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Alaska

(Encyclopedia)CE5 Alaska əlăˈskə [key], largest in area of the United States but one of the smallest in population, occupying the northwest extremity of the North American continent, separated from the coter...

Alaska Highway

(Encyclopedia)Alaska Highway, all-weather road, 1,523 mi (2,451 km) long, extending NW from Dawson Creek, British Columbia, to Fairbanks, Alaska. An extension of an existing Canadian road between Dawson Creek and E...

Alaska Peninsula

(Encyclopedia)Alaska Peninsula, SW Alaska, extending 500 mi (800 km) SW from the mainland, separating Bristol Bay and the Bering Sea from Cook Inlet, the Shelikof Strait, and Pacific Ocean. The Aleutian Range, runn...

Alaska Range

(Encyclopedia)Alaska Range, S central Alaska, rising to the highest mountain in North America, Denali (Mt. McKinley; 20,310 ft/6,190 m). The range divides S central Alaska from the great plateau of the interior. Mt...

Alaska, University of

(Encyclopedia)Alaska, University of, at Fairbanks, Anchorage, and Juneau; land-grant and state supported; coeducational; chartered 1917, opened 1922 as Alaska Agricultural College and School of Mines. In 1935 it be...

Alaska North Slope

(Encyclopedia)Alaska North Slope or Arctic North Slope, region, N Alaska, sloping from the Brooks Range N to the Arctic Ocean. In 1968 large petroleum reserves were found in the Prudhoe Bay area. In 1977 the 800-mi...

Inside Passage

(Encyclopedia)Inside Passage, natural, protected waterway, c.950 mi (1,530 km) long, threading through the Alexander Archipelago off the coast of British Columbia and SE Alaska. From Seattle, Wash., to Skagway, Ala...

Gruening, Ernest Henry

(Encyclopedia)Gruening, Ernest Henry grēnˈĭng [key], 1887–1974, American political leader, governor of Alaska (1939–53), and U.S. Senator (1959–69), b. New York City. He became interested in journalism and...

Sitka

(Encyclopedia)Sitka sĭtˈkə [key], city (1990 pop. 8,588), Sitka census div., SE Alaska, in the Alexander Archipelago, on Baranof Island; inc. 1971. Fishing, its first industry, remains important; salmon, halibut...

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