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90-472: This article about a location on the Coast of British Columbia , Canada is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . This article about a specific Canadian geological feature is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . This plate tectonics article is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . British Columbia Coast The British Columbia Coast , popularly referred to as

180-458: A moment magnitude of 9.2 (more than a thousand times as powerful as the 1989 San Francisco earthquake ). The time of day (5:36 pm), time of year (spring) and location of the epicenter were all cited as factors in potentially sparing thousands of lives, particularly in Anchorage. Alaska suffered a more severe megathrust earthquake on July 11, 1585, estimated at magnitude 9.25, which remains

270-409: A territory on May 11, 1912. It was admitted as the 49th state of the U.S. on January 3, 1959. Abundant natural resources have enabled Alaska— with one of the smallest state economies—to have one of the highest per capita incomes , with commercial fishing , and the extraction of natural gas and oil, dominating Alaska's economy . U.S. Armed Forces bases and tourism also contribute to

360-623: A century to describe a region of the province that extends west from the Coast Mountains and North Cascades . This definition makes the term British Columbia Coast largely synonymous with the 15 regional districts that have territory in this region. Among locals, the British Columbia Coast can further be divided into seven major subregions: Research from the 1990s has indicated that the Ice Age-era coastline of

450-399: A convoy to Valdez. On the advice of military and civilian leaders, President Lyndon B. Johnson declared all of Alaska a major disaster area the day after the quake. The U.S. Navy and U.S. Coast Guard deployed ships to isolated coastal communities to assist with immediate needs. Bad weather and poor visibility hampered air rescue and observation efforts the day after the quake, but on Sunday

540-469: A longer coastline than all the other U.S. states combined. At 663,268 square miles (1,717,856 km ) in total area, Alaska is by far the largest state in the United States. Alaska is more than twice the size of the second-largest U.S. state (Texas), and it is larger than the next three largest states (Texas, California, and Montana) combined. Alaska is the seventh largest subnational division in

630-813: A massive underwater landslide, resulting in the deaths of 32 people between the collapse of the Valdez city harbor and docks, and inside the ship that was docked there at the time. Nearby, a 27-foot (8.2 m) tsunami destroyed the village of Chenega , killing 23 of the 68 people who lived there; survivors out-ran the wave, climbing to high ground. Post-quake tsunamis severely affected Whittier , Seward , Kodiak, and other Alaskan communities, as well as people and property in British Columbia, Washington , Oregon , and California . Tsunamis also caused damage in Hawaii and Japan . Evidence of motion directly related to

720-670: A population that was genetically separate from other native groups present elsewhere in the New World at the end of the Pleistocene . Ben Potter, the University of Alaska Fairbanks archaeologist who unearthed the remains at the Upward Sun River site in 2013, named this new group Ancient Beringian . The Tlingit people developed a society with a matrilineal kinship system of property inheritance and descent in what

810-501: A predominantly oceanic climate in the north along the coast and further inland into the foothills of the Pacific Ranges . Higher elevations feature a subpolar oceanic climate ( Köppen : Cfc) with cool summers, cold winters, and constant rainfall that peaks during the winter months. The highest elevations feature a subarctic climate ( Köppen : Dfc). The British Columbia Coast is dominated by temperate rainforest . According to

900-517: A total cargo volume of 76.5 million metric tons. By the same metric, the Port of Vancouver is also the fifth largest commercial shipping port in North America. The Port of Prince Rupert possesses the deepest ice-free natural harbour in North America, and the 3rd deepest natural harbour in the world. Situated at 54° North, the harbour is the northwesternmost port in North America linked to

990-649: A total of 50 Aleut civilians and eight sailors were interned in Japan. About half of the Aleuts died during the period of internment. Unalaska / Dutch Harbor and Adak became significant bases for the United States Army , United States Army Air Forces and United States Navy. The United States Lend-Lease program involved flying American warplanes through Canada to Fairbanks and then Nome ; Soviet pilots took possession of these aircraft, ferrying them to fight

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1080-651: A western maritime border, in the Bering Strait , with Russia's Chukotka Autonomous Okrug . The Chukchi and Beaufort Seas of the Arctic Ocean lie to the north, and the Pacific Ocean lies to the south. Technically, it is a semi-exclave of the U.S., and is the largest exclave in the world. Alaska is the largest U.S. state by area, comprising more total area than the following three largest states of Texas , California , and Montana combined, and

