Alaska is the 49th state of the United States of America, admitted to the Union on January 3, 1959.

Alaska is the largest, and the Northernmost and Westernmost state of the Union.

It occupies the extreme NorthWestern region of the North American continent and is separated from Asia by the 82-km- (51-mi-) wide Bering Strait.

Alaska has belonged to the United States since 1867, when it was bought from Russia by Secretary of State William H. Seward. The United States paid Russia $7.2 million for the rights of the Russian American Company in Alaska.

By 1900, Alaska had become a land of golden opportunity as one gold discovery followed another and prospectors arrived by the tens of thousands. Although the gold rush was over within a few years, many people settled in Alaska, and fishing developed as an important industry.

Alaska’s strategic importance became apparent during World War II (1939-1945) with the Japanese attack on Dutch Harbor and occupation of Atta and Kiska and with the American desire to send military aid, particularly aircraft, through Alaska to Russia.

During the 1940s and 1950s, the large influx of immigrants helped to give renewed impetus to its movement for statehood.

Alaska is a rugged, wild, beautiful land of majestic mountains and deep, high-walled fjords; of slow-moving glaciers and still-active volcanoes; of dense, coniferous forests and desolate, treeless islands; of hot springs and icy streams. It is a land of contrasts, with extremes of wind and sun, snow and rain, heat and cold.

Alaska is a land that has undergone tremendous change. Since becoming a United States territory in 1912, it has significantly developed its mineral, fishery, forest, and petroleum resources.

The state now has a stable and self-sufficient economy based on its rich and varied natural resources—above all, oil and natural gas. Today’s Alaska is a composite of old and new, with fur trappers, traditional sea mammal hunters, and dog teams living in a state with modern cities connected to the world by all the modern means of communication.

The name Alaska is probably derived from an Aleut word meaning "great land", which originally referred to the Alaska Peninsula.

Alaska is called the Last Frontier, because of its opportunities and many lightly settled regions, and the Land of the Midnight Sun, because the sun shines nearly around the clock during Alaskan summers.

Most of the principal cities in Alaska lie along the coast in the Southern part of the state. All of them are small by comparison to the chief cities of nearly all other states.

Following are Alaska’s major urban centers, in order of population (US Census 2006 estimates).

• Anchorage is by far the largest city in Alaska. It serves as the chief commercial center of Southern Alaska and as the principal transportation center of the entire state.
• Fairbanks is the seat of Fairbanks North Star Borough and the Northern terminus for the Alaska Railroad and the Parks Highway to Anchorage, and also the jumping-off point for cargoes destined for Prudhoe Bay. The statewide offices of the University of Alaska are located in Fairbanks.
• Juneau is the state capital and the commercial and distribution center for the Panhandle region.
• Wasilla, nestled between two beautiful lakes in Matanuska-Susitna Borough, remains, to this day, a vital retail supply center.
• Sitka was the capital of Russian America and the first capital of the territory of Alaska. The port city is now a government and education center, a significant tourist destination, and a center for fisheries.

Other communities of note in Alaska include

• Kenai, in Kenai Peninsula Borough, where the Kenai River meets Cook Inlet, surrounded by spectacular scenery and wildlife.
• Ketchikan, the seat of Ketchikan Gateway Borough and the SouthEasternnmost community in the United States, ranks as one of the leading salmon-fishing ports in the world.
• Kodiak, in Kodiak Island Borough, established as a Russian fur-trading center in the late 18th century, one of the oldest communities in Alaska.
• Unalaska, a globally significant fishing port and the main city in the Aleutian Islands chain.
• Barrow, the seat of North Slope Borough, is the Northernmost community in the United States.
• Nome, in the Seward Peninsula coast of Norton Sound, once the largest city in Alaska, now the state’s principal port and trade center on the Bering Sea.
• Seward, in Kenai Peninsula Borough, serves as the Southern terminus of the Alaska Railroad and another of the state’s chief ports.
• Petersburg, a major fishing port in the Wrangell-Petersburg Census Area in SouthEastern Alaska.