Unearthing Alaska’s Best-Kept Secrets And Uniquely Chilly Quirks
When a state is a little harder to reach than others, it has more opportunities to develop a unique culture. And when that state is blessed with a unique geographical position, its uniqueness is baked into the landscapes and skies themselves.
Although Alaska's nationwide perception often begins and ends at "cold," the 49th state has both of these wonderful overarching qualities going for it. But it's one thing to say that and an entirely different matter to actually show what makes Alaska so special. Let's have a look and see what's been waiting for everyone all along.
It's home to one of the world's tallest mountains
Although Alaska's Denali mountain is reputed to be the highest peak in North America, USA Today reported that it's actually closer to the world's tallest mountain than people realize. From a certain point of view, it's even taller than Mount Everest.
Although Mount Everest's summit towers over Denali's by 9,000 feet, that mostly has to do with the elevation of its base. If these mountains were measured purely by how tall they were from base to peak, Denali would be about 3,000 feet taller than Everest.
The skies fill with dazzling lights
Although Alaska isn't the only place where a person could see the famous Northern Lights, it's considered one of the best. Not only does the area around Fairbanks see Aurora Borealis activity often, but there aren't many other places in the world that can offer as clear of a view of them.
It's apparently not hard to track when they'll show up, either. The University of Alaska at Fairbanks's Geophysical Institute has a space on its website dedicated to aurora forecasting. Visitors can not only see if there's any aurora activity, but they can gauge how strong it is.
The state's flag was designed by a 13-year-old
According to the Alaska Historical Society, the Alaskan America Legion held a contest for schoolchildren between grades seven and 12 to design a flag in 1927. This occurred when Alaska was still an American territory, but Governor George Parks believed such a contest would help the region make the jump to statehood.
The winning flag was designed by 13-year-old Benny Benson (not pictured), who was attending school in Seward after spending years in an orphanage due to his mother's passing from pneumonia and a devastating house fire breaking up his family. Despite these tragedies, his flag design was hopeful, as the north star symbolized Alaska's future as a state, and the big dipper symbolized its strength. He was awarded a watch decorated with his own design and a $1,000 scholarship.
Alaska often grows the world's largest veggies
According to Atlas Obscura, President Franklin D. Roosevelt arranged for a farming community in Alaska's Matanuska Valley in 1935, and its first members didn't have it easy. They had to adjust to harsher climates than they were used to, disease outbreaks, supply shortages, and an incredibly short growing season. However, it turned out that a short growing season was all they needed.
That's because once these challenges were overcome, they discovered that Alaska's uncanny growing conditions allow for vegetables not only to grow larger than they do anywhere else but to do so within days. Thanks to rich soil and the potential to experience 20 hours of sunlight at once during the summer, Alaska has yielded multiple record-breaking vegetables like a 138-pound cabbage, a carrot weighing 64 pounds, and an utterly massive 2,051-pound pumpkin.
Alaskans have been always been dog sledding
According to Travel Alaska, dog sledding or mushing is Alaska's state sport, and the practice is so vital to its history that no other choice would really fit the state. That's because Alaskans have been mushing since before Europeans were even aware of the area's existence.
The sport is still as alive in Alaska as it was then, as it's the home of the famous annual Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race. And not only do similar competitions across the world typically use Alaskan Malamute dogs, but some Alaskans still use dog sleds as a means of transportation to this day.
The "Midnight Sun" lasts a long time
It may not look like it, but the first pitch of this baseball game happened at about 10 pm. According to Explore Fairbanks, this Midnight Sun Game is an annual summer tradition that highlights just how bright Alaska's famous Midnight Sun shines at even the latest hours.
Although many people are aware that Alaska is known as the land of the Midnight Sun, it's nonetheless easy to underestimate how long the season when this phenomenon is present lasts. Although how much of the day this seemingly ever-present sunlight takes up varies from month to month, the overall Midnight Sun season runs from about April 22 to August 20 each year.