1170-797: Is based on the testimony of Chukchi geographer Nikolai Daurkin, who had visited Alaska in 1764–1765 and who had reported on a village on the Kheuveren River, populated by "bearded men" who "pray to the icons ". Some modern researchers associate Kheuveren with Koyuk River . The first European vessel to reach Alaska is generally held to be the St. Gabriel under the authority of the surveyor M. S. Gvozdev and assistant navigator I. Fyodorov on August 21, 1732, during an expedition of Siberian Cossack A. F. Shestakov and Russian explorer Dmitry Pavlutsky (1729–1735). Another European contact with Alaska occurred in 1741, when Vitus Bering led an expedition for

1260-884: Is bordered by Canada's Yukon and British Columbia to the east (making it the only state to border only a Canadian territory ); the Gulf of Alaska and the Pacific Ocean to the south and southwest; the Bering Sea , Bering Strait , and Chukchi Sea to the west; and the Arctic Ocean to the north. Alaska's territorial waters touch Russia's territorial waters in the Bering Strait, as the Russian Big Diomede Island and Alaskan Little Diomede Island are only 3 miles (4.8 km) apart. Alaska has

1350-492: Is connected to the rest of B.C by various roads depending on the region. The populous Fraser Valley and Lower Mainland is linked to the rest of the province by Highway 1 (Fraser Canyon Highway), Highway 5 (Coquihalla Freeway), Highway 3 (Crowsnest Highway) and Highway 99 (Sea to Sky Highway). The Lower Mainland is also connected to the U.S. by four highway border crossings with the Peace Arch on Interstate 5 being

1440-492: Is divided into boroughs . Delegates to the Alaska Constitutional Convention wanted to avoid the pitfalls of the traditional county system and adopted their own unique model. Many of the more densely populated parts of the state are part of Alaska's 16 boroughs, which function somewhat similarly to counties in other states. Unlike county-equivalents in the other states, the boroughs do not cover

1530-510: Is dominated by a moderate oceanic climate ( Köppen : Cfb) with warm summers, cool winters, and constant rainfall that peaks during the winter months. These areas enjoy the mildest winter weather in all of Canada, as temperatures rarely fall below freezing. The southernmost region of the coast (surrounding the Salish Sea ) features a warm-summer Mediterranean climate with warm, dry summers and cool, wet winters. This gradually transitions to

1620-569: Is home to Mount Shishaldin , which is an occasionally smoldering volcano that rises to 10,000 feet (3,000 m) above the North Pacific. The chain of volcanoes extends to Mount Spurr , west of Anchorage on the mainland. Geologists have identified Alaska as part of Wrangellia , a large region consisting of multiple states and Canadian provinces in the Pacific Northwest , which is actively undergoing continent building . One of

1710-629: Is known for its massive reserves of crude oil and contains both the National Petroleum Reserve–Alaska and the Prudhoe Bay Oil Field . The city of Utqiaġvik , formerly known as Barrow, is the northernmost city in the United States and is located here. The Northwest Arctic area , anchored by Kotzebue and also containing the Kobuk River valley, is often considered part of this region. The respective Inupiat of

1800-455: Is maintained by the Office of History and Archaeology. The survey's inventory of cultural resources includes objects, structures, buildings, sites, districts, and travel ways, with a general provision that they are more than fifty years old. As of 31 January 2012 , more than 35,000 sites have been reported. Alaska is not divided into counties , as most of the other U.S. states, but it

1890-400: Is no north–south highway linking the coastal communities of the province between Port Hardy and Kitimat . Instead, travellers utilize one of the coastal ferry lines operated by BC Ferries . The exceptions are Bella Coola is accessible by a long largely gravel Highway 20 from the B.C interior over a high pass; and the towns of Terrace , Prince Rupert and Kitimat which is assessed from

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1980-516: Is now Southeast Alaska , became the capital of Russian America . It remained the capital after the colony was transferred to the United States. The Russians never fully colonized Alaska, and the colony was never very profitable. Evidence of Russian settlement in names and churches survives throughout southeastern Alaska. In 1867, William H. Seward , the United States Secretary of State under President Andrew Johnson , negotiated

