X-Nico

78 unusual facts about Alaska


56th Training Squadron

On 20 June 1942, the air echelon of the 56th took its newly assigned Bell P-39 Airacobras to Nome, Alaska, where it served in combat against the Japanese forces that invaded the Aleutian Islands during the summer of 1942.

A4 Pod

In January 2013, 55 year old matriarch Yakat (A11) was found dead on a beach near Ketchikan, Alaska.

Alaska gubernatorial election, 2006

Murkowski also faced opposition from former state lawmaker and Fairbanks businessman John Binkley.

Incumbent Frank Murkowski (R), first elected governor in 2002, ran for reelection but was defeated in a landslide in the Republican primary by former Wasilla mayor Sarah Palin on August 22, 2006.

Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act

The towns of Eagle and Glennallen, both in the shadow of new monuments, produced official proclamations stating that the towns would not support NPS authorities, not enforce NPS regulations, and would shelter individuals who broke the regulations.

Residents in the Cantwell area undertook a large act of civil disobedience known as the Great Denali Trespass — they went into the park, fired off guns, made campfires, and conducted various other activities prohibited under Federal regulations.

Alaska v. Native Village of Venetie Tribal Government

The local tribal council in Venetie, Alaska, wanted to collect tax from non-tribal members doing business on tribal lands.

Alaska-Juneau Gold Mining Company

Its Transfer Agent was Central Trust Company while its Registrar was Metropolitan Trust Company.

Alaska's Flag

At that time Benny was a thirteen-year-old seventh-grader of Russian-Aleut and Swedish descent, studying at the Territorial School at Seward and a resident of the Jesse Lee Mission Home.

Anna Marly

They originally moved to South America before finally settling in Lazy Mountain, Alaska, she and her husband eventually becoming US citizens.

Arnold J. Isbell

Isbell was promoted to Captain in 1942 while in command of the Naval Air Station, Sitka, Alaska.

Balto

The serum was transported by train from Anchorage to Nenana, where the first musher embarked as part of a relay aimed at delivering the needed serum to Nome.

Balto (1919 – March 14, 1933) was a Alaskan Malamute sled dog who led his team on the final leg of the 1925 serum run to Nome, in which diphtheria antitoxin was transported from Anchorage, Alaska, to Nenana, Alaska, by train and then to Nome by dog sled to combat an outbreak of the disease.

Can-Am United Floorball Club

The club is a mix of three North American floorball clubs: Alaska's Arctic Floorball Monkeys, the Boston Bandyts Floorball Club, and the Edmonton Panthera Floorball Club.

Cassiar Country

After the excitement of the gold rushes, the Cassiar was nearly forgotten until the early 1940s when the American military built the Alaska Highway from Dawson Creek, British Columbia to Fairbanks, Alaska, thus further opening up the area and providing ease of transportation like never before.

Chatanika River

Chatanika, Alaska, located near the river, shares its name with the river.

Chena, Alaska

There was a pump station to provide water for the hydraulic mining operations on the other side of Chena Ridge, near Ester.

Commonwealth North

Founded in 1979, it is the oldest and largest public affairs forum in Alaska.

Dale Nichols

Upon leaving his post at Britannica, Nichols spent the remainder of his life traveling, splitting the majority of his time between Arizona, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alaska, and Guatemala.

David W. Márquez

On March 31, 2005, Governor Frank Murkowski appointed Márquez as Attorney General for the State of Alaska.

Davidson Ditch

Davidson Ditch lay dormant until 1958, when the new Chatanika Power Company purchased it and used one of the siphons to power a hydroelectric plant that drove a dredging operation near Chatanika.

Drake Olson

After retiring from racing, Olson became a glacier pilot in Alaska.

East Montlake Park

A plaque at the bottom of the totem pole states that it was carved in 1937 by John Dewey Wallace, a Haida chief, in Waterfall, Alaska.

Elisabeth de Stroumillo

De Stroumillo's work was varied and detailed, including accounts of travels in Alaska, India and much of Europe, in particular France.

Energy use in California

{fact} In addition to oil from California, California’s refineries process crude oil from Alaska and foreign suppliers.

Ernest William Hawkes

His 1914 publication Dance Festivals of the Alaskan Eskimo was based on the three years Hawkes spent in the Bering Strait District, including on the Diomede Islands and at St. Michael.

Ethan Berkowitz

Berkowitz received more votes in 2008 (142,560) than any Democrat who had ever run against Young for Congress, and the 2008 race was the closest any Democrat had come to unseating Young since 1990, when John Devens of Valdez received 48% of the vote.

