ALASKA

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STATE SEAL OF ALASKA






Alaska (IPA: /əˈlæskə/, Russian: Аляска) is a state in the United States of America, in the extreme northwest portion of the North American continent.

It is the largest U.S. state by area (by a substantial margin), and one of the wealthiest and most racially diverse.

The area that became Alaska was purchased from Russian interests on March 30, 1867.

The land went through several administrative changes before becoming an organized territory in 1912 and the 49th state of the U.S. on January 3, 1959.

The name "Alaska" is derived from the Aleut 'alaxsxaq', meaning "the mainland", or more literally "the object towards which the action of the sea is directed".

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ALASKA - STATE FLAG

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Geography



Alaska is one of two U.S. states not bordered by another state, Hawaii being the other. Alaska has more coastline than all the other US states combined.

It is the only non-contiguous state in North America; about 500 miles (800 km) of Canadian territory separate Alaska from Washington State. Alaska is thus an exclave of the United States, part of the continental U.S. but is not part of the contiguous U.S.[5] Alaska is the only state whose capital city is inaccessible by land - no roads connect Juneau to the rest of the state.

The state is bordered by Yukon and British Columbia, Canada to the east, the Gulf of Alaska and the Pacific Ocean to the south, the Bering Sea, Bering Strait, and Chukchi Sea to the west, and the Beaufort Sea and the Arctic Ocean to the north.

Alaska is the largest state in the United States in terms of land area at 570,380 square miles (1,477,277 km²), over twice as large as Texas, the next largest state. If the state's westernmost point were superimposed on San Francisco, California, its easternmost point would be in Jacksonville, Florida. It is larger than all but 18 sovereign nations.

 

 
One scheme for describing the state's geography is by labeling the regions:


South Central Alaska is the southern coastal region and contains most of the state's population.

Anchorage and many growing towns, such as Palmer, and Wasilla, lie within this area. Petroleum industrial plants, transportation, tourism, and two military bases form the core of the economy here.

The Alaska Panhandle, also known as Southeast Alaska, is home to many of Alaska's larger towns including the state capital Juneau, tidewater glaciers and extensive forests. Tourism, fishing, forestry and state government anchor the economy.

Southwest Alaska is largely coastal, bordered by both the Pacific Ocean and the Bering Sea. It is sparsely populated, and unconnected to the road system, but incredibly important to the fishing industry. Half of all fish caught in the western U.S. come from the Bering Sea, and Bristol Bay has the world's largest sockeye salmon fishery. Southwest Alaska includes Katmai and Lake Clark national parks as well as numerous wildlife refuges. The region comprises western Cook Inlet, Bristol Bay and its watersheds, the Alaska Peninsula and the Aleutian Islands. It is known for wet and stormy weather, tundra landscapes, and large populations of salmon, brown bears, caribou, birds, and marine mammals.

The Alaska Interior is home to Fairbanks. The geography is marked by large braided rivers, such as the Yukon River and the Kuskokwim River, as well as Arctic tundra lands and shorelines.

The Alaskan Bush is the remote, less crowded part of the state, encompassing 380 native villages and small towns such as Nome, Bethel, Kotzebue and, most famously, Barrow, the northernmost town in the United States, as well as the northern most town on the contiguous North American continent (cities in Greenland, the North West Terrirories, and Nunavut that are farther north are on islands)[citation needed].

The northeast corner of Alaska is covered by the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, which covers 19,049,236 acres (77,090 km²). Much of the northwest is covered by the larger National Petroleum Reserve–Alaska, which covers around 23,000,000 acres (93,100 km²) million acres. The Arctic is Alaska's most remote wilderness. A location in the National Petroleum Reserve–Alaska is 120 miles (190 km) miles from any town or village, the geographic point most remote from permanent habitation in the USA.

With its numerous islands, Alaska has nearly 34,000 miles (54,720 km) of tidal shoreline. The island chain extending west from the southern tip of the Alaska Peninsula is called the Aleutian Islands. Many active volcanoes are found in the Aleutians. For example, Unimak Island is home to Mount Shishaldin, a moderately active volcano that rises to 9,980 feet (3,042 m) above sea level. The chain of volcanoes extends to Mount Spurr, west of Anchorage on the mainland.

