|
Alaska Facts
Did you know...
-
The Alaska flag's blue background portrays the
blue sky and the forget-me-not, which is the state flower. The North Star is
for the future of the State of Alaska, the northerly of the Union. The
dipper is for the Great Bear, symbolizing strength.
-
The name Alaska is derived from the Aluet word
"Alyeska," meaning "great land."
-
The state motto is, "North to the Future."
-
Contrary to popular belief, Anchorage is not
the state capital. Juneau holds that honor with a population of over 30,000 people.
-
Alaska was purchased from Russia in 1867 for
$7,200,000, or 2 cents per acre, by Secretary of State William H. Seward.
-
Jade is the state gem.
-
Gold is the state mineral.
-
Sitka spruce is the state tree.
-
Giant king salmon, weighing up to 100 lbs, is
the state fish.
-
Willow Ptarmigan is the state bird.
-
In 1648, Russian explorer Semyon Dezhnev
discovered that only a narrow waterway separated the Eurasian continent from
the American continent.
-
Alaska and Russia share a border. The
US-Russian maritime boundary zigzags down the Bering Strait between the
Asian and American land masses.
-
Alaska and Russia are less than 3 miles apart
at their closest point in the Bering Strait where two islands, Russia's Big
Diomede Island and Alaska's Little Diomede Island, are located.
-
The University of Alaska has more Russian
students on it's campuses than any other university in the United States.
-
Anthropologists believe that today's Alaska
Natives originated in Asia, either crossing the Bering land bridge from
Siberia or traveling by watercraft along the shorelines. While Natives have
been known to have lived in Alaska for 10,000 years, there is strong
evidence that suggests colonization actually took place many thousands of
years earlier.
-
Native Indian cultures include the Tlingit,
Haida, Tshimshian, Athabascan, Inupiaqs, Yupiks and the Aleuts.
-
Alaska contains 586,412 square miles of land.
It is one-fifth the size of the lower 48 states, 488 times bigger than Rhode
Island and two and a half times larger than Texas.
-
Alaska's populate is approximately 650,000,
meaning there is approximately .95 square miles per person. By comparison,
New York has only .003 square miles per person.
-
Nearly one half (265,000) of Alaska's
residents live in Anchorage.
-
Of the 20 highest peaks in the United States,
17 are in Alaska with Mt. McKinley topping the list at 20,320 feet above sea
level.
-
Alaska has an estimated 100,000 glaciers. In
fact, five percent of the state is covered by glaciers.
-
North America's strongest earthquake occurred
on March 27, 1964 with a moment magnitude of 9.2. Each year Alaska
experiences about 5,000 earthquakes.
[Back
To Top]
Visit our
Sceneramic Photography website at...
SceneramicPhoto.com |
|
Dear Reader: |
| |
 Visit
CafePress.com/SceneramicPhoto for a large selection of mousepads,
framed prints, calendars, postcards and coffee mugs. Images include landscape, seascape and cityscape
of Australia, England, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Scotland and the
USA.
If you see an image you like in the Sceneramic
Photography gallery that's not yet featured in our
CafePress store, send an
email telling us which image you like and what product you want it
on and we'll be sure to add it for you. |
| |
|
Spotlight on Alaska |
| |
The Last Frontier
In this edition of the Sceneramic
newsletter I thought I'd do a spotlight on Alaska, in
particular the Anchorage area. All Alaska photographs are on sale at
Sceneramic
too!
Having visited Anchorage almost 80 times,
I've met a lot of wonderful people, have visited many interesting and
beautiful places and have had some truly great experiences exploring the
area. Personally, I think you'd be hard-pressed to find anywhere else in
the United States with more outdoor activities.
Okay, even though I've tried many things,
I must confess I haven't wrestled a grizzly bear, caught salmon with my
bare teeth, mushered a dog sled team or saddled up a moose and ridden it
down 4th Ave. But then again, despite the myths some people have about
Alaskans doing this for mild recreational fun, I don't think you'll find
many who have tried them either. I like to stick to the more mundane
activities, thank you very much. I'm not one for the truly adventurous
experiences, if I can help it.
Ooh, I take that back, I did have a
heart-pounding experience once in Anchorage. How many people can say they've braved a
rolling 6.4 earthquake on the 22nd floor of the Hilton at 3:00 in the
morning? Talk about turning a king size bed into a gigantic surfboard
and the furniture into a moving obstacle course. Combine that with having had a
couple of beers at Humpy's earlier and you've got a significant, life
threatening event! Ha! Try that if you want to push life to the limit! And
you thought wrestling a grizzly was dangerous!
Lots To Do
Although Alaska is known as the "last
frontier," life in and around the Anchorage area is not that much
different from anywhere else. Sure the winters are long and hard and the
terrain is rugged and brutal, but that's the appeal. Alaskans have made
sure there's lots of fun things to do all year round to keep themselves
occupied and from getting bored... and none of them involve grizzlies.
You'll find all kinds of hiking trails scattered along the foothills
of the mountains in the
Chugach State Park system. There's trails catering to all different
levels of experience, expertise and energy levels. Even the knarliest
of trails can be safely explored as long as you use common sense. It
never hurts to take someone along that knows the trails, though.
If hiking's not your cup of tea, jump into
your car and take a drive. There's lots of places to explore. If you've never driven from
Anchorage along the Turnagain Arm to
Alyeska you'll definitely want to add that to your agenda. Make sure
to leave yourself plenty of time to stop along the way
to take in the sights. If you've got the time, head a little further
down the road to the
Portage Glacier.
If you've planned a few extra days for a longer
excursion, make your way to
Kenai, Homer,
Seward,
or, one of my favorite places,
Valdez.
On the way to Valdez you'll pass Worthington Glacier, one of the few you
can walk right up to and touch.
If you'd like to find out more about
things to do in and around Anchorage and Alaska in general, try
tripadvisor.com. It's a great source of information.
Enjoy the following pictures of some of my favorite spots.
[Back
To Top] |
| |
|
Photographs of Alaska | | |
Visit Sceneramic Photography to
see more Alaska images and more. [Back
To Top] |
| |
|
Until Next Time |
| |
I received quite a few emails to find out
if I was still publishing my newsletters. After all, the last newsletter
was in May. Well, for those of you who said how much you enjoy them and
asked me to continue, you can be assured I do plan on continuing with
them on a regular basis.
Like all of us, once in awhile I get
really swamped, as has been the case over the past few months. Now I've
got my head above water once again, it's time to pick up where I left
off. Someone told me that getting back into writing is like riding a
bike, you never forget. Well, I never was good at riding a bike so that
didn't comfort me much.
As always, if there's a photographic topic
you'd like me to cover in a future edition, please send me an email and
tell me about it. With autumn almost upon us, unless I get a request
steering me in a different direction I plan on covering the "how to's"
of capturing the magnificent fall colors in my next edition of the
newsletter.
Until next time, go fill up a few rolls of
film and/or memory cards, have some fun and see what great shots you can
come up with.
[Back
To Top] |
| |
|