Forty Mile

Tetlin Junction, Alaska, a community in the United States also known as Forty Mile

Gippsland Lakes

The wetlands provide habitat for about 20,000 waterbirds – including birds from as far afield as Siberia and Alaska.

Grand Trunk Pacific Railway

It would follow one of the routes surveyed by Sandford Fleming from Winnipeg to Port Simpson at the end of the Portland Canal which formed part of the boundary between British Columbia and Alaska.

Harry Karstens

He also carried freight and mail with Charles McGonagall via dog teams among the frontier towns of Fairbanks, Valdez and Kantishna, being paid $75 per month.

Heating degree day

In the course of a heating season, for example, the number of HDD for New York City is 5,050 whereas that for Barrow, Alaska is 19,990.

Hellboy: The Troll Witch and Others

In the story Hellboy travels to Alaska in 1961, where he finds not only the grave of the recently deceased Hercules (who lived out the final years of his life in anonymity as a school janitor) but a monstrous hydra.

Iditarod Trail

The Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race, named after the now-abandoned town of Iditarod, commemorates the last great goldrush in America to the Iditarod gold fields and the critical role that dogs played in the settlement and development of Alaska.

Ilokano language

Called the "Manong" generation, the Ilocano became the first Filipino ethnic group to emigrate en masse to the United States, where they formed sizable communities in Hawaii, California, Washington and Alaska.

Isabel Pass

Isabel Pass is a gap in the eastern section of the Alaska Range which serves as a corridor for the Richardson Highway about 11 miles from Paxson.

J. P. Hubrick

A resident of McCarthy, Alaska, Hubrick started the town's first newspaper, the Cooper Bee in February 1916.

John C. Acton

Next he served as Commanding Officer, USCGC Cape Henlopen, a search and rescue patrol boat in Petersburg, Alaska, and then completed his active duty at Vessel Traffic Service, New Orleans.

John W. Nordstrom

While working at a sawmill he read a newspaper account of the discovery of gold in the Klondike and headed to Alaska to make his fortune.

Josh Phelps

Phelps is the all-time leader in home runs for a player born in Alaska.

Kathleen Bryson

Bryson spent the first two years of her life in the Arctic village of Wainwright and, when she was three, her family moved to Kenai, where she lived until she was 18, whereupon she moved to Stockholm to study archaeology.

Knik River

Much of its length is paralleled by the paved Old Glenn Highway and the paved (as of 2000) Knik River Road, along which can be found the community of Knik River.

The term "knik," present in the names of the river, the arm of Cook Inlet, and the glacier, as well as the communities of Knik-Fairview and Knik River, derives from the Inupiaq word igniq ("fire").

Les Nessman

While Sanders simply flew into Anchorage to make the appearance, Les took the wrong bus, wound up in Texas, hitchhiked from there to North Dakota and then to Great Slave Lake, rode with a bush pilot to Whitehorse, bought a motorscooter, was sighted near Tok, was arrested for a minor traffic infraction, and then was bailed out of jail by the station.

Little Gold Creek, Yukon

Little Gold Creek is a border crossing located on the Top of the World Highway between Dawson City, Yukon and Tok, Alaska, at the Alaska/Yukon border.

Lynn Canal Highway

-- Please use "DOT&PF" (official & unique to Alaska), *not* "ADOT" (used by Arizona Department of Transportation). --> calls for extending "The Road" northward from Juneau to Skagway, connecting with the Klondike Highway and thus with the main continental road system.

Margretta Styles

Their son, Mike Styles, was the founder and race director of the Midnight Sun Run in Fairbanks, Alaska.

Marmot Day

Senate Bill 58, sponsored by Sen. Linda Menard, R-Wasilla, was first introduced by the late Dr. Curtis Menard, Linda Menard's husband and former state legislator.

Matsumae clan

Like several other Japanese before them, they had been found in the Aleutians, off the coast of Alaska, by Russian sailors and had asked to be brought back to Japan.

McGrath, Alaska

The Old Town McGrath site, across the river from present-day McGrath, was a meeting and trading place for Big River, Nikolai, Telida, and Lake Minchumina villagers.

Minto, Alaska

The people from the Minto band were eventually joined by families from Nenana, Toklat, Crossjacket and Chena.

Nintendo North Bend

The North Bend center handles distribution for the Western Coast, Rocky Mountain, Midwestern, Hawaii, and Alaska regions.

