There are only two states in the United States of America that are not connected to the others. One is Hawaii, and the other is. . .Alaska! Alaska is also the largest state in the United States. It has glaciers and marshland, over 3.5 million lakes, and its capital cannot be reached by car─you have to take a boat or an airplane to get to Juneau! During the summers the sun shines on Alaska even at night, due to its location in the far North. Even though Alaska has these wonderful attractions, it is one of the least populated states in America, perhaps because of the extreme weather it experiences during the winters. Many people aren't aware of Alaska's natural wonders nor its fascinating history.
Most scientists believe that people first arrived in America by walking over the Bering Strait and through Alaska. You might say, "Wait, that's impossible! The Bering Strait is water!" But during several ice ages, a bridge of ice over 1,600 kilometers long formed between Siberia and Alaska. The native Alaskans─Inuit, Aleuts, and other groups─crossed this bridge long before Europeans set foot in America.
The Bering Strait is named after one of the first Europeans to travel in the area, a Russian named Vitus Bering. In 1741 he was commissioned by the Russian navy to survey the region. Soon after the arrival of Bering and his crew, others came to take advantage of the natural resources available in the area.
Demand for sea otter pelts led hunters and traders to establish a fur trade on an archipelago off the west coast of Alaska, called the Aleutian Islands. The hunters were so greedy that they killed nearly all of the islands' furbearing creatures as they made their way through the Aleutian Islands toward mainland Alaska. They also enslaved much of the native population and forced them to hunt animals for the traders.
In 1784 Grigori Shelekhov, a Russian merchant, and two ships full of hunters and traders arrived to set up the first non-native settlement in Alaska, called Russian America. Shelekhov then founded a trading company called the Russian-American Company and situated its headquarters in another settlement called Sitka in 1804.
One of the company's managers started the first conservation program in North America for the endangered sea otter. This program, however, led to less money for Sitka because it limited the number of sea otter pelts hunters could collect. The people of Russian America tried to develop other industries, such as coal mining and whaling; unfortunately none of them generated enough money to stay in business. Then, when Russia lost the Crimean War in 1856, the czar decided to sell Russian America.
The United States Secretary of State, William H. Seward, wanted to secure the land for the U.S. and agreed to buy Russian America for $7,200,000. Congress approved the purchase, and the Treaty of Cession of Russian America to the United States was signed on March 30, 1867. This legally placed the land under the control of the United States. Many Americans, however, believed that this was a costly and unnecessary acquisition. Unhappy with the decision, the public began referring to Alaska as "Seward's Folly" and "Seward's Icebox." Nevertheless American troops watched as the flag was raised at Sitka on October 18, 1867.
After Alaska joined the union, some American companies tried to establish businesses there. For example, canneries were set up to support Alaska's new salmon fisheries. In addition Western Union, a communications company, attempted to lay a telegraph line from America all the way to Moscow, Russia, by going over the Bering Strait and through Siberia in 1866. Unfortunately they failed to get the telegraph line past the Yukon, a Canadian territory neighboring Alaska on the east, but their expedition inspired many others to explore Alaska.
The discovery of gold in the Klondike region of the Yukon in 1896 also fueled Americans' curiosity about Alaska. Fortune-seekers surged toward the Yukon during the Klondike Gold Rush, one of the most well-known in history, and the fastest way to the Yukon was through Alaska. Alaska's population nearly doubled in the following decade. This rise in population forced the U.S. Congress to take note of Alaska.
In 1912 Congress allowed Alaskans to legislate certain territorial issues. With this new power, Alaskan natives created the Alaska Native Brotherhood in 1913 to unite their communities. They petitioned for political and voting rights, integrated classrooms, and other civil rights for native Alaskans.
Despite the economic progress made in the first decade of the twentieth century, Alaska suffered through the Great Depression with the rest of the United States. Two of Alaska's most vital resources, fish and copper, declined in value. Storeowners were making less money, so they either had to lower their employees' wages or fire them. More than half of Alaska's workforce lost their jobs during the Great Depression.
When World War II began, Alaska's employment rate skyrocketed. Over 150,000 military personnel were stationed in newly built military installations in Alaska due to its proximity to Japan. The U.S. government also built the Alaska Highway as a military supply road. Recognizing Alaska's military importance, the Japanese bombed and occupied the Aleutian Islands in June of 1942. This was the only part of North America to be invaded and occupied during the Second World War.
Alaska had already applied for statehood once, but it wasn't granted statehood until after U.S. officials saw how strategic its location truly was. So with the cold war looming, and Alaska being the closest U.S. territory to the Soviet Union, President Dwight D. Eisenhower signed the law that allowed Alaska to become the 49th state of the United States of America on January 3, 1959.
Alaska's good fortune did not last long, however. On March 27, 1964, the newest U.S. state was hit by one of the most powerful earthquakes ever recorded. The Good Friday Earthquake, as it was called, killed 131 people and created mudslides and tsunamis that destroyed the port towns of Valdez and Cordova. Both cities were rebuilt on higher ground after the earthquake.
Valdez also suffered another disaster when the Exxon Valdez, an oil tanker, crashed on a nearby reef. Oil spilled over nearly two thousand kilometers of the coastline and affected much of the area's wildlife, particularly salmon, sea otters, seals, and sea birds.
The oil industry has been a cause for concern in Alaska since oil was discovered in the state in 1968. Alaskans managed to construct the Trans-Alaska Pipeline System, which transports oil from Prudhoe Bay over eight hundred miles to the rebuilt city of Valdez, without disturbing the land or wildlife surrounding it. Unfortunately the large oil reserves that were found beneath the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, a protected area of Alaska, cannot be accessed without drilling. This disruption would negatively affect many of the species that are living in the preserve. Since the late 1970s, no one has been able to come up with a solution to this problem.
Alaskans are still struggling to coexist peacefully with their environment. Most want to utilize their natural resources to further develop their state and improve the lives of its residents. Others think that the natural beauty of Alaska should be preserved. These people think that Alaska's wildlife and awe-inspiring scenery will attract tourists and ensure its economic future. The decisions today's leaders make will shape the future of Alaska, just as past leaders have made Alaska what it is today.