The
first Alaskan inhabitants came across
the Bering Land Bridge. This extinct
stretch of land used to link Russia
to Alaska during the Ice Age, but today
it is submerged. Its first settlers
were the Inuit, Yupik Eskimos, Aleuts,
Inupiaq, and many other American Indian
tribes. This route is widely believed
to be the one taken by all pre-Columbian
settlers of America.
Alaska
over the centuries became part of Russia.
On April 9, 1867, the US Senate purchased
it from Russia for around seven million
dollars at the time (around 134 million
today counting inflation).
Alaska
is not bordered by any other US state.
A land stretch of 500 miles of Canadian
soil separate Alaska from its homeland.
Alaska is, again, the largest state
in area in the USA with its 570,374
square miles. Its also has the longest
coastline of the other 49 states. Since
it has many islands, its shoreline is
very tidal. There are some areas that
have a 35-foot difference between high
and low tide. Alaska is also a very
wet state. It has three-and-a-half million
lakes just counting the ones that are
20 or more acres large. There are also
enormous marshland and wetland permafrost
areas, all covering 188,320 square miles,
mostly in the northern, western, and
south western lowlands. Sixteen thousand
square miles of the land are in the
form of frozen water, or glacier ice.
Alaska's
main export is seafood. Agriculture
there is only a fraction of the industry.
It mostly attends to its internal needs
within the state as it is difficult
for Alaskans to import food from mainland
USA. This difficulty comes from the
poor transportation infrastructure to
and within Alaska. This makes food prices
soar compared to the food prices in
mainland USA. There is also a strong
military pole that grosses high on Alaskan
income. They industrialize crude petroleum,
natural gas, coal, gold, precious metals,
etc.
The
alcoholism rate is very high in Alaska.
People there tend to get depressed due
to the intense cold and isolation. There
is also a high suicide, domestic abuse,
and violent crime rate probably due
to the alcohol. There is also something
called "brain-drain". When
students achieve recognition in the
academic field they usually flee to
mainland USA and never go back, leaving
behind the not-so-successful students.
Nevertheless, the University of Alaska
has been successful in taking care of
this problem. It offers the best 10
percent of high school graduates a four-year
scholarship.
So
you see, Alaska grows year by year in
the tourism field due to the magic of
its arctic land. Don't let the downside
of it keep you away from seeing the
beautiful side of it! You might die
without ever seeing the Aurora Borealis!
By
Michael Russell
Your Independent guide to Alaska