Alaska's Russian influence is subtle, but it's there
Those who remember their history classes may recall that Alaska first became a U.S. territory after it was purchased from Russia in 1867. However, the years leading up to that sale saw Alaska as a site of significant Russian settlement, exploration, and trade.
Naturally, that means some remnants of Russian presence in Alaska are still there, and the biggest example of this remaining influence is the St. Michael Russian Orthodox Cathedral. in Sitka. According to Alaska's News Source, this was the first Russian Orthodox church in the entire United States, and some of the relics still housed inside date back to the 1700s.
No state is better prepared for earthquakes than Alaska
According to The Verge, an earthquake that measured 7.0 on the Richter scale ravaged Anchorage, Alaska, on November 20, 2018. Although such earthquakes have proved devastating both in terms of infrastructure and human life in other parts of the world, a combination of luck and incredibly diligent earthquake preparations spared Alaska from a similar fate.
Not only were there no fatalities resulting from the earthquake, but the diligent, round-the-clock work of road crews ensured that even severely damaged roads could go back to accepting traffic within days of the incident. As Shannon McCarthy from the Alaska Department of Transportation and Public Facilities told the outlet, Alaska has more earthquakes than any other state in the Union, which has sharpened the state's disaster preparation procedures over the years.
Alaska residents have the most elbow room in the country
According to Alaska's state website, this photo technically captures half of the state's population at once. That's because half of the state's residents live in Anchorage, and the rest are spread out so thinly that there's almost a square mile for each person living in the whole state.
Although Alaska's famous cold likely has its own impact on population density, Alaska's massive size is also a significant factor. In the interest of comparison, it's worth noting that New York residents have an average of 0.003 square miles between them. With these statistics in mind, it's no surprise that Alaska has the lowest population density in the United States.
Alaska has the nation's highest ratio of men to women
According to the Anchorage Daily News, only a few states have more men than women living there, but Alaska is the most extreme example, with up to 108 men for every 100 women in the state. But while this makes it the state with the highest ratio of men to women, that number is considered only slightly higher than the rest of the country.
It's also true that this ratio varies from place, as Anchorage and Juneau have fairly even ratios, and Sitka, Skagway, and Haines have more women than men. However, the fishing and oil industries in the western Aleutian Islands are skewing the data, as these areas have about 180 men for every 100 women.
Alaska is the largest state, and it's not even close
According to The University of Alaska at Fairbanks's Geophysical Institute, Alaska's 665,400 square mile area not only makes it more than twice as large as Texas, but makes its permafrost area alone larger than three Californias. If its time zones weren't politically condensed into two, Alaska would stretch across four of them.
About ten of America's states are smaller than the area encompassing all the glaciers in Alaska, while its privately owned lands are the size of Michigan. Moreover, about 27 states are smaller than Alaska's privately owned land. No wonder the population density is so low.
Alaska has America's largest indigenous population
According to Alaska's Department of Labor, Alaska's indigenous residents made up 17% of the state's total population in 2010, with a total of over 120,000 people. That number has increased to about 20% in the years since, but it was already enough to make Alaska the state with the highest proportion of indigenous residents in the country.
This makes totem poles like this a defining cultural feature of Alaska, and the Alaska Wildlife Alliance explained that most of the ones standing there were made by the Eyak, Tlingit, Haida, and Tsimshian clans. Each has its own distinct conventions for making them (for instance, this is a Tlingit totem pole), and the poles are not only important to their cultures but inform those who can understand their symbolism about the wildlife in the surrounding area.
Alaska is home to America's largest forest
Spanning 500 miles in southeastern Alaska is the Tongass National Forest, which the U.S. Department of Agriculture identified as the largest national forest in the country. Moreover, it's considered the largest intact temperate rainforest in the world. That may be a narrow superlative, but it speaks to the forest's sheer size.