One of North America's largest tides occurs in Turnagain Arm, just south of Anchorage - tidal differences can be more than 35 feet (10.7 m). (Many sources say Turnagain has the second-greatest tides in North America, but several areas in Canada have larger tides.[6])

Alaska has 3.5 million lakes of 20 acres (8 ha) or larger [7]. Marshlands and wetland permafrost cover 188,320 square miles (487,747 km²) (mostly in northern, western and southwest flatlands). Frozen water, in the form of glacier ice, covers some 16,000 square miles (41,440 km²) of land and 1,200 square miles (3,110 km²) of tidal zone. The Bering Glacier complex near the southeastern border with Yukon, Canada, covers 2,250 square miles (5,827 km²) alone.

The Aleutian Islands cross longitude 180°, so Alaska can be considered the easternmost state as well as the westernmost. Alaska, and especially the Aleutians, are one of the extreme points of the United States. The International Date Line jogs west of 180° to keep the whole state, and thus the entire continental United States, within the same legal day.

According to an October 1998 report by the United States Bureau of Land Management, approximately 65% of Alaska 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 (350,000 km²), or 23.8% of the state. The Arctic National Wildlife Refuge is managed by the United States Fish and Wildlife Service.

Of the remaining land area, the State of Alaska owns 24.5%; another 10% is managed by 13 regional and dozens of local Native corporations created under the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act. Various private interests own the remaining land, totaling less than 1%.

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Alaska is administratively divided into "boroughs", as opposed to "counties."

The function is the same, but whereas some states use a three-tiered system of decentralization — state/county/township — most of Alaska uses only two tiers — state/borough.

Owing to the low population density, most of the land is located in the Unorganized Borough which, as the name implies, has no intermediate borough government of its own, but is administered directly by the state government.

Currently (2000 census) 57.71% of Alaska's area has this status, with 13.05% of the population. For statistical purposes the United States Census Bureau divides this territory into census areas.

Anchorage merged the city government with the Greater Anchorage Area Borough in 1971 to form the Municipality of Anchorage, containing the city proper and the bedroom 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).

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Climate



The climate in Juneau and the southeast panhandle is best described as a cooler version of Seattle. It is a mid-latitude oceanic climate (Köppen climate classification Cfb) in the southern sections and a subarctic oceanic climate (Köppen Cfc) in the northern parts. On an annual basis, this is both the wettest and warmest part of Alaska with milder temperatures in the winter and high precipitation throughout the year. Juneau averages over 50 inches (1,270 mm) of precipitation a year, while other areas receive over 275 inches (6,990 mm).[8] This is also the only region in Alaska in which the average daytime high temperature is above freezing during the winter months.

The climate in north central Alaska, with Anchorage as a city, is mild by Alaskan standards.
This is due in large part to its proximity to the coast. While it does not get nearly as much rain as the southeast of Alaska, it does get more snow, although days tend to be clearer here. On average, Anchorage receives 16 inches (406 mm) of precipitation a year, with around 75 inches (1,905 mm) of snow, although there are areas in the south central which receive far more snow. It is a subarctic climate (Köppen Dfc) due to its short, cool summers though.


The climate of Western Alaska is determined in large part by the Bering Sea and the Gulf of Alaska.
It is a subarctic oceanic climate in the southwest and a continental subarctic climate farther north. The temperature is somewhat moderate considering how far north the area is. This area has a tremendous amount of variety, especially when considering precipitation.

The northern side of the Seward Peninsula is technically a desert with less than 10 inches (250 mm) of precipitation annually, while some locations between Dillingham and Bethel average around 100 inches (2,540 mm) of precipitation.

The climate of the interior of Alaska is best described as extreme and is the best example of a true subarctic climate. Some of the hottest and coldest temperatures in Alaska occur around the area near Fairbanks. The summers can have temperatures reaching into the 80s°F (near 30 °C), while in the winter, the temperature can fall below −60 °F (-52 °C).

