The flag of Alaska
Location of Alaska
The seal of Alaska
Alaska ( ə-LASS -kə ) is a non-contiguous U.S. state on the northwest extremity of North America . Part of 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 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 is the seventh-largest subnational division in the world . It is the third-least populous and most sparsely populated U.S. state; however, with a population of 740,133 as of 2024, it is the most populous territory in North America 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 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 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 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 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 and one of the first to legalize recreational marijuana . The Indigenous population of Alaska is proportionally the second highest of any U.S. state, at over 15 percent, after only Hawaii. (Full article... )
Entries here consist of Good and Featured articles, which meet a core set of high editorial standards.
The Portage Glacier Highway , or Portage Glacier Road , is a highway located in the U.S. state of Alaska . The highway is made up of a series of roads, bridges, and tunnels that connect the Portage Glacier area of the Chugach National Forest and the city of Whittier to the Seward Highway . Most of the highway travels through mainly rural areas just north of the Kenai Peninsula , with the Anton Anderson Memorial Tunnel passing under Maynard Mountain , part of the Chugach Mountain Range . Parts of the route were first constructed in the early 1900s, and the entire highway was completed on June 7, 2000, as part of the Whittier Access Project. The main portion of the highway traveling from the western terminus to the Begich, Boggs Visitor Center at Portage Lake is designated as National Forest Highway 35 by the United States Forest Service (USFS). (Full article... )
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Juneau Mountain Rescue members prepare gear for a rescue mission, facilitated by the US Coast Guard, in 2011 Members of Juneau Mountain Rescue prepare gear for a rescue mission, facilitated by the US Coast Guard, in 2011
Juneau Mountain Rescue (JMR ) is a mountain search and rescue agency, located in Juneau, Alaska , United States . JMR is a member of the Alaska Search and Rescue Association, and facilitates rescues involving wilderness terrain, rope rescues on rock faces, ice and snow fields, glaciers , and during avalanches, medical evacuations , missing persons cases, aircraft crashes and other disasters. An all-volunteer organization, JMR coordinates with Capital City Fire/Rescue , the Juneau Police Department , the Alaska State Troopers , the United States Coast Guard , and other emergency response agencies during search and rescue operations. (Full article... )
1925 serum run to Nome Anchorage, Alaska Exxon Valdez oil spill Climate of Alaska Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race Juneau, Alaska History of Alaska Nome, Alaska Alaska Purchase Sitka, Alaska Ted Stevens Fairbanks, Alaska Kodiak bear Arctic Refuge drilling controversy Cordova, Alaska Morse v. Frederick Star Air Service Minnesota Drive Expressway Siberian Yupik Deadliest Catch Augustine Volcano McGee Airways William Moore (steamship captain) Tlingit language Legal education in Alaska Salmon Creek Dam Ruth A. M. Schmidt Sand Point, Alaska Northwest Passage Governorship of Sarah Palin Skagway, Alaska Eielson Air Force Base Cook Inlet Shootout on Juneau Wharf Alaska Railroad Henry Tureman Allen George Alexander Parks Alaska Road Commission Jewel (singer) Ice Road Truckers Alaskan king crab fishing Distant Early Warning Line Inuit Seward Highway Hubbard Glacier Caines Head State Recreation Area Alaska Native religion Kobuk River Inuit languages Fairway Rock Wrangell Bombardment Tanana Athabaskans Volcanic history of the Northern Cordilleran Volcanic Province Richard Proenneke Sitka Rocky Gutierrez Airport Tom Anderson (politician) Yup'ik clothing Red Dog mine Utqiagvik, Alaska St. Lawrence Island Wildlife of Alaska Arctic National Wildlife Refuge Alaska Highway Diomede, Alaska Denali National Park and Preserve COVID-19 pandemic in Alaska LGBT rights in Alaska Alaska marmot Eskimo
The following are images from various Alaska-related articles on Wikipedia.
