US Postage Stamps // Philatelic Project // The Federal States

        

Alaska // Juneau, AK // Western Region // Alaska Time
(The Last Frontier State)
Purchased from Imperial Russia: March 30, 1867
District established: October 18, 1867
Territory established: August 24, 1912
Statehood granted: January 3, 1959 // 49th state
[View map of US territorial acquisition]

#4275 // June 14, 2008
(self-adhesive coil definitive)
Flags of Our Nation Series
Alaska State Flag
and humpback whale
#1954 // April 14, 1982
(ex pane of 50 different stamps)
State Bird & Flower of
Alaska
Willow Ptarmigan
(Lagopus leucurus)
and Forget-Me-Not
#1681 // February 23, 1976
(ex pane of 50 different stamps)
American Bicentennial Series
Alaska State Flag

#C131 //October 12, 1991 // Anchorage, AK
Air Mail Stamp
Pre-Columbian America Series
Bering Land Bridge

The first Americans crossed over from Asia

The stamp shows what the Bering Strait, which
linked Siberia and Alaska, may have looked like
to Asians crossing it thousands of years ago.

#800 // November 12, 1937 // Juneau, AK
(ex Territories Issue, 2nd of 4 stamps)
25th Anniversary of
Alaska Territory

Denali (formerly Mt. McKinley),
20,320 ft [6.194 m],
highest mountain peak in North America
#1094 // July 4, 1957 // Washington, DC

48-Star US Flag
before
Alaska Statehood
#C53 // January 3, 1959 // Juneau, AK
Air Mail Stamp
Alaska Statehood

Big Dipper, North Star, and Map of Alaska
#1132 // July 4, 1959 // Auburn, NY

49-Star US Flag
after
Alaska Statehood

#C70 // March 30, 1967
Air Mail Stamp
Centenary of
Alaska Purchase in 1867

Tlingit Totem
(Southern Alaska)
#1732 // January 20, 1978 // Honolulu, HI
Captain James Cook's
exploration of Alaska in 1778
Bicentennial

Portrait of James Cook,
English navigator and explorer,
(* 1728, † 1779 killed by Hawaiian natives)


Cook explored what is now known as Cook Inlet.
Alaska's Captain Cook State Recreational Area
honors this historic explorer.

#1454 // July 28, 1972
National Parks Centennial
Mount McKinley National Park
established in 1917

"Top of the Continent"
Mt. McKinley (20,320 ft [6.194 m]),
highest mountain peak in North America
The mountain was named after the 25th US President William McKinley
(*1843, † assassinated 1901, in office 1897 - 1901)



Truck on Highway
(based on 1942 Army photograph)
#2635 // March 30, 1992 // Fairbanks, AK
50th Anniversary of Alaska Highway
The Alaska Highway runs from Dawson Creek, BC, CND to Delta Junction, AK, USA at a length (in 2012) of 1,387 mi [2.232 km]. The road was constructed for military purposes in 1942 and opened to the public in 1948. Legendary over many decades for being a rough, challenging drive, the highway is now paved over its entire length.

#3235 // August, 21 1998 // Nome, AK
Peak of Klondike Goldrush
(1897 - 1899)
Centennial

Gold miner trek climbing the
Chilkoot Pass in the winter 1897/98
On August 16, 1896 a group of people led by Keish alias Skookum Jim Mason (* c. 1855, † 1911) traveling down the Klondike River discovered gold deposits in the Klondike region (Rabbit Creek) of the Yukon River in north-western Canada. The following summer, the news spread to the US, which was in the middle of a financial recession, with several bank failures. Estimated 100,000 US Americans who had been affected by the crisis packed their belongings and began the long trek to the north. The last graet gold rush in North America ended in 1899 after gold was discovered in Nome, Alaska, prompting an exodus from the Klondike.

#2066 // January 3, 1984 // Fairbanks, AK
25th Anniversary of
Alaska Statehood

Caribou (Rangifer tarandus),
Alaska pipeline, and mountains
#4374 // January 3, 2009 // Anchorage, AK
50th Anniversary of
Alaska Statehood

Photograph of a dog musher taken
near Rainy Pass in the Alaska Range

#3562 // April 4, 2002
(ex pane of 50 stamps, one for each state)
Greetings from Alaska

Illustration of contemporary postcard
in the style of the 1930s/1940s


View Alaska state quarter
View Alaska state map
View Alaska clock


The origin of the state name is a malapropism of a word of the Aleut
language, meaning "great land" or "that which the sea breaks against".
Alaska's coastline of 6,640 miles [10.686 km] is the longest in the US,
greater than that of all other states combined.

The City of Homer, nicknamed "The Halibut Fishing Capital of the World", is located
on the shore of Kachemak Bay on the southwest side of the Kenai Peninsula.
The city has the westernmost harbor in the USA, located at the end of the Homer
Spit
, a narrow 4.5 miles [7,2 km] long gravel bar that extends into the bay.
The City of Barrow, located in the North Slope Borough and
north of the Artic Circle, is the northernmost city in the USA.
seal Land Area
rounded mi2 [km2]
571,951 [1.481.346]
ranked 1st
(largest of all states)
Population
(census 2010)
710,231
ranked 47th
Population Density
per mi2 [km2] of land area
1 [1 per 2 km2]
ranked 51st
(lowest of all states)
Alaska is organized in 18 bouroughs and 11 census areas.
Alaska shares in the east a 1,538-mile-long (2.475 km)
international border with the Canadian
Yukon Territory (YT) and the Province of British Columbia (BC).
Alaska also shares in the west a maritime border with the Russian Federation
along the International Date Line in the middle of the Bering Strait between
Little Diomede [Kruzenstern] Island, Nome County, Alaska, USA and
Ratmanow [Big Diomede] Island, Magadan County, East Siberia, Russia.
The distance between the both islands is less than 2.5 miles [ca. 4 km].


        

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