Precipitation is not much in the Interior, often less than 10 inches (250 mm) a year, but what precipitation falls in the winter tends to stay the entire winter.

The highest and lowest recorded temperatures in Alaska are both in the Interior.

The highest is 100 °F (38 °C) in Fort Yukon on June 27, 1915, tied with Pahala, Hawaii as the lowest high temperature in the United States.

The lowest Alaska temperature is −80 °F (-64 °C) in Prospect Creek on January 23, 1971, one degree above the lowest temperature recorded in North America (in Snag, Yukon, Canada).

The climate in the extreme north of Alaska is as expected for an area north of the Arctic Circle. It is an Arctic climate (Köppen ET) with long, very cold winters and short, cool summers.

Even in July, the average low temperature is barely above freezing in Barrow, at 34 °F (2 °C).

 Precipitation is light in this part of Alaska, with many places averaging less than 10 inches (250 mm) per year, mostly in the form of snow which stays on the ground almost the entire year.

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Barrow, Alaska is the northernmost city in the United States.

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                                                        History of Alaska
 




At the end of the Upper Paleolithic Period (around 12,000 BCE), Asiatic groups crossed the Bering Land Bridge into what is now western Alaska. At the time of European contact by the Russian explorers, the area was populated by Alaska Native groups.

The first European contact with Alaska occurred in the 1741, when Vitus Bering led an expedition for the Russian Navy aboard the St. Peter. After his crew returned to Russia bearing 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 towards the Aleutian islands. The first permanent European settlement was founded in 1784, and the Russian-American Company carried out expanded an colonization program during the early to mid-1800s. Despite these efforts, the Russians never fully colonized Alaska, and the colony was never very profitable. William H. Seward, the U.S. Secretary of State, engineered the Alaskan purchase in 1867 for $7.2 million.

In the 1890s, gold rushes in Alaska and the nearby Yukon Territory brought thousands of miners and settlers to Alaska. Alaska was granted territorial status in 1912.

During World War II, three of the outer Aleutian Islands—Attu, Agattu and Kiska—were the only part of the United States to have land occupied by the enemy during the war. The battle became a matter of national pride, defending the nation against the first foreign military campaign on U.S. soil since the War of 1812. The construction of military bases also contributed to the population growth of some Alaskan cities.

Alaska was granted statehood on January 3, 1959.

In 1964, the massive "Good Friday Earthquake" killed 131 people and leveled several villages.

The 1968 discovery of oil at Prudhoe Bay and the 1977 completion of the Trans-Alaska Pipeline led to an oil boom. In 1989, the Exxon Valdez hit a reef in the Prince William Sound, spilling between 11 and 35 million US gallons (42,000-130,000 m³) of crude oil over 1,100 miles (1,600 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.

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                                                    Demographics of Alaska



Historical populations

Census Pop.   %±



1950 128,643  —

1960 226,167  75.8%

1970 300,382  32.8%

1980 401,851  33.8%

1990 550,043  36.9%

2000 626,932  14.0%

Est. 2006 670,053  6.9%



In 2006 Alaska had an estimated population of 670,053, an increase of 6,392 (0.96%) from 2005 and 43,121 (6.9%) from 2000. In 2000 Alaska ranked 48th out of 50 states by population.[15] Alaska is the least densely populated state, at 0.42 people per square kilometer (1.1 per square mile), with the next state, Wyoming, at 1.97 (5.1 per square mile), and the most densely populated, New Jersey, at 437.6 people per square kilometer (1,134.4 per square mile).





Race and ancestry



According to the 2000 U.S. Census, 75% of Alaska residents are white. 19% are American Indian or Alaska Native, the largest proportion of any state. Multiracial/Mixed-Race people are the third largest group of people in the state, totaling 6.9% of the population. The largest self-reported ancestry groups in the state are German (16.6%), Alaska Native or American Indian (15.6%), Irish (10.8%), British (9.6%), American (5.7%), and Norwegian (4.2%).

