Talk:Alaska/Archive 1

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How to edit?

Wondering how to edit this State Entry?
The WikiProject U.S. states standards might help. They have Penguins there. The map of Alaska is a disgrace. Alaska is not an island, and is not located in the ocean by Mexico. Show Alaska in it's proper position, and correct size.

You're welcome. - Montréalais 05:49, 1 Dec 2003 (UTC)

Another map that would be good would be one showing Alaska overlayed on the continental U.S. I saw one like that in National Geographic and it was really impressive.

The current map features other US states equally to Canadian state, i.e. grey shade with white border lines. I think that the association of Alaska to the US should become clear here. E.g. by shading the US states slightly red. Anyway, I don't see why the Canadian state borders are shown at all--just see how these issues are usually handled in wikipedia. Unfortunately, I do not know how to effect this change. 130.161.167.14 17:58, 14 November 2007 (UTC)

---

Why was the standard Census data (racial demographics, percentage in poverty, etc) taken out of this entry?? It should have been placed there automatically by a robot so I'm assuming someone took it out manually. Why? Moncrief, 9 Mar 2004 (UTC)

Russian Name for Alaska

What name did Russia give Alaska when they ruled it? -G

Answer: The Russians called it "Alaska."

Two-Tier system

This article states:

"Alaska is administratively divided into "boroughs," as opposed to "counties." The function is the same,
but whereas most states use a three-tiered system of decentralisation - state/county/township - 
Alaska only uses two tiers - state/borough."

I believe Hawaii also uses a two-tier system. None of its cities are incorporated municipalites, with all governing done at the county and state levels. Do any other states operate this way?

Is this true? Alaska seems to have incorporated cities within and not seperate from the boroughs. (Check the constitution as one source.) So it would seem that the system is three-tiered, with the borough being much like a strong county government found in southern and western states. Can anybody help clear this up? --68.160.179.30 21:29, 30 July 2006 (UTC)

Most of Alaska is federal land, with the next largest land group being the state. There are several incorporated boroughs, with large chunks of state and federal land in between. Some municipalities are incorporated, so we have a three-tier system, plus the Native corporation lands and village councils. Not quite three-tier; maybe three-tier plus a parallel three-tier? Deirdre 18:57, 24 August 2006 (UTC)

Alaska, eastern-most state

I notice the coordinates are mentioned in the detailed info sidebar, but I'm wondering if some sort of further trivia should be added to this article, establishing the fact that the Aleutian islands cross the 180° Longitude mark, thus making Alaska the eastern-most state in the US instead of Maine. 207.177.12.151 04:18, 1 Oct 2004 (UTC)

"East" and "West" on a sphere are relative terms. You are making them relative to the Prime and 180° meridians, whereas others would define them relative to the center of the land mass you are referring to. --Locarno 13:58, 17 August 2005 (UTC)

I don't buy that. They're called the "Western" and "Eastern" hemispheres for a reason. The coordinates change from "degrees West" to "degrees East." The nearby part of Russia is called the "Far East." It's a technicality, but it's valid.

"...in the United States." That places reference on the US, not on the international dateline. Alaska is the eastern-most US state in the world, but not in the United States, just as Florida is the northern-most state in the Caribbean, but not the northern-most in the world. I live in Alaska and I'm getting tired of this exceptionalist propoganda. mercer5089 01:29 14 July 2006 (UTC)

Suggest 11 possible wiki links for Alaska.

An automated Wikipedia link suggester has some possible wiki link suggestions for the Alaska article:

