Land of the Midnight Sun

Land of the Midnight Sun. The Last Frontier. Alaska has attracted explorers, trappers, gold miners, hunters and tourists over the last three centuries. 

With 24 hours of daylight above the Arctic Circle around the summer solstice, there is plenty of time to explore. Even below the Arctic Circle, the long hours of twilight between sunset and sunrise leave little room for darkness. 

Prolific tomato and cucumber plants

The long summer days are ideal for growing vegetables. The largest cabbage grown in Alaska and the world is 127 pounds--that’s a lot of sauerkraut. The largest rutabaga grown was almost 83 pounds. 

Alaska is the land of extremes. Besides huge vegetables, Alaska boasts the tallest mountain in North America, Denali, at 20,320 feet. Seventeen of the 20 highest mountains in North America are found in Alaska. 

Denali

Alaskans joke that if Alaska was divided in half, Texas would be the third largest state. With an area of over 570,000 square miles, Alaska is more than twice the size of Texas. If the entire population of Alaska (710,231) was spread across the state, 1.2 people would inhabit each square mile. Compare that to Washington where there would be 101.2 people per square mile or California at 238.8 people per square mile.

Alaska is huge--it is one-fifth the size of the contiguous 48 states--or the “Outside” or “Lower 48” as Alaskans call it. Alaska’s coastline is more than 50 percent longer than that of the Lower 48 at 33,900 miles and is the only state that borders three seas-Pacific Ocean, Arctic Ocean and the Bering Sea. 

Dalton Highway and the Pipeline cutting through the Brooks Range

While Alaska can’t beat Arizona or Death Valley for the hottest temperature--Alaska’s record high is 100 degrees Fahrenheit--it can produce extremely low temperatures. The coldest temperature ever recorded in Alaska was minus 80 degrees Fahrenheit at Prospect Creek Camp in 1971. The temperature may have been colder but that was the lowest temperature mark on the thermometer. The coldest temperature ever recorded in North America was minus 81 degrees in the Yukon Territory of Canada. 

Alaska has its fair share of earthquakes (50 to 100 each day), but they tend to go unnoticed because of the remote locations. However, the Good Friday Earthquake on March 27, 1964 garnered attention because of the havoc it created along the southcentral coast, including Anchorage. At a magnitude of 9.2, it was the strongest earthquake ever recorded in North America and second largest in the world. Fifty-two percent of all earthquakes in the U.S. occur in Alaska.

25-pound sheefish from the Kobuk River

The lure of the north has enticed many people to venture to the Last Frontier and I am no exception. Soon it will be time for the annual migration north.