And considering that the forest is the size of West Virginia, it becomes less of a surprise that that about 70,000 people live within its expanse. Indeed, Alaska's capital of Juneau is one of 32 communities surrounded by the forest, which has also supported the state's indigenous population for over 10,000 years.
One Alaskan island is two miles from Russian territory
Even with the knowledge that Alaska used to be a Russian territory, it's still easy to underestimate how close the 49th state is to Russia. And one small island sitting on the Bering Strait is close even by Alaskan standards. It's only about two miles from Big Diomede Island, which is Russian territory guarded by a military base on their side.
Despite this proximity, Little Diomede Island is one of the most isolated communities in the United States and is only accessible by air or sea. Although food and supplies are sometimes brought in by helicopter, the roughly 80 residents (many of whom are indigenous residents with roots in the area going back thousands of years) live off the land and the fish in its surrounding waters.
Alaska is right on the edge of the International Date Line
Little Diomede Island is sometimes called "Yesterday Island" due to its unique global position. Although NASA noted that Little Diomede Island is only about two miles from Russian territory, the agency also explained that it and Russia's Big Diomede Island sit on opposite sides of the International Date Line.
That means that if someone were to spend an hour or less piloting a boat or flying a helicopter across the short distance between the two islands, they would find that they'd be almost an entire day ahead by the time they landed on the Russian side. Until they were shooed back to the other side of the Bering Strait by Russian military personnel, they'd be living in tomorrow. Appropriately, Big Diomede Island is nicknamed Tomorrow Island.
Blackout curtains are a must during the summer
According to Alaska.org, Alaskans have long embraced the state's unusual Midnight Sun season, and it's common for people to enjoy daytime activities well past midnight during the summer months. But, of course, everybody needs to sleep at some point.
For that reason, visitors who book a hotel in Alaska will likely notice that the windows are equipped with blackout curtains to ensure night-like darkness when people start to get tired. And while some residents own these kinds of drapes as well, others cover their windows in foil, cardboard, or even black trash bags to create the same effect.
Alaskans must be careful about what they throw out
According to the Code Publishing Company, some Alaskan communities like Sitka have enacted specific laws prohibiting people from leaving "attractive nuisances" on their properties. This can include anything from fish and animal parts to excrement and bodily fluids to used disposable diapers.
And as this photo illustrates, the reason for these laws concerns the fact that all of these organic materials are known to attract bears. Since it's dangerous for both the humans and the animals involved if wild bears get too used to scavenging among human populations, Alaskan governments take the contents of their residents' trash seriously.
People race homemade porta-potties in Anchorage
According to the Smithsonian Magazine, Anchorage's two-week winter festival — known as the Fur Rendezvous or "Fur Rondy" — features an unusual event that is the largest of its kind in the world. And that event is the annual outhouse race.
These outhouses are constructed by competing teams that traditionally feature four people pushing and pulling their creation while the fifth member rides inside. They can vary widely in the materials used and whether they run on wheels of skis, but the finished product must be genuinely usable as an outhouse.
Winters can get seriously depressing in north Alaska
As Fox Weather reported, Alaskan winters can see some parts of the state cast into darkness between the middle of November and late January. This effect gets more pronounced in northern areas of the state, such as the city of Utqiaġvik, which used to be called Barrow. Here, the Sun doesn't rise for about 60 days during that period.
Although most Alaskans are used to the Midnight Sun Season, the dreary period surrounding the solstice is significantly harder to deal with. Since Utqiaġvik doesn't get any lighter than this photo during that time, Vitamin D supplements become crucial to residents' health. However, the mental health effects are just as severe and leave residents resorting to light therapy lamps to cope with the constant darkness.
Each October, people celebrate Alaska Day
Those who visit Sitka, Alaska, on October 18 will likely notice that the streets will feature parades like the one shown here, where participants march down the streets in clothing styled to look well over a century old. As Governor Mike Dunleavy explained on his official website, this was a re-enactment of the historic day in which 250 soldiers from the U.S. Army marched on the governor's house in a district called "Castle Hill."