• Can link pre-Columbian population: ...riety of [[Native American]] groups. Most if not all of the pre-Columbian population of the Americas probably took this route, but continued fur... (link to section)
• Can link Unimak Island: ...ive [[volcano]]es are found in the Aleutians. For example, Unimak Island is home to Mt. [[Shishaldin]], a moderately active volcano ... (link to section)
• Can link above sea level: ...moderately active volcano that rises to 9,980 ft (3,042 m) above sea level. The chain of volcanoes extends to [[Mount Spurr]], west o... (link to section)
• Can link federal government: ...lly cross longitude 180°. Much of Alaska is managed by the federal government as [[national forest]]s, [[national park]]s, and [[national... (link to section)
• Can link dairy products: ...main agriculture output is seafood, although nursery stock, dairy products, vegetables, and livestock are produced and used internally... (link to section)
• Can link natural gas: ...urism]] sector. Its industrial outputs are crude petroleum, natural gas, coal, gold, precious metals, zinc and other mining, seafoo... (link to section)
• Can link precious metals: ...trial outputs are crude petroleum, natural gas, coal, gold, precious metals, zinc and other mining, seafood processing, timber and wood... (link to section)
• Can link US Congress: ...[1904]]–[[1968]]) was the territorial delegate to the US Congress from [[1944]] to [[1958]], and was elected as the first sen... (link to section)
• Can link Lieutenant Governor: ... elected to statewide office was [[Fran Ulmer]], elected as Lieutenant Governor in [[1994]].... (link to section)
• Can link savings account: ...ge graduate and top student, who donated his entire $24,000 savings account to charity and moved into the Alaskan wilderness. 1997, IS... (link to section)
• Can link urbanized area: ...rage]], home of 260,283 people, 225,744 of whom live in the urbanized area. It ranks a distant third in the [[List of U.S. cities by ... (link to section)

Notes: The article text has not been changed in any way; Some of these suggestions may be wrong, some may be right.
Feedback: I like it, I hate it, Please don't link to — LinkBot 11:28, 1 Dec 2004 (UTC)

Move the beginning of text up

Is there anyway the text could begin at the top? It starts halfway down the right side panel.

I observe this also. I'm not quite sure how to fix it. Deco 18:53, 6 Apr 2005 (UTC)

What the devil is wrong with this entry? First there was a section that it was the easternmost state. Well yes that is true, but more importantly it is also the northernmost and westernmost as well. I tried to add this bit, but the edit page did not match the article at the time. (??!) Now there is this huge blank area next to the table and the text doesn't start until way at the bottom? Should I post something about it in a help forum? Anybody know a good one?--Larry G 22:05, 9 Apr 2005 (UTC)

Russian Alaska?

Why no mention of Alaska's history under Russian rule? Surely this is an important part of it's history?--Alun 09:56, 13 May 2005 (UTC)

I agree, seems Alaska did not exist before 1959, reads shallow, come on lets have some links at least to the native's many myths & legends 80.7.195.184 23:41, 1 July 2007 (UTC)

Gold and Oil

I'm surprised that there isn't more about gold or oil in this article. I was always under the impression that one of the big reasons that purchasing alaska was not a "folly" was the large amount of gold and oil reserves. I don't know this for a fact so I won't add it, but if true I think this connection should be made in the history section. 68.49.142.108

As far as I remember, the gold and oil resources were unknown at the time Seward was pushing for the acquisition of Alaska. Maybe there were rumblings of potential reserves, but the gold rush didn't happen until after Alaska was made a territory of the US. Once the gold and oil reserves were discovered, people realized we got a good deal on the purchase price...

I don't remember what Seward's big reason for pushing for the purchase of Alaska was...maybe someone who's more of an Alaska history buff can fill the article in...perhaps Steven Haycox at UAA could be converted to a Wikipedian! (I may take a course in Alaska history next semester or the following one. I'll update as I learn more.) cluth 01:15, July 16, 2005 (UTC)

Sorry, I should have made it more clear - I meant in retrospect it wasn't a bad deal. I was just saying that there is no real mention in the entire article about gold or oil, which seems like an important asset today.

You make a good point, the article doens't really state why we wanted Alaska from Russia. I'd be interested in knowing Seward's reasoning

68.49.142.108

In this section there should be more infomation on gold and oil.

"Gold" used to be a large part of the economy, but now it is relatively minor (mining is not in the top-3). Oil is the largest industry but hardly the sole item. I'm going to change the "gold and oil" mention at the top to something more accurate.