2070-617: Is owned and managed by the U.S. federal government as public lands, including a multitude of national forests , national parks, and national wildlife refuges . Of these, the Bureau of Land Management manages 87 million acres (35 million hectares), or 23.8% of the state. The Arctic National Wildlife Refuge is managed by the United States Fish and Wildlife Service . It is the world's largest wildlife refuge, comprising 16 million acres (6.5 million hectares). Of

2160-532: Is proportionally the second highest of any U.S. state, at over 15 percent, after only Hawaii. The name "Alaska" ( Russian : Аля́ска , romanized :  Aljáska ) was introduced during the Russian colonial period when it was used to refer to the Alaska Peninsula . It was derived from an Aleut-language idiom , alaxsxaq , meaning "the mainland" or, more literally, "the object towards which

2250-580: Is technically part of the continental U.S. , but is not usually included in the colloquial use of the term; Alaska is not part of the contiguous U.S. , often called " the Lower 48 ". The capital city, Juneau , is situated on the mainland of the North American continent but is not connected by road to the rest of the North American highway system. The largest lake in Alaska is Lake Illiamna . The state

2340-406: Is the seventh-largest subnational division in the world . It is the third-least populous and most sparsely populated U.S. state, but is, with a population of 736,081 as of 2020 , the continent's most populous territory located mostly north of the 60th parallel , with more than quadruple the combined populations of Northern Canada and Greenland . The state contains the four largest cities in

2430-555: Is the largest glacier in North America, covering 2,008 square miles (5,200 km ) alone. There are no officially defined borders demarcating the various regions of Alaska, but there are five/six regions that the state is most commonly broken up into: The most populous region of Alaska contains Anchorage , the Matanuska-Susitna Valley and the Kenai Peninsula . Rural, mostly unpopulated areas south of

2520-596: Is the northernmost and westernmost state in the United States, but also has the most easterly longitude in the United States because the Aleutian Islands extend into the Eastern Hemisphere . Alaska is the only non- contiguous U.S. state on continental North America; about 500 miles (800 km) of Canadian territory consisting of British Columbia (in Canada ) separates Alaska from Washington . It

2610-614: Is today Southeast Alaska, along with parts of British Columbia and the Yukon . Also in Southeast were the Haida , now well known for their unique arts. The Tsimshian people came to Alaska from British Columbia in 1887, when President Grover Cleveland , and later the U.S. Congress, granted them permission to settle on Annette Island and found the town of Metlakatla, Alaska . All three of these peoples, as well as other indigenous peoples of

2700-650: The Exxon Valdez hit a reef in the Prince William Sound, spilling more than 11 million gallons (42 megalitres) of crude oil over 1,100 miles (1,800 km) of coastline. Today, the battle between philosophies of development and conservation is seen in the contentious debate over oil drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge and the proposed Pebble Mine . Located at the northwest corner of North America , Alaska

2790-650: The Alaska Peninsula are considered part of the Southwest, with the Aleutian Islands often (but not always) being grouped in as well. While primarily part of Southwest Alaska when grouped economically, the Aleutian islands are sometimes recognized as an alternate group from the rest of the region due to the geographic separation from the continent. More than 300 small volcanic islands make up this chain, which stretches more than 1,200 miles (1,900 km) into

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2880-755: The Alaska Purchase (referred to pejoratively as Seward's Folly) with the Russians for $ 7.2 million. Russia's contemporary ruler Tsar Alexander II , the Emperor of the Russian Empire , King of Poland and Grand Duke of Finland , also planned the sale; the purchase was made on March 30, 1867. Six months later the commissioners arrived in Sitka and the formal transfer was arranged; the formal flag-raising took place at Fort Sitka on October 18, 1867. In

2970-631: The Alaska Purchase . The region is dominated by the Alexander Archipelago as well as the Tongass National Forest , the largest national forest in the United States. It contains the state capital Juneau , the former capital Sitka , and Ketchikan , at one time Alaska's largest city. The Alaska Marine Highway provides a vital surface transportation link throughout the area and country, as only three communities ( Haines , Hyder and Skagway ) enjoy direct connections to

3060-669: The Alaska Range and west of the Wrangell Mountains also fall within the definition of South Central, as do the Prince William Sound area and the communities of Cordova and Valdez . Also referred to as the Panhandle or Inside Passage , this is the region of Alaska closest to the contiguous states. As such, this was where most of the initial non-indigenous settlement occurred in the years following