The vast sparsely-populated regions of northern and western Alaska are primarily inhabited by Alaska Natives, who are also numerous in the southeast. Anchorage, Fairbanks, and other parts of south-central and southeast Alaska have many whites of northern and western European ancestry. The Wrangell-Petersburg area has many residents of Scandinavian ancestry and the Aleutians contain a large Filipino population. Most of the state's black population lives in Anchorage. Fairbanks also has a sizable black population.





Languages


 
According to the 2000 U.S. Census, 85.7% of Alaska residents aged 5 and older speak English at home. The next most common languages are Spanish (2.88%), Yupik (2.87%), Tagalog (1.54%), and Iñupiaq (1.06%).[16] A total of 5.2% of Alaskans speak one of the state's 22 indigenous languages, known locally as Native languages.





Religion



Eighty-two percent of Alaskans are Christians.

 Of these, 76% are Protestant, 10% are Eastern Orthodox, 9% are Catholic, 5% are Mormon, and 1% are Episcopalian.

The large Eastern Orthodox population is a result of early Russian colonization and missionary work among Alaska Natives.And, gradually more and more Russian Orthodox Churches became established within Alaska. Alaska also has the largest Quaker population (by percentage) of any state.

In 2003 there were three thousand Jews in Alaska.

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                                                            Economy






 
The Trans-Alaska Pipeline transports oil, Alaska's most important export, from the North Slope to Valdez


The 2005 gross state product was $39.9 billion. Its per-capita GSP for 2005 was $60,079, 3rd in the nation. Alaska's economy relies heavily on petroleum extraction, with more than 80% of the state's revenues derived from this industry. Alaska's main export product (excluding oil and natural gas) is seafood, primarily salmon, cod, pollock and crab. Agriculture represents only a fraction of the Alaska economy. Agricultural production is primarily for consumption within the state and includes nursery stock, dairy products, vegetables, and livestock. Manufacturing is limited, with most foodstuffs and general goods imported from elsewhere. Employment is primarily in government and industries such as natural resource extraction, shipping, and transportation. Military bases are a significant component of the economy in both Fairbanks and Anchorage. Its industrial outputs are crude petroleum, natural gas, coal, gold, precious metals, zinc and other mining, seafood processing, timber and wood products. There is also a growing service and tourism sector. Tourists have contributed to the economy by supporting local lodging.

Alaska's economy is heavily dependent on increasingly expensive diesel fuel for heating, transportation, electric power and light. Though wind and hydroelectric power are abundant and underutilized, proposals for state-wide energy systems (e.g. with special low-cost electric interties) were judged uneconomical (at the time of the report, 2001) due to low (<$0.50/Gal) fuel prices, long distances and low population.[21] The cost of a gallon of gas in urban Alaska today is usually $0.30-$0.60 higher than the national average; prices in rural areas are generally significantly higher but vary widely depending on transportation costs, seasonal usage peaks, nearby petroleum development infrastructure and many other factors.

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Permanent Fund
The Alaska Permanent Fund is a legislatively-controlled appropriation established in 1976 to manage a surplus in state petroleum revenues from the recently constructed Trans-Alaska Pipeline System. From its initial principal of $734,000, the fund has grown to $38 billion as a result of oil royalties and capital investment programs. Starting in 1982, dividends from the fund's annual growth have been paid out each year to eligible Alaskans, ranging from $331.29 in 1984 to $1963.86 in 2000.[22]


[edit] Cost of living
The cost of goods in Alaska has long been higher than in the contiguous 48 states. This has changed for the most part in Anchorage and to a lesser extent in Fairbanks, where the cost of living has dropped somewhat in the past five years. Federal Government employees, particularly United States Postal Service (USPS) workers and active-duty military members, receive a Cost Of Living Allowance usually set at 25% of base pay because, while the cost of living has gone down, it is still one of the highest in the country.

The introduction of big-box stores in Anchorage, Fairbanks (Wal-Mart in March of 2004), and Juneau also did much to lower prices. However, rural Alaska suffers from extremely high prices for food and consumer goods, compared to the rest of the country due to the relatively limited transportation infrastructure. Many rural residents come in to these cities and purchase food and goods in bulk from warehouse clubs like Costco and Sam's Club. Some have embraced the free shipping offers of some online retailers to purchase items much more cheaply than they could in their own communities, if they are available at all.