This happened on October 18, 1867, and this march both officially enacted and celebrated the ratification of the sale of Alaska to the United States government. Although Alaska wouldn't be a state for another 92 years, the event nonetheless saw the Russian flag replaced with the first American flag ever to feature 49 stars. Since this was a historic turning point for Alaska, October 18 is now a state holiday.
Alaska has some strange laws involving moose
According to the Montecito Journal, it's illegal to drop a moose out of a moving plane in Alaska. And for anyone wondering what kind of maniac necessitated such a law, the answer is that nobody did, and the law was a response to a misunderstanding.
The magazine explained that the town of Talkeetna used to engage in an unusual annual event that saw residents paint moose droppings, which were then dropped from an airplane. PETA somehow heard about this and misunderstood it as an event that involved dropping the animals themselves out of planes, which led them to protest in horror. To prevent any further controversy, both the act of dropping moose and their droppings from planes were banned in the state.
There is no poison ivy in Alaska
Although residents of every state in America's Lower 48 need to keep an eye out for poison ivy and poison oak while they're out hiking, the same is not true for those living in Alaska or Hawaii. But while poison ivy hasn't been able to thrive there, that doesn't mean an Alaskan can touch every plant they see willy-nilly.
As the Anchorage Daily News reported, that's because Alaska is home to a plant called the cow parsnip (pictured,) which is known to cause similar itchy rashes and large blisters that quickly fill with fluid. Another painful plant in the area is called Devil's Club, which is known for its large leaves that are covered in tiny spines.
It's impossible to drive to Alaska's capital
According to Alaska's News Source, Juneau, Alaska, is not accessible to many Alaskans due to the difficult terrain around it preventing much road building. As a result, it is only accessible by ferry or by air travel. With that in mind, it's reasonable to ask why Juneau was made Alaska's capital.
Part of the answer had to do with politics, as Russia had previously made the Alaskan capital Sitka and the American government had other plans. But since Juneau was a thriving mining town that was easily accessible by steamboat from Seattle, Anchorage didn't exist yet, and Fairbanks was a much smaller, remote settlement at the time, Juneau seemed like the most logical choice.
Alaska has fish big enough to spark sea monster legends
According to Fish Alaska Magazine, Iliamna Lake was supposedly named for a legendarily monstrous blackfish that has been the subject of alleged sightings since long before Alaska was granted statehood. Nonetheless, sightings have apparently been reported as recently as 2020.
Since Alaskan waters are known for hosting massive fish like this king salmon, marine ecologist Bruce Wright believes that the most likely candidate for this legendary monster is a giant pike. A retired Air Force colonel named Mark Stigar had his own encounter with the beast, which mangled fishing equipment that can normally hold 300-pound halibuts and 10-foot sleeper sharks. He's of the opinion that it's an unusually large sleeper shark, but its true identity remains unconfirmed.
There's a hill in Anchorage where gravity works backwards
On Upper Huffman Road in Anchorage, Alaska, there's a hill that people are supposed to drive down and then put their cars in neutral once they get to the bottom. Once that happens, they'll usually find that without any input from the driver, the car will crawl its way back up the hill.
Another such hill exists in the Canadian city of Moncton, New Brunswick, and CTV News reported that Japanese scientist Kokichi Sugihara figured out how it worked in 2010. As he demonstrated, the "upward" part of the hill is actually of a very slight downward incline and only appears to be running uphill due to an optical illusion.
Alaska residents pay fewer taxes than many other states
Although no state's residents are categorically exempt from federal taxes, it seems that the Alaskan government has historically avoided levying taxes that are taken for granted in other states. Although the Tax Foundation noted that The Last Frontier has corporate tax rates ranging from 2% to 9.4%, there aren't many that an individual resident needs to worry about.
