The Cold Land of Alaska: Our 49th State

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The Cold Land of Alaska – Our 49th State

Image by Jayel Aheram via Flickr

Alaska did not become a state until 1959; it had been considered a part of Oregon for many years. The first bid for statehood was presented in 1916; it took many years to finally achieve the status as USA’s 49th State. Alaska is not connected to the Mainland USA, it is a peninsula, and the piece that is connect to land is actually connected to Canada.

 Their flag which was adopted before the ever reached statehood, it was a territorial flag at the time it was designed The flags was designed by a young boy in 1926; and considered because it was our most northern state (union) the Flag is blue with the big dipper in the lower left hand side and the north star up in the right corner.

Even though Alaska is so far away, one would never expect it to have so many points of interest and State Parks but this State does. There is the Chilkat Bald Eagle Preserve; where it is believe to have over 3,000 bald Eagles in that region. There are two know Glacier regions, one is the Mendenhall Glacier which is 13 miles long and 3 ½-4 miles wide; while the Malaspina Glacier is said to be one of the largest, being approximately 2500 feet high. For Seal lovers there are the Pribilof Islands, which is the breeding area for seals, for they have that thick coat to withstand the cold waters.

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Alaska is known for being very cold, and its true, winters range about 5-10 degrees, and while the normal summer average are high fifties to the low sixties. There are of course the extremes when the winter is nearly –60 degrees and summers can hit 80 and 90 degrees, but they are very rare. The tribes that settle in Alaska about forty thousand years ago, are the same people who occupied Siberia since, the land was connected with the Bering Strait. These tribal member, or hunters if you will were broken down into four different groups, the Tsimshian who settler in Alaska, and survived on seafood from that area; there were the Tlingit which made up more than half the Native American population, they lived on coastal areas and were quite handy with details decorating shells and bones. The Aleut stayed to the western part of the state, and hunted the mammal of the sea, and the Eskimos who we all know and hear about, referred them selves as Inuit. They live through out the state, the hunter sea mammals and are able to build their shelter, make their clothes from caribou, which is sealskin, while the flesh is consumed. Most of the holiday and festive activities revolved around Indian traditions.