Alaskan economy now is really based on tourism, oil is right now an issue since the oil companies have been a party to some corruption in the state. When Alaska was bought, oil was not not something that was valued, per say. As said before gold used to be a major part of the economy, now all we (yes I'm Alaskan) do now is goldpan as a hobby or for just plain bordem in the mountains. And again more tourists goldpan than actual Alaskans (depending on where you live). -bob —Preceding unsigned comment added by 209.193.50.187 (talk) 04:39, 9 September 2007 (UTC)

Penguins

The only penguins we have are in the zooJedG 00:06, 27 March 2006 (UTC)

Savings Account

Please don't link to Savings Account. I believe this bot's text refers to the subject of the nonfiction novel Into the Wild by Jon Krakauer. --65.16.61.35 21:18, 1 September 2006 (UTC)

North America

Silly question perhaps but when did geographers realise that Alaska was in North America? Signor Eclectic 22:00, 2 August 2006 (UTC)

Movies on Alaska?

There are good ones out there! Yeah my cousins live there and they sent me a movie for my birthday

American Ethnicity?

Under demographics it states the countries top ethnic groups. It puts American down as an ethnic group.

American (5.7%)..... i have a cool movie about alaska

Religion

Where did the data for the religion section come from? It seems unreliable

"Important cities and towns"

How was this determined? I live in a town of 30k (Suburb of Eagle River), and it's not listed at all. It's suburb-ness is slightly disputed, but I still think it a candidate for the middle bracket. DevastatorIIC 03:39, July 26, 2005 (UTC)

Eagle River is part of the Municipality of Anchorage, so it is incorporated into Anchorage's population with the rest of the Municipality. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 69.137.152.241 (talk) 13:48, 14 December 2006 (UTC).

State revenue/State Income tax

How does the state collect revenue? I heard once that there was effectively a negative income tax rate in Alaska due to abundant tax revenue from oil and the pipeline. Is this still true? Is there any personal or business state income tax there? --Locarno 13:53, 17 August 2005 (UTC)

Alaska's status

There is a party called Alaskan Independence Party. So there is an opinion for independence. In addition, is there any opinion/movement for separation from the USA to join Canada, instead of independence? Everton 10:23, 8 September 2005 (UTC)

Given the politics of the majority of Alaskans, I think this idea would be an immediate non-starter. Tomer ^TALK 07:33, 20 September 2005 (UTC)

Do you mean that Alaska is too conservative to join the liberal Canada? (But Alberta is also very conservative...) Everton 11:42, 20 September 2005 (UTC)

Alaska join Canada?! I hope not! Canada's sinking into a debt hole of overtaxing and making people too dependent on the public teat! Rather it be the other way around! Way back in 1976, a humorous editorial in a Whitehorse paper suggested that Alaska, Yukon and the NWT separate from Canada and the US and form the nation of Nordicus! I don't think that's practical, but at least culturally, Alaska has more in common with its neighbours along the latitude. 207.189.250.46 14:34, 20 September 2005 (UTC)

There are many Alaskans who think that leaving the US is a good idea, but I rarely have heard discussion about joining Canada. The AIP is just a part of the very odd political landscape in Alaska. First, elections are primarly determined on how long you've lived in Alaska (commonly referred to as Sourdough Status), then on issues. The main issues revolve around the Alaska Permanant Fund and the related Dividend. Anything after that is typically a wedge issue (subsistence, hunting rights, etc.). Alaska is strange because while it's government is fairly socialistic in nature, it still tends to be very conservative. The State has tight control over natural resources (even if the resources are on your land), yet one of the biggest parts of the State Constitution is the right to privacy pretty much trumping everything else. Also, the state is mostly conservative except for Juneau which is very liberal. There are a share of Democrats in Alaska government (Tony Knowles was governor for 8 years), but as I like to say "An Alaskan Democrat is a Marylander Republican".