3150-583: The BC Coast or simply the Coast , is a geographic region of the Canadian province of British Columbia . As the entire western continental coastline of Canada along the Pacific Ocean is in the province, it is synonymous with being the West Coast of Canada . While the exact boundaries are variously defined, the region is generally defined to include the 15 regional districts that have coastline along

3240-667: The National Wildlife Refuge system , parts of 25 rivers to the National Wild and Scenic Rivers system , 3.3 million acres (13,000 km ) to National Forest lands , and 43.6 million acres (176,000 km ) to National Park land . Because of the Act, Alaska now contains two-thirds of all American national parklands. Today, more than half of Alaskan land is owned by the Federal Government . In 1989,

3330-472: The Western United States region, it is one of the two non-contiguous U.S. states, alongside Hawaii . Alaska is also considered to be the northernmost, westernmost, and easternmost (the Aleutian Islands cross the 180th meridian into the eastern hemisphere) state in the United States. It borders the Canadian territory of Yukon and the province of British Columbia to the east. It shares

3420-521: The ecoregion system used by the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF), the BC Coast is part of five distinct ecoregions: Puget lowland forests , Central Pacific coastal forests , British Columbia mainland coastal forests , Haida Gwaii coastal forests , and Pacific Coastal Mountain icefields and tundra . According to the ecozone system used by Environment and Climate Change Canada (ECCC),

3510-418: The public record in Alaska. The state is divided into 34 recording districts which are centrally administered under a state recorder . All recording districts use the same acceptance criteria, fee schedule, etc., for accepting documents into the public record. Whereas many U.S. states use a three-tiered system of decentralization—state/county/township—most of Alaska uses only two tiers—state/borough. Owing to

3600-568: The 100 m (330 ft) contour, and the Ice Age existence of such a coastal plain has put a new light on Ice Age populations in North America as well as on the strong likelihood of this area having been the major migration route from (and perhaps to) Asia . The heavy indentation and mild climate of the British Columbia Coast have led to inevitable comparisons with the geography's predisposition to encouraging increased human settlement and movement as well as cultural foment and population growth in

3690-723: The 15 regional districts of British Columbia defined as being in the Coast region: The fishery of the Pacific Northwest Coast is legendary, especially for its many salmon runs and the cultures that built on top of them throughout the region. Salmon runs have greatly diminished since pre-Contact years and the advent of commercial canning and, ultimately, depletion of stocks by high-seas fishing. Other commercial fisheries include halibut , herring and herring roe, sea urchin and other specialty sushis , hake , haddock , cod , crab and shellfish. The Coast Region of B.C

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3780-469: The 29th the situation improved and rescue helicopters and observation aircraft were deployed. A military airlift immediately began shipping relief supplies to Alaska, eventually delivering 2,570,000 pounds (1,170,000 kg) of food and other supplies. Broadcast journalist, Genie Chance , assisted in recovery and relief efforts, staying on the KENI air waves over Anchorage for more than 24 continuous hours as

3870-635: The Aegean, the Irish Sea/Hebrides and in the Danish Archipelago and adjoining Scandinavian coasts. The natural fecundity of the environment – rich in seafood , wild game , and greenery – combined with the ease of travel (by water) is seen in all cases (British Columbia, Denmark , Greece ) to have generated a dynamic and gifted civilization. And there are comparisons to be made between the artistic and political and social level of

3960-675: The Alaska Division of Emergency Services to respond to any future disasters. The 1968 discovery of oil at Prudhoe Bay and the 1977 completion of the Trans-Alaska Pipeline System led to an oil boom. Royalty revenues from oil have funded large state budgets from 1980 onward. Oil production was not the only economic value of Alaska's land. In the second half of the 20th century, Alaska discovered tourism as an important source of revenue. Tourism became popular after World War II when military personnel stationed in

4050-674: The B.C. interior on Highway 16 . Haida Gwaii has an extension of Highway 16 on it, one of Haida Gwaii's few paved roads. The sheltered waterways of the British Columbia Coast form part of the Inside Passage , a coastal maritime route along which vessels navigate to avoid the rough waters and bad weather of the open North Pacific . As such, the maritime route is heavily trafficked by cruise ships , cargo ships , ferries , and other marine vessels. BC Ferries , an independently managed publicly-owned company , operates scheduled daily crossings between major population centres throughout

