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Facts About Alaska

• Alaska was purchased from Russia in 1867, and 45 years later the state was granted U.S. Territorial status. Statehood was proclaimed in 1959, and Alaska became the 49th state, entering the union just eight months before Hawaii. 

• State Symbols: Bird - Willow Ptarmigan. Fish - King Salmon. Fossil - Woolly Mammoth. Gem - Jade. Mineral - Gold. Motto - "North to the Future." Sport - Dog Mushing. Tree - Sitka Spruce. Flower - Forget-Me-Not. 

• Alaska's Wrangell-St. Elias National Park is the nation's largest. Its 2,2ll,000 acres of rugged peaks, glaciers, and wild rivers are gaining in popularity with outdoor enthusiasts. This area is also home to North America's second-highest peak, the 18,008-foot Mt. St. Elias. 

• Alaska has one of the simplest flags in the United States: eight gold stars on a field of blue. The blue field represents the Alaska sky and the forget-me-not flower. The constellation "Great Bear" symbolizes strength. 

• The most recorded snow in one season fell in Thompson Pass in 1952-53 near the ice-free port of Valdez: over 81 feet. The least recorded snow in one season fell in Barrow the northernmost community in the United States in 1935-36: 3 inches. 

• Alaska has no plants poisonous to the touch, such as poison ivy and poison oak which are found in almost all other states. 

• Almost 2 million barrels of oil a day reach Valdez through the Trans-Alaska Pipeline. 

• There are more active glaciers and ice fields in Alaska than in the rest of the inhabited world. The largest glacier is Malaspina at 805 square miles. 

• Temperatures in the Interior can range from -80 degrees Fahrenheit in winter to +90 degrees Fahrenheit in the summer, a difference of 170 degrees. 

• The 1,520 mile Alaska Highway was originally built as a World War II military supply route. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers directed the construction, and over 10,000 men worked in round-the-clock shifts, enduring wilderness conditions, freezing winter temperatures, and constant supply shortages. The highway was completed in just eight months. 

• In 1984, a gold nugget weighing 91.8 troy ounces (7.65 pounds) was found at Lower Glacier Creek, a tributary of the Kantishna River in Interior Alaska. At 1984 prices, the nugget was worth $33,048. Among the five largest gold nuggets in Alaska history, two have been discovered in the past decade. 

• The Arctic Circle is an imaginary line that extends in an arc across the upper third of Alaska, at approximately 66 degrees 33 minutes north of the equator. The Arctic Circle marks the southernmost latitude at which the sun does not set at summer solstice, or rise at winter solstice. 

• The magnetic field that creates colorful northern lights is active all year long, but long summer hours of sunlight overpower the subtle lights. 

• The Yukon River, at 1,979 miles is the third-longest river in the United States.

• Alaska has over 3 million lakes. Lake Iliamna, the largest, encompasses 1,100 square miles. 

• The White Pass & Yukon Rail Route rises from sea level to 2,885 feet in less than 20 miles, making it one of the steepest railroad grades in North America. 

• From Prince Rupert to Skagway, the Marine Highway winds through a maze of waterways sheltered from the ocean by a huge archipelago of forested islands that extend for some 500 miles. 

• The milky color of most glacial rivers is caused by silt, a fine powder created when glaciers pulverize rock as they move slowly down valleys. The glaciers of Glacier Bay have retreated over 62 miles in the past 200 years. When Captain George Vancouver charted the area in 1794, there was no Glacier Bay, only 4,000 foot thick ice. 

• Geographers have named more than 1,800 islands in Alaska. 

• More than half of the parklands of the United states are found in Alaska. In all, Alaska contains over 322 million acres of public lands. 

• Anchorage International Airport, the "air crossroads of the world" is a hub for air travel to and from Europe, Asia, Hawaii, the Lower 48 and the rest of Alaska.

Source: Alaska Tourism Marketing Council