Taxes



Alaska has the lowest individual tax burden in the US, and is one of only six states with no state sales tax and one of seven states that do not levy an individual income tax. To finance state government operations, Alaska depends primarily on petroleum revenues. The Department of Revenue Tax Division reports regularly on the state's revenue sources. The Department also issues an annual overview of its operations, including new state laws that directly affect the tax division.

While Alaska has no state sales tax, 89 municipalities collect a local sales tax, from 1% to 7%, typically 3% to 5%. Other local taxes levied include raw fish taxes, hotel, motel, and B&B “bed” taxes, severance taxes, liquor and tobacco taxes, gaming (pull tabs) taxes, tire taxes and fuel transfer taxes. A percentage of revenue collected from certain state taxes and license fees (such as petroleum, aviation motor fuel, telephone cooperative) is shared with municipalities in Alaska.

Property taxes are relatively low, with only 25 of 161 incorporated municipalities or boroughs in the state assessing property taxes.

 Fairbanks has one of the highest property taxes in the state as no sales or income taxes are assessed in the Fairbanks North Star Borough (FNSB). A sales tax for the FNSB has been voted on many times, but has yet to be approved, leading law makers to increase taxes dramatically on other goods such as liquor and tobacco. The average per capita property tax paid in all municipalities, excluding oil and gas properties, was US$999 (2003 data).

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                                                                Transportation




Roads





 Sterling Highway



Alaska is arguably the least-connected state in terms of road transportation. The state's road system covers a relatively small area of the state, linking the central population centers and the Alaska Highway, the principal route out of the state through Canada. The state capital, Juneau, is not accessible by road, which has spurred several debates over the decades about moving the capital to a city on the road system. One unique feature of the road system is the Anton Anderson Memorial Tunnel, which links the Seward Highway south of Anchorage with the relatively isolated community of Whittier. At nearly 2.5 miles [4 km] the tunnel was the longest road tunnel in North America until completion of the 3.5 mile (5.6 km) Interstate 93 tunnel as part of the "Big Dig" project in Boston, Massachusetts. The tunnel is the longest combination road and rail tunnel in North America.





Rail



The Alaska Railroad runs from Seward through Anchorage, Denali, and Fairbanks to North Pole, with spurs to Whittier and Palmer (locally known as "The Railbelt"). The railroad is famous for its summertime passenger services and also plays a vital part in moving Alaska's natural resources, such as coal and gravel, to ports in Anchorage, Whittier and Seward. The Alaska Railroad is one of the few remaining railroads in North America to use cabooses in regular service and offers one of the last flag stop routes in the country. A stretch of about 60 miles of track along an area inaccessible by road is the only transportation to cabins in the area.





Marine transport



Most cities and villages in the state are accessible only by sea or air. Alaska has a well-developed ferry system, known as the Alaska Marine Highway, which serves the cities of Southeast and the Alaska Peninsula. The system also operates a ferry service from Bellingham, Washington up the Inside Passage to Skagway. In the Prince of Wales Island region of Southeast, the Inter-Island Ferry Authority also serves as an important marine link for many communities, and works in concert with the Alaska Marine Highway. Tourist sea travel is also popular on Alaska cruises.





Air transport
 




Alaska Airlines Boeing 737-700


Cities not served by road or sea can be reached only by air, accounting for Alaska's extremely well-developed Bush air services—an Alaskan novelty. Anchorage itself, and to a lesser extent Fairbanks, are serviced by many major airlines. Air travel is the cheapest and most efficient form of transportation in and out of the state. Anchorage recently completed extensive remodeling and construction at Ted Stevens Anchorage International Airport to help accommodate the upsurge in tourism (in 2000-2001, the latest year for which data is available, 2.4 million total arrivals to Alaska were counted, 1.7 million via air travel; 1.4 million were visitors[24][25]).