Could you tell me what Nordicus means? Everton 15:28, 20 September 2005 (UTC)

Canada has had 9 years of budget surpluses and is paying down the debt(While America is continueing its past time of deficit spending) so i dont know where " Canada's sinking into a debt hole" comes from. FYI one of the old rants that always seems to go around Alaskan communities every few years is a dual succession of Alaska and the Yukon from their respective countries and combining into an independent state. There's no way Alaska would just join Canada, though--sentiment toward Eastern Canadians is as negative as sentiment toward Eastern Americans. 4.20.74.62 17:27, 14 April 2006 (UTC)

The AIP is Alaska's 3rd largest political party, however its platform varies depending on who you ask. Some die-hard AIP members want to secede from the USA. Others want Alaska to revert back to a territory claiming statehood has led to too much federal control. Others argue the exact opposite, that Alaska is a state in name only and is put on the back burner of federal policy. These individuals call for more federal representation.

Which makes total sense given that Ted Stevens is such a powerless member of the Senate, and Don Young is such a junior Congressman, and the fact that Alaska gets far more Federal money back in taxes than they pay in.

What is impoprtant to remember is that the scale of liberal to conservative is not a line but a loop. The easiest way to put that is that "Alaskans" are so conservative that their liberal. Alaska as a whole tends to go for less to no gun control and legalization of marijuana. But, after we became a state and actually had laws, well, i can probably count all the "red light" business in the state with one hand —Preceding unsigned comment added by 209.193.50.187 (talk) 06:33, 9 September 2007 (UTC)

Alaska and Yukon Territory

Is there any name for the region including Alaska and Yukon? Everton 09:27, 18 September 2005 (UTC)

None that I'm aware of, as a Yukoner. However, if Canada were ever to be absorbed by the USA, I'm a proponent of giving Yukoners the option of joining Alaska, given the close ties... closer than to British Columbia which would "forget" about the Yukon. GBC 06:02, 19 September 2005 (UTC)

Maybe the Yukon River watershed? Or simply north-western North America. Or the Far North-West... Just guesswork... --Big Adamsky 14:44, 9 December 2005 (UTC)

The northwest northwest! Tomer^talk 21:54, 9 December 2005 (UTC)

West Central Yukon and Eastern Alaska are oftend called the Klondike after the Klondike River.

Before first surveys to divide the land were done in the mid 18th century, Northern British Columbia, Northern Alberta, the western part of the North-West Territories, the Yukon, and Alaska were named originally the Yukon.

Incorrect description of my latest change

Oops! It's a shame you can't go back and fix the description of edits. I wrote Reverted edits by 24.127.76.160 to last version by Canderson7 but I meant to say Reverted edits by 168.102.134.58 to last version by Canderson7—GraemeMcRae^talk 16:04, 26 October 2005 (UTC)

First American administrator?

There was an article in the Anchorage Daily News on Dec 17 2002, "Poland honors second 'ski' to lead Alaska," which seems to indicate that there isn't much evidence that Wlodzimierz Krzyzanowski was the first administrator of Alaska. (This information is also contained in the pages Department of Alaska and Włodzimierz Krzyżanowski) -- We should find references to support or deny this.

I don't have references at hand, but it was sort of a misunderstanding. Krzyzanowski referred to himself as "governor" or the equivalent, but as you said, there's nothing to support this, nor to suggest that he meant he was in charge of the whole state. -- A. 20:21, 16 March 2007 (UTC)

Inflation adjusted Cost of Purchase of Alaska

Can someone check out the inflation adjusted cost of purchasing alaska. $90M in 2005 seems too small. I just checked the CPI calculator for the US and it put $7 in 1914 to something like $139 now, so the $90M figure seems too low. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 211.31.196.78 (talk • contribs) .

Yea, I went to another site and confirmed a number around $130M 2005 dollars. Great catch! I'll make the change. -Scm83x 11:05, 17 December 2005 (UTC)

This is right- the inflation-adjusted figure must be way too low, much more than 300%.

In fact, the figure given in the article may be off way over 1000%.

I second checking out the infaltion adjusted cost of purchasing Alaska.

signed, Peter Fessel

Contradiction

"It is also the only state in which the majority of citizenry must pass through a foreign country when driving to its capital city. Alaska's capital city, Juneau, is accessible only via ship or air. There are no roads leading in or out of Juneau."

