.): Anchorage, 275,043; Fairbanks, 31,324; Juneau, 30,987; Sitka, 8,986; Wasilla, 8,471; Kenai, 7,464; Ketchikan, 7,410; Palmer, 6,920; Kodiak, 6,273; Bethel, 6,262;

2005 resident population est.: 663,661

Land area: 571,951 sq mi. (1,4 81,353 sq km)

The Prudhoe Bay reservoir, with an estimated recoverable 10 billion barrels of oil and 27 trillion cubic feet of gas, is twice as large as any other oil field in North America. The Trans-Alaska pipeline was completed in 1977 at a cost of $7.7 billion. Oil flows through the 800-mile-long pipeline from Prudhoe Bay to the port of Valdez.

Alaska longest river, the Yukon, runs 2,300 Miles, 1,400 in Alaska and 900 in Canada. There are more than 3,000 rivers in Alaska and over 3 million lakes. The largest, Lake Iliamna, encompasses over 1,000 square miles.

Each year Alaska has approximately 5,000 earthquakes, including 1,000 that measure above 3.5 on the Richter scale. Of the ten strongest earthquakes ever recorded in the world, three have occurred in Alaska.

On March 27, 1964, North America's strongest recorded earthquake, moment magnitude 9.2 rocked central Alaska.

Of the nation's 20 highest mountains, 17 are in Alaska. Mount McKinley ( 20,320 feet ) in the Alaska Range is the highest in North America.

The National Park Service oversees more than 50 million acres of Alaska land. Six million-acre Denali National Park and Preserve is its most visited.

The Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race, know as the Last Great Race on Earth, attracts mushers worldwide for the Anchorage to Nome trek, about 1,100 miles.

Alaska Extremes: the coldest day ever recorded: minus 80 degree's F at Prospect Creek Camp, Jan.23, 1971.The hottest day: 100 degree's F at Fort Yukon, June 27, 1915. The deepest single snowfall ever recorded in Alaska: 62 inches, Thompson Pass, Dec. 7, 1955.

Alaska has more than 5,000 glaciers covering 100,000 square miles. There are more active glaciers and ice fields in Alaska than in the rest of the inhabited world. The largest glacier is the Malaspina at 850 square miles. Five percent of the state, or 29,000 square miles, is covered by glaciers.

Alaska boasts the northernmost (Point Barrow), the easternmost (Semisopochnoi Island in the Aleutians), and the westernmost (Little Diomede Island) points in the United States. This is possible because Alaska straddles the international dateline.

Alaska has 6,640 miles of coastline and, including islands, has 33,904 miles of shoreline.

If you want to learn more about traveling to Alaska contact the Anchorage Convention and Visitors Bereau Website

http://www.anchorage.net/

FACTS ABOUT MOOSE

Life span: 15-25 years
Weight: 550-700 kg (1200-1500 lbs)
Body length: 2.5-2.7 metres

Moose are large even-toed herbivorous mammals, the largest of the deer family.

Moose vary in size and shape. Their colour varies from a little brown to a dusty black depending on the season and age of the animal. Calves, in comparison, are often a light rusty colour.

Moose have long, lighter-colored legs with the front pair longer than the hind ones. Other features include a long nose, drooping lip, hump at the shoulders and small tail. The flap of skin that hangs beneath the throat is called a BELL.

Males weigh on average over 550 kg (1200 lbs) and females often more than 400 kg (900 lbs). New born calves weigh around 15 kg but quickly increase in size, around 300 or 400 pounds by its first winter. An Alaskan moose, one of the largest sub-group, discovered in 1897 holds the record for being the largest known modern deer. It was a bull standing 2.34 metres and weighed 816kg. Its RACK (or antler spread) was 199cm.

Height at the shoulders generally ranges between 6 ½-7 ½ feet (over 2 metres).

Only the males have antlers, massive flattened ones averaging 160cm across and 20kg in weight. These antlers have as many as 30 TINES (or spikes), the shape differing from animal to animal.

A young moose's first pair of antlers grow from two tiny bumps on their head that they have had from birth. A bull of about a year old can be seen on the right with the first signs of antler growth visible.

Mature males shed their antlers once a year in November/December and replace them with new larger ones in the Spring. They are formed of living tissue supplied by blood through a network of vessels covered with a soft smooth skin called VELVET. Eventually the tissue solidifies, the velvet is scraped off and the antlers become completely formed of mineralised dead matter. Their main function is for display during the mating season and dominance within the herd.

A moose, in order to stay healthy, must eat 40 pounds of browse daily.