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Portal:Alaska

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Introduction

The flag of Alaska
Location of Alaska
The seal of Alaska

Alaska (/ə.ˈlæs.kə/ , ə-LASS-kə) is a non-contiguous U.S. state located in the northwestern regions of North America. Part of the Western United States region, it is one of the two non-contiguous U.S. states, alongside Hawaii. Alaska is considered to be the northernmost, westernmost, and, longitudinally, the easternmost state in the United States. It is a semi-exclave of the U.S., bordering the Canadian territory of Yukon and the province of British Columbia to the east. It shares a western maritime border in the Bering Strait with Russia's Chukotka Autonomous Okrug, and is closer to another continent (Asia) than any other U.S. state. The Chukchi and Beaufort Seas of the Arctic Ocean lie to the north, and the Pacific Ocean to the south.

Alaska is the largest U.S. state by area—comprising more total area than the next three largest states of Texas, California, and Montana combined—and is the world's largest semi-exclave and seventh-largest subnational division. With a population of 740,133 in 2024, it is the third-least populous and most sparsely populated state in the U.S., but the most populous territory in North America located mostly north of the 60th parallel, with more than quadruple the combined populations of Northern Canada and Greenland. Alaska contains the four largest cities in the United States by area, including the state capital, Juneau. However, Alaska's most populous city is Anchorage, and approximately half the state's residents live within its metropolitan area.

Indigenous people have lived in Alaska for thousands of years, and it is widely believed that the region served as the entry point for the initial settlement of the Americas by way of the Bering land bridge. The Russian Empire was the first to actively colonize the area beginning in the 18th century, eventually establishing Russian America, which spanned most of the current state and promoted and maintained a native Alaskan Creole population. The expense and logistical difficulty of maintaining this distant possession prompted its sale to the U.S. in 1867 for US$7.2 million, equivalent to $166 million in 2025. The area went through several administrative changes before becoming organized as a territory on May 11, 1912. It was admitted as the 49th state of the U.S. on January 3, 1959.

An abundance of natural resources—including commercial fishing and the extraction of natural gas and oil—has enabled Alaska to have one of the highest per capita incomes in the United States, despite having one of the smallest economies. U.S. Armed Forces bases and tourism also contribute to the economy; more than half of Alaska is federally owned, containing national forests, national parks, and wildlife refuges. It is among the most irreligious states and one of the first to legalize recreational marijuana. Alaska has the highest proportion of Native Americans of any U.S. state, at 22 percent. (Full article...)

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The Fairbanks Daily News-Miner is a morning daily newspaper serving the city of Fairbanks, Alaska, the Fairbanks North Star Borough, the Denali Borough, and the Yukon-Koyukuk Census Area in the U.S. state of Alaska. Because Fairbanks is located at a latitude of 64.838 degrees north, the News-Miner offices are located farther north than those of any other daily newspaper in North America. The paper is the oldest continuously operating daily in Alaska, and by circulation it is the second-largest daily in the state. It was purchased by the Helen E. Snedden Foundation in 2016. The Snedden family were longtime owners of the News-Miner, selling it to a family trust for Dean Singleton and Richard Scudder, founders of the Media News Group in 1992.

The News-Miner was founded as the Weekly Fairbanks News in 1903 by George M. Hill and assumed the News-Miner name in 1909, under editor William Fentress Thompson, when Zachary Hickman sold his newspaper, The Miner News, to the Fairbanks News. Thompson guided the paper through tough economic times as the gold near Fairbanks was mined out. During this period, the News-Miner absorbed Fairbanks' other newspapers and became the sole publication in Fairbanks. During the 1920s, the News-Miner experimented with aerial delivery to remote mining camps, becoming one of the first newspapers in the world to make regular deliveries by aircraft. After Thompson's death in 1926, former Fairbanks mayor Alfeld Hjalmar Nordale became the paper's editor.

In 1929, the News-Miner was purchased by Alaska industrialist Austin E. Lathrop, who operated it under a series of editors until 1950. In that year, the paper was purchased by Charles Willis Snedden, who proceeded on a course of modernization. Under Snedden's leadership, the News-Miner became one of the first papers in Alaska to print in color and survived a fire and the biggest flood in Fairbanks history. (Full article...)

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Diomede (Inupiaq: Iŋaliq; Russian: Диомид, romanizedDiomid) is an incorporated island city in the U.S. state of Alaska. Little Diomede Island is the smaller of the two Diomede Islands that are located in the middle of the Bering Strait; the larger of the two islands, Big Diomede Island, is part of Russia. As of 2020, the population of Diomede is 82.

Diomede's native name, Iŋaliq, means "the other one" or "the one over there". (Full article...)

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Brown bear in Denali National Park

Photo credit: Jean-Pierre Lavoie

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State facts

  • Total area: 663,268 mi2
    • Land: 571,936 mi2
    • Water: 91,332 mi2
  • Highest elevation: 20,310 ft (Denali)
  • Population 741,894 (2016 est)
  • Admission to the Union: January 3, 1959 (49th)

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