Regular flights to most villages and towns within the state are commercially challenging to provide. Alaska Airlines is the only major airline offering in-state travel with jet service (sometimes in combination cargo and passenger Boeing 737-400s) from Anchorage and Fairbanks to regional hubs like Bethel, Nome, Kotzebue, Dillingham, Kodiak, and other larger communities as well as to major Southeast and Alaska Peninsula communities. The bulk of remaining commercial flight offerings come from small regional commuter airlines like: Era Aviation, PenAir, and Frontier Flying Service. The smallest towns and villages must rely on scheduled or chartered Bush flying services using general aviation aircraft such as the Cessna Caravan, the most popular aircraft in use in the state. Much of this service can be attributed to the Alaska bypass mail program which subsidizes bulk mail delivery to Alaskan rural communities. The program requires 70% of that subsidy to go to carriers who offer passenger service to the communities. But perhaps the most quintessentially Alaskan plane is the Bush seaplane. The world's busiest seaplane base is Lake Hood, located next to Ted Stevens Anchorage International Airport, where flights bound for remote villages without an airstrip carry passengers, cargo, and lots of items from stores and warehouse clubs. Alaska has the highest number of pilots per capita of any U.S. state: out of the estimated 663,661 residents, 8,550 are pilots, or about one in 78.

Alaska has the longest runway in the world, as the entire length of the Richardson Highway is designated an emergency landing strip.





Other transport



Another Alaskan transportation method is the dogsled. In modern times, dog mushing is more of a sport than a true means of transportation. Various races are held around the state, but the best known is the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race, a 1150-mile (1850 km) trail from Anchorage to Nome. The race commemorates the famous 1925 serum run to Nome in which mushers and dogs like Balto took much-needed medicine to the diphtheria-stricken community of Nome when all other means of transportation had failed. Mushers from all over the world come to Anchorage each March to compete for cash prizes and prestige.

In areas not served by road or rail, primary transportation in summer is by all-terrain vehicle and in winter by snowmobile or "snow machine," as it is commonly referred to in Alaska.

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State government



December 4, 2006, Sarah Palin was sworn in as the first woman and youngest Governor of Alaska. Her running mate was Lieutenant Governor Sean Parnell. Palin is the former two-term mayor of Wasilla, Alaska.

The Alaska Legislature consists of a 20-member Senate, whose members serve four-year terms, and 40-member House of Representatives, who serve two-year terms. It has been dominated by conservatives, generally Republicans. Recent state governors have been mostly conservatives, although not always elected under the official Republican banner. Republican Wally Hickel was elected to the office for a second term in 1990 after jumping the Republican ship and briefly joining the Alaskan Independence Party ticket just long enough to be reelected. He subsequently officially rejoined the Republican fold in 1994.

Alaska's court system has four levels: the Alaska Supreme Court, the court of appeals, the superior courts and the district courts.[29] The superior and district courts are trial courts. Superior courts are courts of general jurisdiction, while district courts only hear certain types of cases, including misdemeanor criminal cases and civil cases valued up to $100,000. The supreme court and the court of appeals are appellate courts. The court of appeals is required to hear appeals from certain lower-court decisions, including those regarding criminal prosecutions, juvenile delinquency, and habeas corpus.The supreme court hears civil appeals and may in its discretion hear criminal appeals.

Local political communities often work on issues related to land use development, fishing, tourism, and individual rights. Alaska Natives, while organized in and around their communities, are often active within the Native corporations which have been given ownership over large tracts of land, and thus need to deliberate resource conservation and development issues.

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                                                 Important cities and towns





See also: List of cities in Alaska by population and Alaska locations by per capita income.


Alaska's most populous city is Anchorage, home to 260,283 people in 2000, 225,744 of whom live in the urbanized area. The richest location in Alaska by per capita income is Halibut Cove ($89,895). Sitka, Juneau, and Anchorage are the three largest cities in the U.S. by area.

Also notable is the rapid growth of towns in the Mat-Su Valley. Wasilla and Palmer are projected to experience over 100% population growth between 2000 and 2010.[citation needed]

 
Anchorage is the largest city in Alaska.