If there are no roads to it, then the statement about passing through a foreign country when driving is wrong, because you can't drive there at all.

Someone please fix this; I don't know which is correct. Ken Arromdee 15:09, 2 March 2006 (UTC)

Whoever added that may have been thinking of driving to Haines or Skagway (which does require traversing Canada) and then putting the car on a ferry the rest of the way, but you're right, that doesn't at all count. I'll reword it. —Zero Gravitas 19:26, 2 March 2006 (UTC)

Fact

There are no land roads to Juneau.

User:Greybear There are also no land roads to Honolulu; so Juneau is not the only such capital. The entire island of Oahu is contigous with Honolulu City and County and therefore cannot be entered by road from elsewhere.

Merger of North to the future to Alaska

I propose this merge simply because I found North to the future in the list of stubs in WikiProject Alaska. While it is a state motto, I believe the information contained therein may appeal to a wider audience when placed under its own section in the main Alaska article. Kareeser|^Talk! 17:09, 3 March 2006 (UTC)

Approximately half the states have pages for their mottos as well, so I'm not sure there's a really compelling reason to move this one... —Zero Gravitas 19:06, 3 March 2006 (UTC)

(edit to add: I don't really have a strong opinion either way, though. —Zero Gravitas 19:16, 3 March 2006 (UTC))

Hmm.. well I was bold and moved it (before reading the above comments). I don't think state mottos need their own articles, unless they're particularly notable somehow. But in this case I just thought the info was better placed, and would get more visibility, in Alaska. --Fang Aili 20:56, 11 March 2006 (UTC)

Why does this article have no introduction?

An introduction ought to be a bit longer than "a state located on the west coast". 18.251.5.83 03:29, 24 March 2006 (UTC)

name the island chain that extends weast from the southeast tip of alaskan peninsula.

Aleutians! What do I win? I know Adak Island is one of them... 222.153.97.55 02:05, 5 October 2006 (UTC)

WP:LEAD

WP:LEAD I added a little bit to the lead section, although not enough. I am very interested in this state, and hope to get it to featured standard because of WP:1FA. Raichu 15:01, 23 May 2006 (UTC)

History missing

This page is missing a lot of very important history regarding the importance of the Klondike/Alaskan gold rush years, 1896-1900. I was surprised it was not included as many cities, if not the state itself, owe their humble start to this era. Soapy 22:12, 28 May 2006 (UTC)

While a general overview of Alaska history is necessary in this article, duplication should probably be avoided: the History of Alaska article has a much more in-depth look at Alaska's past. (That article was a featured article on Wikipedia's front page and is extensively referenced, so I assume it's fairly complete.) It's not that this page is missing information: it's that it exists in better form elsewhere on Wikipedia. Before adding anything substantial to this page regarding Alaska's history, we should probably discuss whether the duplication is necessary.

(This comment isn't necessarily directed at you, Soapy--more for others who might come in the future to complain about missing Alaska history.) cluth 09:34, 12 September 2006 (UTC)

I know it was not directed at me. The History of Alaska did not exist yet, when I wrote my comment. Thanks! Soapy 19:38, 12 September 2006 (UTC)

Etymology

About seven months ago, an anon changed the etymology of the name to read:

The name "Alaska" is most likely derived from the Aleut word Alyeska, meaning greater land as opposed to the Aleut word Aleutia, meaning lesser land. To the Aleuts, this distinction was a linguistic variation distinguishing the mainland from an island.

This greater/lesser "Aleutia" assertion seems very dubious. There's no source, and not a single Ghit to verify; in fact, the only pages with both Alyeska and Aleutia in the text are copied from this article, or typoed the word "Aleutian", or were about something totally unrelated. I'd be surprised if "Aleutia" were even remotely Aleut to begin with; to me it reads like a guesswork backformation from "Aleutian".

I've copied the text here so it's easily available to reinsert should an actual source for this exist, but for now I'm putting it back how it was. —Zero Gravitas 23:21, 30 May 2006 (UTC)

Leave Soapy Smith Link up!!

