Alaska Info
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Capital
City: Juneau
Economy: Oil production, fishing,
logging, tourism and mining.
Language Description: Primarily
English. Some Native American languages are spoken in the villages. The
Kenai Peninsula has a large number of "Old Believers" who speak
Russian.
Passport/Visa U.S.: Canadian
citizens need either a passport or a birth certificate accompanied by a
photo ID. Reconfirm travel document requirements with your carrier before
departure.
Population: 626,932
Religion: Christianity (Protestant
and Roman Catholic), though every major religion is represented.
Telephone Codes: 907
Time Zone: 9-10 hours behind
Greenwich Mean Time (-9 and -10 GMT). Daylight Saving Time is observed from
the first Sunday in April to the last Sunday in October
Voltage Requirements: 110
volts
Alaska's Flag:
The blue field is for the sky and the Forget-me-not, the state flower. The
North Star is for the future of the state of Alaska, the most northerly
of the Union. The dipper represents a Great Bear, symbolizing strength.
History of Alaska:
Vitus Bering, a Dane working for the Russians, and Alexei Chirikov discovered
the Alaskan mainland and the Aleutian Islands in 1741. 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. The transfer of the territory
took place on Oct. 18, 1867. 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 products to the U.S. economy. In 1968, a large oil
and gas reservoir near Prudhoe Bay on the Arctic Coast was found. 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. On June 20, oil started flowing through the 800-mile-long
pipeline from Prudhoe Bay to the port of Valdez. Other industries important
to Alaska's economy are fisheries, wood and wood products, furs, and tourism.
Denali National Park and Mendenhall Glacier in North Tongass National Forest
are of interest, as is the large totem pole collection at Sitka National
Historical Park. The Katmai National Park includes the “Valley of
Ten Thousand Smokes,” an area of active volcanoes.
Other Alaska Links:
Alaska Department of Education
Alaska Division of Tourism
Alaska Marine
Highway System
Alaska Municipal League
Alaska Tourism Marketing Council
Alaska Department
of Community and Regional Affairs
Alaska State Chamber of Commerce
Alaska State Library
Alaska Visitors Association
World Trade Center - Alaska |
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