Cities of 100,000 or more people
 
Anchorage
 



Towns of 10,000-100,000 people


Fairbanks

Juneau

 
 
Towns of 1,000-10,000 people


Ketchikan

Sitka

Wasilla

Kenai

Kodiak

Palmer

Bethel

Barrow

Unalaska

Valdez

Soldotna

Homer

Nome
 
Petersburg

Kotzebue
 
Seward
 
Dillingham

Cordova

Haines

North Pole
 
Hooper Bay
 
Craig

Houston
 




Smaller towns



Alaska has many smaller towns, especially in the Alaska Bush, the portion of the state that is inaccessible by road.


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alaska

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DENALI NATIONAL PARK

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                                               Alaska State Flower & Floral Emblem





Wild Native Forget-me-not Myosotis alpestris
Adopted:1917
 


Alaska State Flower & Floral Emblem: Wild Native Forget-me-not

Adoption of the Alaska State Flower & Floral Emblem

Alaska's official State flower & floral emblem was a popular representative of the Alaska Territory years before Alaska entered the Union.



The story starts almost 100 years ago at around the turn of the century and shortly after the population boom caused by the discovery of gold in Alaska and the Klondike gold rush.



In 1907, a group of men got together and formed a lodge (club or organization) limited to men who had arrived in Alaska before January 1, 1900. This organization was called the "Pioneers of Alaska." In 1908, the "Pioneers of Alaska" merged with two other lodges to form the "Grand Igloo." It was in the constitution of the Grand Igloo that the forget-me-not began its journey to become the official state flower and floral emblem of Alaska. A clause in the constitution declared,

"The official flower of the Pioneers of Alaska shall be the Alaska For-get-me-not."

As the population of Alaska continued to grow, women became involved with organizations such as the Grand Igloo by forming Auxiliaries. They too adopted the forget-me-not as their official emblem.

Territorial status loomed in Alaska's future and it occurred to the members of the Grand Igloo and the Women's Auxiliaries that the forget-me-not would make a most appropriate floral emblem for the new Alaska Territory.

In 1912, the United States Congress passed a second Organic Act authorizing Alaska to form a territorial government with limited powers. The Legislature of the Alaska Territory met for the first time in 1913.

Four years later the bill proposing that the forget-me-not be declared the official floral emblem of the Territory was introduced supported by the following poem written by Esther Birdsall Darling.


    So in thinking for an emblem
    For this Empire of the North
    We will choose this azure flower
    That the golden days bring forth,
    For we want men to remember
    That Alaska came to stay
    Though she slept unknown for ages
    And awakened in a day.
    So although they say we’re living
    In the land that God forgot,
    We’ll recall Alaska to them
    With our blue Forget-me-not.


The Territorial Legislature approved the forget-me-not as the official floral emblem of the Alaska Territory and the Governor signed the legislation into law on April 28, 1917. The following was found written in the margin of the bill.

    A little flower blossoms forth
    On every hill and dale,
    The emblem of the Pioneers
    Upon the rugged trail;

    The Pioneers have asked it
    And we could deny them not;
    So the emblem of Alaska
    Is the blue Forget-me-not.


Ten years later, in 1927, Benny Benson paid tribute to the forget-me not with his winning flag design. The blue field of Benny Benson's flag, adopted by the Alaska Legislature, represented the sky and the blue forget-me-not flower. He is quoted,



"The blue field is for the Alaska sky and the forget-me-not, an Alaskan flower. The North Star is for the

future state of Alaska, the most northerly in the union. The Dipper is for the Great Bear - symbolizing

strength."



In 1959, when Alaska was granted entry to the Union, the forget-me-not was adopted as the official State flower and floral emblem of the 49th state.



The Alaska Statutes - 2004

The following information is excerpted from The Alaska Statutes - 2004, Title 44, Chapter 09, Section 44-09-050.

Title 44. STATE GOVERNMENT.
Chapter 44.09. STATE SEAL, FLAG, AND EMBLEMS.

Sec. 44.09.050. State flower.



                           The wild native forget-me-not is the state flower and floral emblem.