CURIOUS FACTS ABOUT ALASKA

ARE OTHER STATES PAYING FOR ALASKA'S BRIDGES?

"Other" states receive federal money for federal highways in every federal budget year. Alaska does not have a single federal highway... no interstates...yet even Hawaii has an interstate highway. In fact, nearly half the cities in Alaska have no highway connections at all to the main highway system. In order to get there you must travel either by air, or in some cases by boat. Actually, Alaskan federal tax monies are sent to other states to build and maintain their highways using federal funds!
This is particularly curious since over 95% of Alaska is government owned real estate, the highest amount of any state in the U.S.! More about the BRIDGE.

LOOKING FOR A GOOD REAL ESTATE INVESTMENT?

There are no guarantees, however based on historical data you can expect a good return on investment when you invest in Alaska.

FACTS:

Which investment can you suggest that will offer a greater return than 3.5 million percent average per year?

Discovered by Clyde E. Pearce, December 6, 1999.

ARE YOU LOOKING FOR WAYS TO MAKE A LITTLE EXTRA CASH IN ALASKA?

The oil boom is over, but there are still ways to make money here. For example:

  • Each person who is a resident during the entire year receives a Permanent Fund Dividend, which in 1999 was $1,769!
  • The winner of the Iditarod in March 1999 was paid $60,000, almost enough to cover the cost of dog food for the year!
  • Why don't more mushers run the Yukon Quest event in February? Maybe it's because the winner this year "only" received $30,000!
  • The Nenana Classic requires you to buy a two dollar ticket. The 1999 winning check was for $300,000!

MORE MONEY TALK-

Before you decide to move to Alaska you might consider that the per capita income was $25,675 in 1998, below the national average of $26,412. Nineteen states have a higher per capita income than Alaska, yet prices generally do tend to be higher up north.
Since the median age for Alaskans is 31.8, this suggests that the average Alaskan graduated from high school 14 years ago, or less.

Alaskans have a higher percentage of computer ownership than any other state in the U.S. Over 67% of Alaskans own computers. Actually, the large expanse of land and fact that much of it cannot be reached by automobile led Alaskans to using electronic means of communication long before much of the rest of the country. Teleconferencing has been a way of life in Alaska for decades.

WATCH OUT FOR MARCH!

March has been a time for major events in Alaska, not all of which are as pleasant as the Iditarod. For example:

  • The Good Friday Earthquake, largest recorded in American history (magnitude 9.2), occurred on March 27, 1964.
  • The notorious Exxon-Valdez oil spill occurred March 24, 1989, dumping 11.3 million gallons of oil into Prince William Sound.
  • Augustine volcano, in Cook Inlet had a major eruption March 27, 1986 sending ash over 8 miles straight up into the air, and disrupting air traffic for several days.
The 1999-2000 telephone book for Anchorage lists 31 computer software companies, and 52 escort service providers.
One of 58 Alaskans are pilots, which is six times the national average.
One of 59 Alaskans own an aircraft, 14 times the national average. Although Alaska is sixth in the nation in the number of airports (325), a large proportion of takeoffs and landings occur at non-airport locations.
The largest city in Alaska in land area is not Anchorage, where almost half of Alaskans live. It is the city of Sitka, population less than 10,000. The Sitka recording district land area is 2,882 square miles, and water area is 1,968 square miles. By comparison, the Juneau recording district land area is 2,594 square miles and water area is 488 square miles. Anchorage is a mere 1,698 square miles land, and 264 square miles water. Jacksonville, Florida, is the largest city in land area in the contiguous United States, with an area of 841 square miles.
Another surprise, the hottest temperature ever recorded in Alaska was in Fort Yukon, ABOVE the arctic circle! The temperature in Fort Yukon reached 100 degrees in July 1915.
Contrary to the contention of former Secretary of State Madeline Albright, the United States is not "thousands of miles away" from Russia. The actual distance between Russia's Big Diomede Island and Alaska's Little Diomede Island is two and a half miles. The distance from mainland Russia to mainland USA (Alaska) is 56 miles. Alaska is the only state in the United states with boundries contiguous with TWO foreign countries (Russia and Canada).
The city of Fairbanks and the tallest mountain in North America, Mt. McKinley, were both named after people who never visited Alaska.
The average vehicle driving the Glenn Highway north out of Anchorage travels at least 65 miles per hour, and probably burns about 15-20 miles per gallon.
The 800 mile oil pipeline is 48 inches in diameter, contains 397,066,970 gallons of oil, but the oil travels at an average speed of about 6 miles per hour. The amount of oil in the pipe is about 300 times the amount delivered each day at Valdez. (One oil barrel contains 42 gallons of oil).
The Alaska regulations for radiation protection have become a collectors item. They were last updated in 1971, before CT scanners, MRI, ultrasonography, bone densitometers, whole body scanners, and a host of other medical radiation producing devices were developed. Exposure limits are higher than current limits elsewhere, due to lack of consideration of the results of BEIR VI committee findings, and there is no exposure limit specific for the unborn baby. At the time the Alaska regulations were last updated nuclear weapons testing was still occurring in Alaska, the Viet Nam war was still raging in South East Asia, and the 747 aircraft had only been flying for one year. This is the same year that Texas Instruments marketed the first electronic calculator. Radiologically, the Chernobyl disaster had not happened, nor had Three Mile Island, the contamination at Point Hope, Alaska or criticality incidents at Tokaimura, Japan.

The world's deepest trench, Mindanao, in the Philipines is much closer to the equator then the Bering Sea so that sea level in the Phillipines is nearly 13 miles higher then sea level in Alaska. This is caused by the fact that the earth is flatter at the poles then at the equator. If the earth were to stop spinning so that it assumed the shape of a perfect sphere, Mt. Everest would be six miles higher relative to sea level and Mt. McKinley would be a mile and a half below sea level.
The longest place name in the U.S. is Chargoggagoggmanchauggagoggchaubunagunamaugg, a Native American name. Loosely translated, it means "You fish on your side, I'll fish on mine, and no one fishes in the middle." It is not an Alaskan name, however, it is the name of a small lake near the town of Webster, Massachusetts.
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