Anyone who knows Alaskan goldrush history knows who "Soapy" Smith is! He is regarded as "Alaska's Outlaw." I have a website devoted to this historical figure and keep having to re-list it on this site, because someone has taken it upon themself to delete it as "spam." The website is only on the story of Soapy Smith and has a lot on Alaska. I sell nothing on this site. It irks me that I have been asked by this person to have to prove why "Soapy" Smith belongs here...Can I get some help from others here? Soapy 04:53, 31 May 2006 (UTC)

I looked over the link and the site, it's a good resource. The reason I would delete it from the Alaska article is that it is not particular to Alaska as a whole; those are the primary external links that you would want to keep for that particular article (eg the state website, census information). I don't think you're spamming or putting in the link for vanity as the other edit summaries say- I think it just doesn't fit for the overall article. I do love the article on Soapy Smith, pretty interesting stuff. You're doing good work! Teke 18:14, 31 May 2006 (UTC)

Teke; There are numerous items on the article that are not particular to all Alaska. Soapy is one of SIX "Notable Alaskans" listed in the article. I feel an external link is worthy. Soapy 20:19, 31 May 2006 (UTC)

At least, if it is kept, change the link description to something more generic, right now it sounds very spam-link, probably the reason it was removed. -- SmthManly / ^ManlyTalk / ^{ManlyContribs} 18:25, 31 May 2006 (UTC)

I deleted it..tired of Wikipedia Soapy 00:42, 1 June 2006 (UTC)

Juneau cannot be reached by roads

Both this article and the article on Juneau state that the capital city (Juneau) cannot be reached by roads from the rest of the state? Is this actually true, or is it instead true that Juneau cannot be reached by roads from the rest of the state without leaving the state at some point? Because, isn't it possible to drive from Anchorage to, say, Whitehorse and then from there down to Juneau? --thirty-seven 04:37, 11 June 2006 (UTC)

Nope. You're thinking of Haines and/or Skagway, both of which can be accessed that way, via the Haines Highway and Klondike Highway respectively. The only road out of Juneau stops after forty miles, at nowhere important. —Zero Gravitas 04:56, 11 June 2006 (UTC)

After further investigation, I see that you're right. Thanks. --thirty-seven 04:48, 12 June 2006 (UTC)

Recently the state of Alaska has considered a road from Juneau to Skagway (99 miles) but so far it has not been passed. Soapy 21:50, 11 June 2006 (UTC)

Just as an aside, British Columbians and Yukoners, and no doubt Juneauites (Juneauans?), when watching Northern Exposure, we'd always get a smirk whenever Hollis and Shelley would drive over to Saskatchewan to see her folks "for a couple of days" (can't figure out where their southern accents came from, since they were from Canada, and why it was that somebody from French noble blood was "French Canadian"); and in one episode I remember someone going to lunch in Whitehorse, and driving to Anchorage for a dinner meeting, and being in Juneau on the same day. It's not just the lack of roads that was so funny; it was the complete lack of sense of the distances in the region, even if there were roads. Hell, even if there was a road, the drive from Juneau to Fort St. John would take two days, never mind Saskatchewan....Skookum1 08:06, 9 January 2007 (UTC)\

Just as an informative aside, people from Juneau tend to call themselve Juneauites.

Size (Area) Contradictions? Improvements?

I was looking at Western Australia and saw there that

It (meaning Western Australia) is, after the Sakha Republic in Russia, the second largest subnational entity (Statoid) in the world.

I thought it would be nice to include the fact that Alaska is in sixth place on that list, but then I noticed a problem:

The info box gives the following figures -- Total Area 663,267 sq mi (1,717,854 km²) -- which matches the number shown on the aforementioned statoid list, but the Geography section tells a different tale:

Alaska is the largest state in the United States in terms of land area (it is larger in area than all but 18 of the world's nations) at 570,374 square miles (1,477,261 km²), over twice as large as Texas, the next largest state.

That number would push Alaska down from sixth to ninth place on the list.

