Alaska facts:

Alaska is one fifth the size of the entire continental United States (586,000 square miles).

Alaska has 33,000 miles of coast line, more than the entire continental United States and is over twice the size of Texas.

Alaska is only 55 miles from the former Soviet Union.

Alaska has 19 mountain peaks over 14,000 feet and has the highest mountain peak on the North American continent, Mt. McKinley (20,320 ft.).

Alaska has approximately 50 earthquakes each year with a magnitude greater than five on the Richter scale. Alaska sustained the greatest earthquake on the North American continent on Good Friday, 1964.

Alaska has at least 70 active volcanoes.

Alaska has more than half of the world’s glaciers.

Alaska has 3 million lakes.

Alaska’s oil pipeline is 789 miles long, crosses three mountain ranges, and 70 rivers or streams. It has the capacity to move 2 million barrels of crude oil per day.

The Flag of Alaska portrays the Big Dipper and the North Star on a field of blue.

The State Flower is the Forget-Me-Not.

The State Bird is Ptarmigan.

Daylight in Anchorage in summer can last up to 19.21 hours. In winter, daylight last only 5.28 hours.

In Barrow, the sun rises May 10 and sets August 2 (84 days of sunlight). The sun sets November 18 and rises January 24 (67 days of darkness).

According to the 2000 U.S. Census, there are 626,932 people living in Alaska. 15.6 % of these are American Indian or Alaskan Native (98,043 people). Roughly one third of the state’s population lives in Anchorage, Alaska’s largest city. Other races include African American; Asian; and Native Hawaiian and other Pacific Islanders.

There is very little road structure in Alaska. Most of the state is only accessible by air or water. Juneau is the only state capital on the continental U.S. unreachable by land.

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