Image 1 St. Michael's Cathedral in Sitka. The original structure, built in 1848, burned down in a fire on January 2, 1966. The cathedral was rebuilt from plans of the original structure and contains artifacts rescued from the fire. (from
History of Alaska )
Image 2 Ketchikan, one of the places affected by COVID-19 during the 2020 outbreak in Alaska (from
History of Alaska )
Image 3 Propaganda poster , World War II, depicting Alaska as a death trap for Japan. (from
History of Alaska )
Image 5 Alaska's area compared to the 48 contiguous states (from
Geography of Alaska )
Image 6 The check that paid for Alaska (from
History of Alaska )
Image 7 Oil pooled on rocks on the shore of Prince William Sound after the oil spill. (from
History of Alaska )
Image 8 Miners and prospectors climb the
Chilkoot Trail during the
Klondike Gold Rush . (from
History of Alaska )
Image 9 Spanish contact in British Columbia and Alaska (from
History of Alaska )
Image 10 Buildings burning after the
first Japanese attack on Dutch Harbor , June 3, 1942. (from
History of Alaska )
Image 12 Map of the Trans-Alaska Pipeline (from
History of Alaska )
Image 13 Aleksandr Baranov, "Lord of Alaska" (from
History of Alaska )
Image 14 Earthquake damage in Anchorage (from
History of Alaska )
Image 15 An
Inupiaq woman,
Nome, Alaska ,
c. 1907 (from
History of Alaska )
Image 17 Alaska has more acreage of public land owned by the federal government than any other state. (from
Geography of Alaska )
Image 18 Matanuska glacier (from
Geography of Alaska )
Image 19 Near Little Port Walter in Southeast Alaska (from
Geography of Alaska )
Image 21 Alaska in 1895 (
Rand McNally ). The boundary of southeastern Alaska shown is that claimed by the United States before the conclusion of the
Alaska boundary dispute . (from
History of Alaska )
Image 22 1860 map of Russian America (from
History of Alaska )
This is a list of recognized content, updated weekly by JL-Bot (talk · contribs ) (typically on Saturdays). There is no need to edit the list yourself. If an article is missing from the list, make sure it is tagged (e.g. {{ WikiProject Alaska }} ) or categorized correctly and wait for the next update. See WP:RECOG for configuration options.
Featured articles
Good articles
Featured pictures
1971-CANNIKIN-2
2010-kodiak-bear-1
Alaska Purchase (hi-res)
Alaska wild berries
Anchorage White Raven
Heinrich Berann NPS Panorama of Denali without labels
Malaspina-panorama-no-type
MtRedoubtedit1
Parque estatal Chugach, Alaska, Estados Unidos, 2017-08-22, DD 94
Russian-American Co - 1 Ruble (7559)
Whales Bubble Net Feeding-edit1
Yukon Delta
Total area: 663,268 mi2
Land: 571,936 mi2
Water: 91,332 mi2
Highest elevation: 20,310 ft (Denali )
Population 741,894 (2016 est)
Admission to the Union: January 3, 1959 (49th )
State symbols:
Urgent: An editor in Alaska able/willing to actively work with the Wikipedia Ambassador Program to provide direction/oversight for any articles within the project which are being improved upon under the program.
To Rate: Unassessed Alaska articles , Unknown-importance Alaska articles
To Nominate at WP:FAC :
To Improve to Featured standard: Alaska , Anchorage, Alaska , Fairbanks, Alaska , Juneau, Alaska , History of Alaska
Collaboration:
To Expand: Category:Alaska stubs , Alaskeros , Sheldon Jackson , Scouting in Alaska
To Clean up: Diomede Islands
To Merge:
To Destub: See: Category:Alaska stubs
To Deorphan:
To Categorize:
To Create: Articles on incoming (2019) legislators (and updating outgoing ones), Articles for new 2010 Census CDPs : Badger, Alaska , Chena Ridge, Alaska , Eureka Roadhouse, Alaska , Farmers Loop, Alaska , Goldstream, Alaska , Loring, Alaska , Point Possession, Alaska , South Van Horn, Alaska , Steele Creek, Alaska , Whitestone, Alaska
Lists to de-redlink: List of mayors of Anchorage DoneDavid chamberlain (talk ) 20:49, 2 February 2014 (UTC)
Lists to complete: List of mayors of Fairbanks, Alaska
Wanted Pics/Graphics:
Wanted New Pics: See Category:Wikipedia requested photographs in Alaska
Common mistakes to avoid (and correct):
Knik, Alaska, the ghost town, and Knik River, Alaska, the CDP, are not the same place. In fact, they are approximately an hour's drive away from each other.
Despite its name of "City and Borough of Yakutat," this entity is a borough, not a consolidated city-borough.
See the talk page (or archives of same) of WP:ALASKA , or of the articles in question, for more information.