4140-584: The BC Coast is part of four distinct ecozones: Pacific Coastal Mountains , Coastal Western Hemlock-Sitka Spruce Forests , Pacific and Nass Ranges , and Strait of Georgia/Puget Lowland . According to the British Columbia Ministry of Forests , which uses an ecosystem classification system independent of the WWF and ECCC , the BC Coast is part of two distinct biogeoclimatic zones: Coastal Western Hemlock and Coastal Douglas-fir . Below are

4230-435: The British Columbia Coast was lower by about 100 m (330 ft). The effect of the sea level on the coastline was such that Queen Charlotte Sound , which is between Haida Gwaii and the northern end of Vancouver Island, was a coastal plain, as were all the straits inland from it, except for those that were mountain valleys. Underwater archaeology has shown the presence of permanent human habitations and other activity at

4320-428: The British Columbia Coast. Dozens of smaller ferries ply lesser routes within and between these regions. The Alaska Marine Highway also operates nonstop ferry service through the British Columbia Coast along its Bellingham-Ketchikan route. The Port of Vancouver is the largest commercial shipping port in all of Canada and along the entire Pacific Ocean / Pacific coast of North America by metric tons , which handles

4410-671: The German invasion of the Soviet Union . The construction of military bases contributed to the population growth of some Alaskan cities. Statehood for Alaska was an important cause of James Wickersham early in his tenure as a congressional delegate. Decades later, the statehood movement gained its first real momentum following a territorial referendum in 1946. The Alaska Statehood Committee and Alaska's Constitutional Convention would soon follow. Statehood supporters also found themselves fighting major battles against political foes, mostly in

4500-545: The Island. Although the Sunshine Coast is on the mainland it is connected to the highway network only by ferries. It has one route which is Highway 101 , a narrow curvy 2 lane road split in two by a ferry crossing. Texada Island , a large island off the Sunshine Coast and has its own network of highway standard roads although they are unnumbered. Owing to the challenging topography of the British Columbia Coast, there

4590-593: The North Slope and of the Northwest Arctic seldom consider themselves to be one people. Southwest Alaska is a sparsely inhabited region stretching some 500 miles (800 km) inland from the Bering Sea. Most of the population lives along the coast. Kodiak Island is also located in the Southwest. The massive Yukon–Kuskokwim Delta , one of the largest river deltas in the world, is here. Portions of

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4680-507: The Pacific Northwest Coast , experienced smallpox outbreaks from the late 18th through the mid- 19th century , with the most devastating epidemics occurring in the 1830s and 1860s, resulting in high fatalities and social disruption. Some researchers believe the first Russian settlement in Alaska was established in the 17th century. According to this hypothesis, in 1648 several koches of Semyon Dezhnyov 's expedition came ashore in Alaska by storm and founded this settlement. This hypothesis

4770-471: The Pacific Northwest Peoples and those of pre-Conversion pagan Scandinavia, Ireland and Archaic-Era Greece. The British Columbia Coast stretches from the southern tip of Vancouver Island along the Strait of Juan de Fuca to the community of Stewart at the head of Portland Canal . The aerial distance between these two points is approximately 954 km (593 mi). However, due to its deeply incised coastline and over 40,000 islands of varying sizes,

4860-415: The Pacific Northwest. In 1789, a Spanish settlement and fort were built in Nootka Sound . These expeditions gave names to places such as Valdez , Bucareli Sound , and Cordova . Later, the Russian-American Company carried out an expanded colonization program during the early-to-mid-19th century. Sitka , renamed New Archangel from 1804 to 1867, on Baranof Island in the Alexander Archipelago in what

4950-484: The Pacific Ocean or Salish Sea , or are part of the Lower Mainland , a subregion of the British Columbia Coast. Other boundaries may exclude parts of or even entire regional districts, such as those of the aforementioned Lower Mainland . While the term British Columbia Coast has been recorded from the earliest period of non-native settlement in British Columbia, it has never been officially defined in legal terms. The term has historically been in popular usage for over

5040-439: The Pacific Ocean. Some of these islands fall in the Eastern Hemisphere, but the International Date Line was drawn west of 180° to keep the whole state, and thus the entire North American continent, within the same legal day. Two of the islands, Attu and Kiska , were occupied by Japanese forces during World War II. According to an October 1998 report by the United States Bureau of Land Management , approximately 65% of Alaska