That's because the state government does not have an individual income tax, nor does it have a state sales tax. That's not to say that Alaska residents don't pay any sales tax, but what they have to pay was introduced at the local level.
Alaska has more pilots than any other state
Given its sheer size and propensity for difficult terrain, Alaska is a difficult state to get around in. And that's especially true for drivers, as The Guardian reported that only about 20% of the state is accessible by road. For that reason, Alaska's population has relied on small aircraft to deliver mail and supplies since the 1920s.
As such, it doesn't come as a surprise to learn that many of the state's residents prefer to take matters into their own hands and earn their pilot's licenses. Specifically, about one in 78 Alaskans has at least some level of flying certification, which amounts to six times more per capita than any other state in the Union.
Alaska has an unbelievable number of lakes
If someone were to consult a list of the lakes in Alaska, they'd likely find that list to be well over 3,000 entries long. Each of these lakes would be named with a general sense of its location, but they wouldn't be the extent of the lakes one could stumble across in The Last Frontier.
That's because Alaska's named lakes only account for the tip of the iceberg when it comes to how many actually exist in the state. According to the Alaska Department of Fish and Game, there are actually about 3 million lakes throughout the state. The vast majority of them are naturally occurring and unnamed.
One of America's biggest islands is full of bears
According to Travel Alaska, Kodiak Island measures 3,670 square miles and is 100 miles long, which makes it the second largest island in the United States (the first being Hawaii's Big Island.) And the island's defining feature is the 2,812-square-mile Kodiak National Wildlife Refuge.
Although they aren't the only fauna to be found there, that park is best known for the 3,500 bears that roam the island. Although these bears have an average weight of about 800 pounds, some can get as large as 1,500 pounds and stand at ten feet tall.
Alaska is a prime spot to see humpback whales
In the summer months, it's not unusual to see humpback whales frolic around southern and southeastern Alaska. According to the Alaska Department of Fish and Game, the most likely place to spot them is around the Barren Islands between Homer and Kodiak Island.
In particular, it's best to check them out in June or July, as that's when they're most likely to engage in a fascinating feeding practice called bubble-netting. This involves a group of whales blowing bubbles that confuse their prey, which allows them to scoop the prey animals up in their open mouths.
A town that celebrates Christmas year-round
Regardless of why it was originally founded with this name, North Pole, Alaska, has fully embraced the Christmas spirit. Even in July, this community of 2,700 that's a 15-minute drive from Fairbanks stays committed to making Christmas its defining feature.
According to Travel Alaska, not only does the town feature streets like Kris Kringle Drive and Mistletoe Lane but its central attraction is the Santa Claus House (pictured). This is a sprawling store with an on-site Santa that also proudly displays children's Christmas letters on the walls.
One town has a museum dedicated entirely to hammers
According to the Smithsonian Magazine, the Hammer Museum in Haines, Alaska, traces the roots of the humble tool, which extend all the way back to ancient Egypt. Founder Dave Pahl has collected hammers all his life and decided to buy a building to open a museum for them because his wife was tired of them cluttering up their house.
He built a giant hammer that started standing in front of the museum in 2007 to drum up interest in his collection, which amounts to 2,500 hammers that he puts on display at once and another 8,000 that he keeps in storage. These hammers come from throughout history and filled different and often unexpected functions, like a bank teller hammer that was used to cancel checks during the 1800s.
If roadkill can be made into good meat, it's state property
As Atlas Obscura outlined, driving in Alaska can be a challenging and dangerous experience. Not only do some regions experience near-total darkness during the winter months, but many of Alaska's roads cut through major moose habitats. This makes collisions with moose, deer, bear, and caribou a near-inevitability for many Alaska residents.
Since that only makes roads more dangerous and wastes tons of meat in the process, the state government developed a clever countermeasure in the '70s. Citizens were required to report game animal roadkill they saw to the authorities, which were made state property so they could be repurposed into meals administered by charitable organizations. That framework has been in place ever since.