No-Fi Soul Rebellion

No-Fi Soul Rebellion is an American musical group formed in Alaska in 2001.

Noel, Missouri

Noel is one of a few "Christmas Cities" in America, along with North Pole, Alaska, Christmas, Michigan, Santa Claus, Indiana and Bethlehem, Pennsylvania.

Ohagamiut, Alaska

Ohagamiut (Urr’agmiut in Central Alaskan Yup'ik) was a Yup'ik village along the Kuskokwim River in the Bethel Census Area of the southwestern part of the U.S. state of Alaska, located between Crow Village and Kalskag.

PFD Otter

PFD Otter is a spokesman and advocate for water safety, who spearheads the "Kids Don't Float" program created in Homer, Alaska.

Princess Tours

Princess Tours runs ten cars a day (five north, five south) from Anchorage to Fairbanks on the Alaska Railroad, stopping at Talkeetna, Denali, and occasionally Whittier.

Prospect Creek

Prospect Creek, Alaska, site of the coldest US temperature observation (-80°F)

Red Dog Mine

Red Dog Mine, Alaska, the census-designated place that includes the mine

Roman Catholic Diocese of Juneau

It is led by a prelate bishop which serves as pastor of the mother church, Cathedral of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary in the City of Juneau.

Rubicon Minerals

In September 1999 Rubicon announced encouraging assay results from a large sulphide discovery on the Palmer project near Haines, Alaska.

Ruger Alaskan

On August 2, 2009, Soldotna, Alaska resident Greg Brush was walking his dog, and heard a twig snap.

Siberian Husky

Dogs from the Anadyr River and surrounding regions were imported into Alaska from 1908 (and for the next two decades) during the gold rush for use as sled dogs, especially in the "All-Alaska Sweepstakes," a 408-mile (657-km) distance dog sled race from Nome, to Candle, and back.

Slana River

It begins near Mount Kimball in the Alaska Range and flows generally south to meet the larger river near Slana.

Tanadgusix Corporation

TDX Power is a power production and distribution company with a hybrid wind-diesel power plant in Saint Paul (the largest hybrid wind-diesel power plant in Alaska), a 4-MW Cat diesel power plant in Sand Point, Alaska, and a 10-MW diesel and natural gas power plant on the North Slope in Deadhorse.

Texas, Our Texas

The first word of the third line was originally largest, but when Alaska became the largest state when it was admitted to the United States in 1959, the word was replaced with boldest.

Transportation in North America

The road network extends from Prudhoe Bay, Alaska, and Anchorage, Alaska, in the extreme northwest, to Sydney, Nova Scotia, Cartwright, Newfoundland and Labrador, Blanc Sablon and Natashquan, Quebec, in the extreme east, all the way to Yaviza, Panama, in the extreme south.

United States Senate election in Alaska, 2004

Mike Miller, younger brother of Terry Miller, involved in the family business in North Pole, also served in the Alaska House of Representatives and Alaska Senate from 1983 to 2001 and was the Republican nominee for lieutenant governor in 1994

Upper Kalskag, Alaska

Over the years, residents of Crow Village, Ohagamiut, Russian Mission, and Paimute also moved to the village.

Vsevolod Leonidovich Roshko

The next posting was Russian Catholic Mission in Dillingham, Alaska, USA, where Roshko take a serious study of life and work of Russian missionary Herman of Alaska.

Walrus Island, Pribilof Islands

This islet should not be confused with the Walrus Islands in the Walrus Islands State Game Sanctuary, located close to Hagemeister Island (in the Dillingham Census Area), nor with Walrus Island located in the southeastern shores of the Bristol Bay (in the Aleutians East Borough).

Walter Harper

At the age of 16, Harper started going to Tortella School, an Episcopal boarding school associated with St. Marks Mission in Nenana, Alaska.

Wards Cove Packing Company

Wards Cove Packing Company was a cannery located in the community of Ward Cove, on the northern outskirts of the larger city of Ketchikan in the U.S. state of Alaska.

White-cheeked Starling

There is a record from Homer, Alaska in 1998 which probably arrived with a ship (West 2002).

William Parkhurst Winans

He recorded a biography of Edward Marsden, an Indian of the tribe Metlakatla in Alaska.

William Riker

We learn that Riker grew up in Valdez, Alaska; that his mother, Elizabeth, died when he was two years old; and that he was raised by his father until the age of 15, when he left home.