5130-401: The Russian Navy aboard the St. Peter . After his crew returned to Russia with sea otter pelts judged to be the finest fur in the world, small associations of fur traders began to sail from the shores of Siberia toward the Aleutian Islands. The first permanent European settlement was founded in 1784. Between 1774 and 1800, Spain sent several expeditions to Alaska to assert its claim over

5220-436: The U.S. Congress but also within Alaska. Statehood was approved by the U.S. Congress on July 7, 1958; Alaska was officially proclaimed a state on January 3, 1959. On March 27, 1964, the massive Good Friday earthquake killed 133 people and destroyed several villages and portions of large coastal communities, mainly by the resultant tsunamis and landslides. It was the fourth-most-powerful earthquake in recorded history, with

5310-434: The United States by area , including the state capital of Juneau . The state's most populous city is Anchorage , and approximately half of Alaska's residents live within its metropolitan area . Indigenous people have lived in Alaska for thousands of years, and it is widely believed that the region served as the entry point for the initial settlement of North America by way of the Bering land bridge . The Russian Empire

5400-446: The action of the sea is directed". Numerous indigenous peoples occupied Alaska for thousands of years before the arrival of European peoples to the area. Linguistic and DNA studies done here have provided evidence for the settlement of North America by way of the Bering land bridge . At the Upward Sun River site in the Tanana Valley in Alaska, remains of a six-week-old infant were found. The baby's DNA showed that she belonged to

5490-439: The ceremony, 250 uniformed U.S. soldiers marched to the governor's house at "Castle Hill", where the Russian troops lowered the Russian flag and the U.S. flag was raised. This event is celebrated as Alaska Day , a legal holiday on October 18. Alaska was loosely governed by the military initially and was administered as a district starting in 1884, with a governor appointed by the United States president. A federal district court

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5580-422: The city proper and the communities of Eagle River, Chugiak, Peters Creek, Girdwood, Bird, and Indian. Fairbanks has a separate borough (the Fairbanks North Star Borough ) and municipality (the City of Fairbanks). The state's most populous city is Anchorage , home to 291,247 people in 2020. The richest location in Alaska by per capita income is Denali ($ 42,245). Yakutat City , Sitka, Juneau, and Anchorage are

5670-472: The coast. The proximity of these mountains to the coast produce fjords that rival those of Norway in length and depth. Several large Islands fill the strait between Vancouver Island and the Mainland with Texada Island , Cortes Island and Salt Spring Island being the largest in size. Fjords of note include Burrard Inlet , Burke Channel , Howe Sound , Jervis Inlet , Desolation Sound , Dean Channel , Douglas Channel , and Portland Inlet . The BC Coast

5760-429: The community, disseminating information about shelters and prepared food rations, passing messages of well-being between loved ones, and helping to reunite families. In the longer term, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers led the effort to rebuild roads, clear debris, and establish new townsites for communities that had been completely destroyed, at a cost of $ 110 million. The West Coast and Alaska Tsunami Warning Center

5850-410: The contiguous North American road system. The Interior is the largest region of Alaska; much of it is uninhabited wilderness. Fairbanks is the only large city in the region. Denali National Park and Preserve is located here. Denali , formerly Mount McKinley, is the highest mountain in North America and is also located here. The North Slope is mostly tundra peppered with small villages. The area

5940-435: The continent's railway network. The port is the first inbound and last outbound port of call for some cargo ships travelling between eastern Asia and western North America since it is the closest North American port to key Asian destinations. Alaska Alaska ( / ə ˈ l æ s k ə / ə- LASS -kə ) is a non-contiguous U.S. state on the northwest extremity of North America . Part of

6030-402: The damage done by the earthquake to the city. The team, called the Engineering and Geological Evaluation Group, was headed by Ruth A. M. Schmidt , a geology professor at the University of Alaska Anchorage . The team of scientists came into conflict with local developers and downtown business owners who wanted to immediately rebuild; the scientists wanted to identify future dangers to ensure that

