Hi everyone! How’s it going?
It’s time for some random entertainment/education news!
Today we’re learning about Alaska – the 49th state in The United States
Alaska is the biggest US state. It holds 17 of the 20 highest peaks in the USA. Alaska also has more coastline than the rest of the U.S. combined
The name Alaska comes from the Native group Aleut’s word Alyeska, which means The Great Land
According to record keepers – the Native Americans living IN Alaska are called Eskimos. The Natives living in Canada are called Inuits – Do the natives know this? Or, was this arbitrarily assigned? Google failed to answer this..
They’re so far out of the continental US that – theoretically – someone on their Island Diomede, could see Russia.
Russia actually sold Alaska to the US in 1867. They agreed to sell it for a meager SEVEN-POINT-TWO MILLION! This roughly amounts to two cents an acre.
According to records, a territorial referendum in 1946 started the state’s invitation to be part of the United States.
The Alaska Statehood Committee and Alaska’s Constitutional Convention were created to ensure easy transition – but due to continental congress “snobs” who couldn’t consider Alaskan native’s needs – it took over a decade to commit to statehood.
They were officially proclaimed a state on January 3rd 1959
Right after Alaska became a state they changed the flag. It was created by a 13-year-old
Located over 500 miles from the nearest US State, and 50 miles from Russia -Alaska has a lot of natural wonders
Fun city facts: At least 5 cities are simply named after animals; Eagle, Fox, Beaver, Beluga, and of course Chicken
We’re unsure if they ran out of ideas – but you can visit silly destination cities – Circle, Sunrise, or Flat.. (Wouldn’t it be hard to live in flat? Seriously, we’d like to know)
One town I called Tok. That’s it. No time to think more about it – go move to Tok now
Interesting Exhibit Two: Lazy Mountain…. But Eek is a close 2nd. Goodnews Bay sounds like a cool town but then there’s Nightmute (Click the name to learn more) That name creeps us out just a little bit
Butte – we’re not too insecure to admit fart jokes are funny
Y? Seriously though, “Y” – but it’s true (Check it out here)
Women’s bay – About 52% of Alaskans are men – the highest percentage of any state, so it seems funny women got a bay
Happy Valley; sounds like a great place to go. It’s in a nice area of Alaska
False pass – they shall not pass lol
Red devil – With a total population of 23, it is a literal ghost town with mining pollution that keeps it out of the tourist’s eyes
Jakolof bay – it’s funny because it’s immature but also because the name was first reported in 1915 by the U.S. Geological Survey when the non-native inhabitants probably yelled it to the random government workers that appeared one day.
coldfoot…
Alaska decided one day that Whittier should henceforth be their weirdest city, It reached a national agreement when Ranker labeled it as the weirdest in the United States
Whittier only has one way in and one way out.
To get there by personal vehicle, you’ll have to go through the 2nd longest tunnel in the US; at 13,300 feet long.
Whittier has a bomb-proof abandoned army barracks. It’s claimed to be haunted – but they can’t take it down because it’s too expensive
Most everyone from the town – a population of around 200 – lives in one large building
Fun facts!
in 2012 – Mr. Worldwide – Pitbull set up a competition on facebook for his fans to choose where he performs. One internet troll developed an idea and convinced the internet to follow along. Everyone took to voting and he was sent to Kodiac to perform at a Walmart
John Carpenter filmed his 1982 classic – The Thing – in Alaska. However, the movie 30 Days of Night – which is a movie ABOUT Alaska – was filmed in New Zealand.
It is illegal to push a moose out of a moving airplane – but think about how this law came to be! Also, for Moose; it’s illegal to ‘hook-up‘ (Wink, Wink) in Fairbanks – talk about ruining the mood…
Gravity hill on Upper Huffman Road in Anchorage gives the illusion of defying gravity. Cars in neutral at the bottom of the hill will mysteriously roll up instead of down
In 1997 Stubs the cat was elected Mayor and an honorary write-in for US Senate in 2014
Chicken Alaska houses one of the creepiest drudges. Pedro Drudge was for gold mining; it’s still somewhat functional despite the number of reported deaths. The natives hold a festival called ‘chickenstock’ in June. You can even check out their dedicated fan base HERE
We’ll end this today with Bears! Alaska has a bear trivia webpage HERE and we think that’s pretty cool
We hope you’ve enjoyed our random education but stay tuned or subscribe because we’ll have so much more to come!