Women's Bay

Womens Bay, Alaska, a census-designated place in Kodiak Island Borough, Alaska, in the United States

Zachariah J. Loussac

In 1907, Loussac fled Czarist Russia for Alaska, living in Nome, Unalakleet, Iditarod and Juneau before settling down in Anchorage in 1916 to open a drugstore at Fourth Avenue and E Street.


Alaska boundary dispute

Some 100,000 fortune seekers moved through Alaska to the Klondike gold region.

Alaska Legislative Council

In 1998 the Council sued the Federal Government over plans by the United States to take over Alaska's subsistence fishing program under the Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act, claiming the proposal would violate the Alaska Statehood Compact, which gave Alaska the right to manage its own fish and game resources.

Alexander McCandless

Christopher McCandless (1968–1992), also known as Alexander McCandless, American hiker who died in the Alaska wilderness

Anchorage Alaska Temple

The west side of the Anchorage Alaska Temple features the seven stars of the Big Dipper pointing to the North Star, a symbol found on the Alaskan flag and on the Salt Lake Temple.

Clinocottus globiceps

C. globiceps is most commonly found in the eastern Pacific from Kodiak Island (Alaska) to Gaviota (southern California).

Craig Stowers

After earning his law degree, Stowers served as a law clerk for U.S. Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals Judge Robert Boochever and then went on to serve as a law clerk for Alaska Supreme Court Justice Warren Matthews.

Danny Chen

Pvt. Chen served with C Company, 3rd Battalion, 21st Infantry Regiment, 1st Stryker Brigade Combat Team, 25th Infantry Division, which is based in Fort Wainwright, Alaska.

Denali Highway

After crossing the Susitna River the road extends across the glaciers outwash plains to the Nenana River, and then down the Nenana River to Cantwell on the George Parks Highway (Alaska #3).

Dennis Stock

In the mid-1970s, he traveled to Japan and the Far East, and also produced numerous features series, such as photographs of contrasting regions, like Hawaii and Alaska.

Dick Wilmarth

In a 2001 interview with the Anchorage Daily News, Wilmarth said he saw the 1973 Iditarod as not really a sled dog race but more of a time to enjoy the Alaska wilderness with friends.

District of Alaska

In 1902 the Alaska Railroad began to be built, which would connect from Seward to Fairbanks by 1914, though Alaska still has no railroad connecting it to the lower 48 states today.

Drift River Terminal Facility

It is located in Alaska along Cook Inlet, at the terminus of the Drift River, an historic floodplain of nearby volcanic Mount Redoubt.

Dwayyo

Several University of Maryland students wrote that they had investigated the origin of the unknown creature and had traced its ancestry to the Dway which according to the researchers the Dway is an animal which inhabited the left bank of the upper Amazon River and the Yo which apparently immigrated from the Yangtze River plateau via the glacier bridge which connected Alaska and China.

Fairbanks North Star Borough School District

The Fairbanks North Star Borough School District is a public school district based in Fairbanks, Alaska (USA).

Flag of Alaska

The North Star is for the future state of Alaska, the most northerly in the union.

George Parks

George Alexander Parks (1883–1984), American engineer and Governor of Alaska Territory

Han language

Hän language, an endangered Native American language spoken in Alaska and Yukon

Heliskiing

He started guiding skiers out of Alyeska Resort, Alaska, using a Hiller helicopter with a Soly conversion.

John R. Pillion

In Congress, he was most notable as an opponent of statehood for both Hawaii and Alaska.

John Troy

John Weir Troy (1868–1942), American Democratic politician, Governor of Alaska Territory, 1933–1939

Kantner

Seth Kantner, writer who has attended the University of Alaska and studied journalism at the University of Montana

Katey Walter

Walter, who is fluent in Russian, works as project coordinator at Chersky for joint Russian-U.S. projects over the International Polar Year, aiming to network arctic observatories in Alaska and Russia for long term monitoring of climate change in cold regions.

KSWD

KSEW, a radio station (950 AM) licensed to Seward, Alaska, United States, which used the call sign KSWD from September 1991 to May 2008

Lituya

MV Lituya, shuttle ferry for the Alaska Marine Highway System

Luzula wahlenbergii

Luzula wahlenbergii has a relatively wide distribution, growing across Arctic Eurasia, far-east Russia (including Transbaikal), Alaska, Greenland, Canada and the mountains of Scandinavia.

Marie Drake

Prior to that, a lyrical adaptation of "Maryland, My Maryland", written by a Juneau high school student during the early years of the 20th century, had been recognized by the Pioneers of Alaska as Alaska's official song, but had not received any such recognition by a governmental body.