6120-439: The earthquake was also reported from Florida and Texas . Alaska had never experienced a major disaster in a highly populated area before and had very limited resources for dealing with the effects of such an event. In Anchorage, at the urging of geologist Lidia Selkregg , the City of Anchorage and the Alaska State Housing Authority appointed a team of 40 scientists, including geologists, soil scientists, and engineers, to assess

6210-400: The economy; more than half of the state is federally-owned land containing national forests , national parks , and wildlife refuges . It is among the most irreligious states , one of the first to legalize recreational marijuana , and is known for its libertarian-leaning political culture, generally supporting the Republican Party in national elections. The Indigenous population of Alaska

6300-481: The four largest cities in the U.S. by area . As reflected in the 2020 United States census , Alaska has a total of 355 incorporated cities and census-designated places (CDPs). The tally of cities includes four unified municipalities, essentially the equivalent of a consolidated city–county . The majority of these communities are located in the rural expanse of Alaska known as " The Bush " and are unconnected to that contiguous North American road network. The table at

6390-432: The largest private landowner in Alaska in advertisements and other communications. Provisions of ANCSA allowing the corporations' land holdings to be sold on the open market starting in 1991 were repealed before they could take effect. Effectively, the corporations hold title (including subsurface title in many cases, a privilege denied to individual Alaskans) but cannot sell the land. Individual Native allotments are sold on

6480-733: The largest. Several freeways connect lower mainland communities together. The backbone of Vancouver Island's highway network is the Highway 19 which along with a portion of Highway 1 forms the Island Highway . The Island highway is a mix of 4-lane freeway, 4 lane arterial highway and 2 lane highway running roughly along the east shore of Vancouver Island. Access to the west coast of Vancouver Island can be accomplished by crossing mountain passes on Highway 4 to Tofino and Highway 28 to Gold River . Thousands of other roads ranging from small freeways near Victoria to logging roads exist all over

6570-637: The low population density, most of the land is located in the Unorganized Borough . As the name implies, it has no intermediate borough government but is administered directly by the state government. In 2000, 57.71% of Alaska's area has this status, with 13.05% of the population. Anchorage merged the city government with the Greater Anchorage Area Borough in 1975 to form the Municipality of Anchorage, containing

6660-808: The most powerful earthquake recorded in North American history, and the second most powerful earthquake recorded in world history. The Good Friday earthquake lasted 4 minutes and 38 seconds. Six hundred miles (970 km) of fault ruptured at once and moved up to 60 ft (18 m), releasing about 500 years of stress buildup. Soil liquefaction , fissures, landslides, and other ground failures caused major structural damage in several communities and much damage to property. Anchorage sustained great destruction or damage to many inadequately earthquake-engineered houses, buildings, and infrastructure (paved streets, sidewalks, water and sewer mains, electrical systems, and other human-made equipment), particularly in

6750-522: The often remote and roadless locations. The University of Alaska , as a land grant university , also owns substantial acreage which it manages independently. Another 44 million acres (18 million hectares) are owned by 12 regional, and scores of local, Native corporations created under the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act (ANCSA) of 1971. Regional Native corporation Doyon, Limited often promotes itself as

6840-412: The open market. Various private interests own the remaining land, totaling about one percent of the state. Alaska is, by a large margin, the state with the smallest percentage of private land ownership when Native corporation holdings are excluded. The Alaska Heritage Resources Survey (AHRS) is a restricted inventory of all reported historic and prehistoric sites within the U.S. state of Alaska; it

6930-428: The rebuilt infrastructure would be safe. The team produced a report on May 8, 1964, just a little more than a month after the earthquake. The United States military, which has a large active presence in Alaska, also stepped in to assist within moments of the end of the quake. The U.S. Army rapidly re-established communications with the lower 48 states, deployed troops to assist the citizens of Anchorage, and dispatched

7020-602: The region returned home praising its natural splendor. The Alcan Highway , built during the war, and the Alaska Marine Highway System , completed in 1963, made the state more accessible than before. Tourism has become increasingly important in Alaska, and today over 1.4 million people visit the state each year. With tourism more vital to the economy, environmentalism also rose in importance. The Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act (ANILCA) of 1980 added 53.7 million acres (217,000 km ) to

7110-514: The remaining land area, the state of Alaska owns 101 million acres (41 million hectares), its entitlement under the Alaska Statehood Act . A portion of that acreage is occasionally ceded to the organized boroughs presented above, under the statutory provisions pertaining to newly formed boroughs. Smaller portions are set aside for rural subdivisions and other homesteading-related opportunities. These are not very popular due to

