. Alaskan fisheries account for 60% of U.S. seafood harvested.
• Alaska is the only state that does not collect sales tax or levy an individual income tax (some cities have sales tax, however Anchorage does not)
• There are more than 3,000 rivers and 3 million lakes in Alaska
• Alaska's largest lake, Lake Iliamna, is roughly the size of Connecticut
• Alaska has more coastline than the rest of the US combined (more than 34,000m)
• During the Klondike Gold Rush in 1897, potatoes were so highly valued for their vitamin C content that miners traded gold for them
• The only battle during WWII that was fought on American Soil took place in 1943 after the Japanese invaded the Aleutian Islands
• More than half the world's glaciers can be found in Alaska
• If New York City had the same population density as Alaska, only 16 people would be living in Manhattan
• Utqiaġvik (formally known as Barrow), 800 miles south of the North Pole, has both the longest and shortest day. When the sun rises on May 10, it doesn't set for nearly three months. When it sets on November 18, Utqiaġvik residents do not see the sun again for nearly two months. It is also the northern most city in the United States.
• Giant vegetables are common in Alaska due to the extremely long days in summer. Alaska has grown a record cabbage weighing in at 94 pounds. They are on display each year in late August at the State Fairgrounds in Palmer
• Alaska Kodiak and Polar Bears can grow to 635 kg (1,400 pounds) and 3.35 meters (11 feet tall). Moose can grow to 612 kg (1,350 pounds) with antlers spanning 1.82 meters (6 feet wide)
• The nation's two largest forests are in Alaska. The Tongess in Southeast include 16.8 million acres and Chugach in Southcentral has 4.8 million acres.
• Alaska is also far flung: 3.1 wider (east to west) and 1.9 times taller (north to south) than Texas. If you cut Alaska in half, and made each half a state, Texas would be the third largest state.
• The most popular brand of pilot bread is Sailor Boy, made by Interbake Foods in Richmond, Virginia. Despite the location of the factory, 98 percent of all Sailor Boy pilot bread is sold in Alaska.
• Alaska has 229 federally recognized tribes in the nation, almost half the total of the US.
• Alaska hosts the largest national park in the system, Wrangell St. Elias
• Alaska has the 3rd longest River in the country, all in one state! Yukon River 1,959 miles
• 17 of the top 20 highest mountain peaks (above sea level) are in Alaska including Denali, “the great one.”
• Alaskans Subsist on about 3 times the amount of proteins caught wild compared to Americans. (Americans purchase about 222 lbs of proteins per year compared to subsistence catch per household of 643 lbs of wild caught proteins per household). -wolf, RJ
• Yup’ik (you-pick) is the second most commonly spoken language in the state and the only indigenous language spoken with that distinction in the United States.
• On January 23, 1971, at Prospect Creek Camp in Alaska, the temperature dropped to -80 degrees. That is the second coldest reading in North America outside of Greenland, and the coldest temperature ever recorded in Alaska and the United States.
• Alaska is the only state where it’s residents can call Canada its “neighbors to the south.”