Michael Henry Herbert

He created with the U.S. Secretary of State John Hay a joint commission to establish the border between the U.S. district of Alaska and British interests in the Dominion of Canada, where gold had been found in the 1890s, which resulted in the definitive Alaskan boundary treaty of 1903.

Mountain Village

Mountain Village, Alaska, city in Wade Hampton Census Area, Alaska, United States

Murkowski

Lisa Murkowski, daughter of the former, U.S. politician, incumbent Senator from Alaska (since 2002)

Nenana River

The upper valley of the river furnishes approximately 100 mi (160 km) of the northern route of both the Alaska Railroad and the Parks Highway (Alaska State Highway 3) connecting Fairbanks and Anchorage.

Office of Territorial Affairs

The first Director of Territories was Ernest Gruening, who served from 1934 to 1939, and later served as the territorial governor of Alaska and then as one of the first senators elected from Alaska upon statehood.

PABT

Bettles Airport (ICAO location indicator: PABT), in Bettles, Alaska, United States

PACD

Cold Bay Airport (ICAO location indicator: PACD), in Cold Bay, Alaska, United States

Password Plus and Super Password

However, a viewer in Anchorage, Alaska called the United States Secret Service and reported that "Quinn" was really Kerry Lee Ketchum, who was wanted on state fraud charges in Alaska and Indiana as well as federal mail fraud charges in California.

Puff model

In a joint program called University Partnering for Operational Support (UPOS) between the University of Alaska Fairbanks and the John Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory (early 2000s), Puff was integrated into the U.S. Air Force Weather Agency (AFWA) volcano monitoring system by Rorik Peterson and David Tillman.

Randy Wayne White

White has traveled extensively and participated in a wide variety of adventures, including dog sledding in Alaska, helping to re-establish Little League baseball in Cuba, and ferrying Cuban refugees to safety during the Mariel boatlift.

Richard H. Geoghegan

Meanwhile he unsuccessfully sought a position as professor of Chinese language at the University of Washington in Seattle, and the early days of 1903 he accepted an invitation by the well-known judge James Wickersham to come to Alaska as a court stenographer.

Robert R. Coats

As part of the Alaska Branch of the USGS, he continued working in Alaska, mapping in the Chichagof, Anikovik, Nome, Solomon, Kigluaik and Kobuk River areas, among others.

Russian colonization of the Americas

Eager to release themselves of the burden, the Russians sold Fort Ross in 1842, and in 1867, after less than a month of negotiations, the United States accepted Emperor Alexander II's offer to sell Alaska.

Salix pulchra

It is native to northern North America, where it occurs in Alaska, Yukon, the Northwest Territories, and Nunavut.

Salmon shark

Animals are believed to range as far south as the Sea of Japan and as far north as 65 degrees north in Alaska and in particular in Prince William Sound during the annual salmon run.

Sam Keith

His most notable work was the 1973 best seller One Man's Wilderness: An Alaskan Odyssey in which he edited the journals and photographs of his friend Richard Proenneke's solo experiences in Alaska.

SeaPerch

Currently, 112 schools in seven states are participating across the United States in Alaska, Hawaii, Washington, Georgia, Pennsylvania, Maryland and Connecticut.

Seguam

Seguam Island, an island in the Andreanof Islands in the Aleutian Islands in Alaska.

Skagway, Alaska

In the Three Stooges short In the Sweet Pie and Pie, Skagway receives a humorous mention: "Edam Neckties, with three convenient locations: Skagway, Alaska; Little America; and Pago Pago."

Soulcatcher

A Soulcatcher (Haboolm Ksinaalgat, 'keeper of breath') is an amulet (Aatxasxw) used by the shaman (Halayt) of the Pacific Northwest Coast of British Columbia and Alaska.

Stone sheep

Stone's Sheep are primarily found in Northern British Columbia and can often be seen by travellers licking minerals along the side of the Alaska Highway in areas such as Summit Lake, Stone Mountain Provincial Park and Muncho Lake Provincial Park.

Vatnajökull

The glacier was used as the setting for the opening sequence (set in Siberia) of the 1985 James Bond film A View to a Kill, in which Bond (played for the last time by Roger Moore) eliminated a host of armed villains before escaping in a submarine to Alaska.

William Henry Bay

After Alaska was purchased by the US Government in 1867, the first effort to identify the timber trade route from Lynn Canal to Haines via William Henry Bay was made in 1869 by Navy Commander Richard Worsam Meade.