So my questions are as follows:

1. Can anyone explain this discrepancy? I'm thinking land area to total area, including coastal waters, or the Aleutian Island chain, or something similar.
2. Would someone like to put the explanation into the article (besides me :)?
3. Does anyone either approve of or reject my notion to add the fact that Alaska is the sixth largest statoid into that paragraph?

Thanks for caring. -- Eliyahu S ^Talk 10:29, 31 August 2006 (UTC)

Climate and geography

File:Alaska map.jpg

Someone mentioned a long time ago at the top of this talk page that the article's lacking a climate section. I never really noticed that until now, but yeah--it does need one! (That's probably one of the top questions people looking up this article have...) Also, the map on the Hungarian Wikipedia (http://hu.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kép:Alaska-fhwa-map.jpg) is pretty good. I found it on a DOT website and uploaded it and will see if I can figure out where to put it in the article. cluth 08:54, 12 September 2006 (UTC)

After uploading the image, I saw a watermark in the top of the image that said mapgraphics.com. Therefore, even though it is hosted on US government servers, it probably doesn't count as a work of the government. I'm linking the image here--click on the thumb to view a larger version and help determine its copyright status. cluth 09:11, 12 September 2006 (UTC)

Regions

Shouldn't the list of regions list the Aleutians seperately (or at all)? I'm no expert on Alaska, but I was under the impression that the islands were considerably different from the rest of the state geographically, culturally, geologically, meteorologically, etc. Is there a formula or reference for only including the four regions here? Papercrab 03:49, 13 September 2006 (UTC)

This article is about the state of Alaska, the islands are part of the state. -Icewedge 03:00, 16 September 2007 (UTC)

Map

If you don't mind me mentioning it, the opening map is somewhat confusing. I realise that in paper maps it is traditional to insert faraway places in a little box, but when viewed on a small screen it simply doesn't work. Surely it is possible that one of those editing this article could download a map which included Canada and made some kind of sense about the location of Alaska?Abtract 17:44, 2 October 2006 (UTC)

What about one of these? --Astrokey44 23:40, 4 January 2007 (UTC)

i agree the map shown shows no distinctions between the US and Canada —Preceding unsigned comment added by 209.193.50.187 (talk) 06:40, 9 September 2007 (UTC)

Where are the Indigenous Alaskan editors of this article?

Does this article have any Indigenous Alaskan editors? It is simply not neutral point of view, it is biased towards the white man.

65.97.14.167 07:56, 24 October 2006 (UTC)

Are you one of the Indigenous Alaskans? If you are you should add/fix the article.

Race and ancestry table

Does anyone understand the "Hispanic only" lines in the Race and ancestry table? This seems to be breaking down the Hispanic population into White, Black, Asian, Native American and Native Hawaiian. Does that make any sense?

The data is from the US Census Bureau, which seperates Hispanic as a series of data partitioned off from racial breakdowns. Where it can generally be accepted in the US that races like White, Black, Asian, etc. can be related to specific people who came from particular regions of the world (genetic makeup and ancestry), the term Hispanic is far less obvious in its origins and use. The term in the US typically relates to those who speak Spanish in their ancestry. This means that people from Spain, Uruguay, the Dominican Republic, etc. can all be classified as Hispanic. If you look at the people who make up the countries where Spanish is spoken, things get very confusing very fast, much like looking at the ethnic and racial makeups of Central Asian countries like Pakistan or Afghanistan. For example, the substantial portion of Mexico's population is made up of American Indians, Spaniards, and mixing of the two (commonly referred to as Mestizos in the US). Technically the Spaniards are of white racial descent (western Europe), yet they are classified as Hispanic. The American Indians were there long before the Spaniards came with the Spanish language and are classified as Hispanic. The mixture of the two groups of people is probably more in line with what the typical outsider might see as being the definition of Hispanic. Throw in the Caribbean, which has a substantial black population due to slavery, and you have black people that are calld Hispanic.