There's a McDonald's burger that's only available in Alaska
According to Forbes, McDonald's locations in Alaska officially added a new burger to the menu in 2006, but the idea didn't spread beyond the region whether they wanted it to or not. It was once called a McKinley Mac after Alaska's famously high peak but was renamed to the Denali Mac when the Denali mountain officially underwent its name change.
As for what a Denali Mac actually is, it's not too dissimilar from a standard Big Mac. The biggest difference is that the Denali Mac is made with larger hamburger patties and more special sauce. So, a customer who gets their hands on two quarter-pounder patties could presumably make their own Denali Mac.
Reindeer herding is a big (and dangerous) deal in Alaska
According to the Alaska Department of Fish and Game, there are about 18,000 reindeer in the state, with about 12,000 of them typically residing on the Seward Peninsula. And thanks to some influence from the Saami people of Scandinavia and Russia, Alaskans have been herding them for generations.
Although the reindeer's tight-knit group dynamic makes it more possible to herd them than caribou, that doesn't mean it's easy to do. In a land as expansive as Alaska, reindeer herding is often conducted by helicopter, which involves flying just eight feet above the ground. Since that's typically too low for safe flying, the risk of fatal accidents is very real.
There's a monument to a forgotten battle on Attu Island
Although Pearl Harbor is widely remembered as a rare World War II attack to take place on American soil, it's surprisingly not as well-known that it wasn't the only battle of its kind. In June of 1942, Japanese forces also occupied the Aleutian islands of Attu and Kiska. Although the National Park Service noted that the invaders were repelled by the following year, their occupation left lasting effects on Alaska.
Some were negative, like the displacement of Aleutians from those islands during the campaign, but the U.S. military's response was also responsible for the development and expansion of much of the state's infrastructure. According to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the Japanese government had a peace memorial commemorating the lives lost in the occupation built on Attu in 1987.
Bears are just a fact of life in Anchorage
In an opinion piece for the Anchorage Daily News, Bill Sherwonit detailed the tragic and wrong-headed ways that people in Alaska will periodically interact with bears. But while he was upset by some recent grim encounters at the time, he also shared that there have been encouraging examples of bears coexisting with people in Anchorage.
Most of Anchorage is bear country, and Sherwonit loves that about his neighborhood, where bears can sometimes end up cutting across his lawn or walking down his street. Most interestingly, he mentioned that his isn't an unpopular opinion, as multiple surveys by Alaska's Department of Fish and Game have shown the majority of residents appreciate living among bears.
Alaska has one of the world's largest chocolate fountains
According to Atlas Obscura, the Alaska Wild Berry Park Store in Anchorage prominently features a series of cooper melting pots that come together to make one of the world's biggest chocolate fountains. The whole contraption is about 20 feet and and is capable of pumping as much as 3,000 pounds of chocolate through its system.
Sadly, this elaborate chocolate waterfall is similar to Willy Wonka's famous installation in one major way. In other words, visitors aren't allowed to swim in it or drink from it, and the chocolate sold there isn't made from the fountain. It's purely for display.
It's not unheard of to see planes on the road
Although people often say that planes have the right of way on Alaskan roads, the Cornell Law School noted that such rules typically have to do with the land around airports. Naturally, that rule makes sense in that context, but it likely applies informally in other places.
After all, some residents will find a small aircraft sitting on the road from time to time. And usually, the pilot will tell other drivers that they need some room to take off again during these uniquely Alaskan encounters.
Talkeetna is the place for ice sculptures
According to the Denali Arts Council, recent years have seen the town of Talkeetna host an annual ice festival in early February. Although the itinerary for this festival changes each year, the signature features are an ice sculpture workshop to help budding artists hone their craft and a competition during the following day.
The competition is not only open to artists of all skill levels, but there's also a youth event for potential prodigies to take part as well. Much of the Talkeetna Ice Festival's events are free, and they're all promoted as family friendly.