7200-555: The several landslide zones along Knik Arm . Two hundred miles (320 km) southwest, some areas near Kodiak were permanently raised by 30 feet (9 m). Southeast of Anchorage, areas around the head of Turnagain Arm near Girdwood and Portage dropped as much as 8 feet (2.4 m), requiring reconstruction and fill to raise the Seward Highway above the new high tide mark. In Prince William Sound , Port Valdez suffered

7290-470: The state's entire land area. The area not part of any borough is referred to as the Unorganized Borough . The Unorganized Borough has no government of its own, but the U.S. Census Bureau in cooperation with the state divided the Unorganized Borough into 11 census areas solely for the purposes of statistical analysis and presentation. A recording district is a mechanism for management of

7380-469: The total length of the British Columbia Coast is over 25,725 km (15,985 mi), or approximately 10% of the entire Canadian coastline. This coastal geography is shared with the neighbouring U.S. states of Alaska and Washington . The dominant landforms are the Insular Mountains of Vancouver Island and Haida Gwaii , and the Coast Mountains that stretch along the entire length of

7470-522: The voice of calm from her temporary post within the Anchorage Public Safety Building. She was effectively designated as the public safety officer by the city's police chief. Chance provided breaking news of the catastrophic events that continued to develop following the magnitude 9.2 earthquake, and she served as the voice of the public safety office, coordinating response efforts, connecting available resources to needs around

7560-476: The world . If it was an independent nation, it would be the 18th largest country in the world; almost the same size as Iran . With its myriad of islands, Alaska has nearly 34,000 miles (55,000 km) of tidal shoreline. The Aleutian Islands chain extends west from the southern tip of the Alaska Peninsula . Many active volcanoes are found in the Aleutians and in coastal regions. Unimak Island , for example,

7650-520: The world's largest tides occurs in Turnagain Arm , just south of Anchorage, where tidal differences can be more than 35 feet (10.7 m). Alaska has more than 409,000 natural lakes at least one hectare or bigger. Marshlands and wetland permafrost cover 188,320 square miles (487,700 km ) (mostly in northern, western and southwest flatlands). Glacier ice covers about 28,957 square miles (75,000 km ) of Alaska. The Bering Glacier

7740-512: Was extremely limited or unavailable until statehood took effect in 1959. Starting in the 1890s and stretching in some places to the early 1910s, gold rushes in Alaska and the nearby Yukon Territory brought thousands of miners and settlers to Alaska. From 1879 to 1920, Alaska produced a cumulative total of over $ 460,000,000 ($ 6,691,927,500 inflation-adjusted) of mineral production. Alaska was officially incorporated as an organized territory in 1912. Alaska's capital, which had been in Sitka until 1906,

7830-492: Was formed as a direct response to the disaster. Federal disaster relief funds paid for reconstruction as well as financially supporting the devastated infrastructure of Alaska's government, spending hundreds of millions of dollars that helped keep Alaska financially solvent until the discovery of massive oil deposits at Prudhoe Bay . At the order of the U.S. Defense Department , the Alaska National Guard founded

7920-408: Was headquartered in Sitka. For most of Alaska's first decade under the United States flag, Sitka was the only community inhabited by American settlers. They organized a "provisional city government", which was Alaska's first municipal government, but not in a legal sense. Legislation allowing Alaskan communities to legally incorporate as cities did not come about until 1900, and home rule for cities

8010-779: Was moved north to Juneau . Construction of the Alaska Governor's Mansion began that same year. European immigrants from Norway and Sweden also settled in southeast Alaska, where they entered the fishing and logging industries. During World War II , the Aleutian Islands Campaign focused on Attu , Agattu and Kiska , all of which were occupied by the Empire of Japan . During the Japanese occupation, an American civilian and two United States Navy personnel were killed at Attu and Kiska respectively, and nearly

8100-482: Was the first to actively colonize the area beginning in the 18th century, eventually establishing Russian America , which spanned most of the current state and promoted and maintained a native Alaskan Creole population. The expense and logistical difficulty of maintaining this distant possession prompted its sale to the U.S. in 1867 for US$ 7.2 million (equivalent to $ 157 million in 2023). The area went through several administrative changes before becoming organized as

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