Climate figures

I don't understand this statement: "Juneau averages over 50 inches of precipitation a year, while other areas receive over 275 inches" which immediately follows a statement that Juneau is in the wettest region of Alaska. Is it supposed to be 27.5? --Aguerriero (talk) 22:18, 4 November 2006 (UTC)

I can't find this statement. I think it has been removed. -Icewedge 03:02, 16 September 2007 (UTC)

Yes, quite some time ago. Looks like someone tried to start an article on Alaskan climate which has since been deleted. The loss of this particular statement is okay with me, though, since it was obviously bogus in the first place. Unschool 06:32, 16 September 2007 (UTC)

Why would an article on the climate of Alaska be deleted that seems pretty notable? -Icewedge 20:56, 16 September 2007 (UTC)

Not sure. I'm also not sure that Alaska needs its own climate section, but I wouldn't oppose it. I was only celebrating that the false fact about precipitation was deleted. Unschool 23:47, 16 September 2007 (UTC)

Hmmm, well the removal of false facts is a good think to celebrate :) -Icewedge 16:19, 17 September 2007 (UTC)

Size of Alaska--which is correct?

Ok, which figure is correct for Alaska's land area: 545,000 sq. miles or 638,000 sq. miles? I see two different figures given.Jlujan69 01:59, 8 November 2006 (UTC)

See my earlier discussion, above. --Eliyahu S ^Talk 12:47, 4 December 2006 (UTC)

Judging from the figures in our List of U.S. states by area, two different figures are defensible, depending on whether you mean land area or total area. Alaska has about 90,000 square miles of water area. The Alaska article should have some sort of explanation of this point instead of just giving two seemingly inconsistent figures. JamesMLane t c 11:15, 12 January 2007 (UTC)

I was just wondering about something, didnt quite know where to post it. Sorry if this is inconvenient, but is it fact or myth ?! Does Alaska have six months of day and six months of night ? I am sure poeple visit this sight wondering this also. Why would that not be anywhere here ? It is very widely believed in the U.S. , So is it true ?

• No. Above the Arctic Circle, there are periods of constant sunlight; I'll do some fact-checking, but I believe Barrow goes 58 days without a sunset in the summer, and 58 days without a sunrise in the winter. I was up there in January '05, right before the sun's first appearance of the year; you get a little of that purple haze around the horizon, but the sun doesn't quite make it into view. I suppose that you might have six months of light and six months of dark at the poles, but even that's a little dubious. More accurate is the idea of the "Midnight Sun;" around the summer solstice, most parts of Alaska are still pretty well-lit at midnight. In Fairbanks, which is a little shy of the Arctic Circle, they have an annual Midnight Sun baseball game, running from 10:30 pm to about 2:00 am, on or around June 20 of each year. They've played almost every year for over a century without the need for artificial lighting. -- A. 22:03, 11 April 2007 (UTC)

Notable Alaskans

I removed 36 crazyfists from the list of notable alaskans, I think it's a little early to list them there. Mainstream coverage is limited and a search at adn.com brings only a handful of relevant results. Farsnickle 11:23, 4 December 2006 (UTC)

  Removed Sarah Palin...already listed as governor

Should notable Alaskans include people that are only notable w/in the state? Mostly because the list has swelled a bit...enough for its own article really. Farsnickle 03:19, 2 February 2007 (UTC)

• I am noticing a number of unlinked names in red as well. Does someone have the time to check them out to see if they are real? or are they just the usual everyday vandals trying to get their fifteen minutes of fame. A touch off the subject at hand but is it just me, or is there an increase in vandalism on Wikipedia? I know that some of you can agree that it is getting tougher to keep them off. Soapy 04:36, 2 February 2007 (UTC)

• Well they're pretty much all real people...the question is... are they notable? Since they don't have wikipedia articles...I'm inclined to remove them for now. Farsnickle

New Sports section added to updated Wikipedia:WikiProject U.S. states format

The Wikipedia:WikiProject U.S. states format has been updated to include a new Sports section, that covers collegiate sports, amateur sports, and non-team sports (such as hunting and fishing). Please feel free to add this new heading, and supply information about sports in Alaska. Please see South_carolina#Sports_in_South_Carolina as an example. NorCalHistory 16:42, 9 December 2006 (UTC)