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Interesting Questions, Facts and Information
- There are a total of 40 general entries. We are selecting 30 for display.
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 Interesting Questions, Facts, and Information
 Alaska
Tlingit and Haida. The Tlingits and Haidas claimed that the Russians hadn't paid them for their land, so it wasn't theirs to sell. A federal court agreed and arranged some compensation be paid.
| Overhunting and growing competition had made the fur trade much less profitable for Russia in Alaska by the 1860s. In what war just prior to this decade had Russia been involved which also helped exacerbate their economic misfortunes enough to cause them to sell Alaska in 1867? | Alaskan History 2: Russian Alaska
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the Crimean War. Napoleon invaded Russia in 1812. The last of many wars with the Swedes took place in the late 18th century, and their final war (pre 1914) with the Turks took place a decade after the sale of Alaska. During the Crimean War, Imperial Russia took on France, the UK, and the Ottoman Empire. The conflict sapped Russian economic resources and made defending a mostly unprofitable territory in North America unfeasible.
| In addition, a private company established a trade stronghold in 1833, further weakening Russian control. What is the name of the company which, still in existence today, has the distinction of being the oldest commercial corporation in North America? | Alaskan History 2: Russian Alaska
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the Hudson's Bay Company. The American Fur Company (US) and the North West Company of Canada were strong competitors of the Hudson's Bay Company of Britain on the Eastern seaboard, but their influence didn't go as far northwest as Alaska. The Plymouth Company, also British, dealt in joint stocks.
| Before Baranov's retirement in 1818, Russian control over Alaska had begun to weaken. In 1812, the Russian American Company was forced to sign an agreement allowing another nation rights to the fur trade below latitude 55° north. What was the nation? | Alaskan History 2: Russian Alaska
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the United States. Previous close trade relations with the US, including reliance on their supply ships for transport of goods, allowed American fur trappers and traders to encroach on the southern areas of Alaska. Britain also had great influence in the area, France had by 1818 ceased to be a powerful trade force in Americas, and, though the Chinese bought many furs from the region, they had no real physical presence in Alaska.
| The first European settlement in Alaska was founded in about 1784 by Grigory Shelikhov at Three Saints Bay. What is the general area of this settlement called today? | Alaskan History 2: Russian Alaska
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Kodiak Island. After Shelikhov and his party put down resistance and established control of the island, they built the first school to teach Russian to the natives and introduced the Russian Orthodox Church.
| Vitus Bering, with Aleksei Chirikov, was commissioned in 1741 by the Russian Tsar Peter the Great to explore the northwest coast of Alaska. Bering, though, was not Russian. What was his nationality? | Alaskan History 2: Russian Alaska
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Danish. This was the first reliable information brought to the European continent about Alaska. Bering died of an illness, probably scurvy, while shipwrecked on "Bering Island" in Kamchatka, just across the "Bering Sea" from Alaska.
| Finally, a question to get us up to the year 2007. Sarah Palin became the first female (and youngest) governor in Alaskan history when she took office in December 2006. What was the highest elected office she had held previously? | Alaska's Governors
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Mayor of Wasilla, Alaska. Palin was the mayor and manager of Wasilla for two terms after serving on the Wasilla City Council. She was unsuccessful in a bid to be Lt. Governor in 2002, but she has never run for either the State House or Senate. After the failed 2002 bid, Gov. Frank Murkowski put her in charge of the state's Oil and Gas Conservation Commission, a post she later resigned in protest.
| Arliss Sturgulewski was the first woman to become a major party candidate for the governor's office of Alaska, that in 1986. A Republican, she eventually lost the general election to what Democratic nominee? | Alaska's Governors
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Steve Cowper. Sturgulewski was also nominated by the Republicans in 1990. She then lost the general election to Hickel. Traditionally a Republican himself, Hickel had accepted the nomination of the Alaska Independence Party.
| Which governor oversaw the creation of the Alaska Permanent Fund program? | Alaska's Governors
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Jay Hammond. The popular fund of invested oil revenues now pays Alaskan residents an annual dividend, but, ever the fiscal conservative, Hammond wanted the fund to be held as insurance against future state budget deficits.
| Another governor to be elected to two non-successive terms was Walter J. Hickel. He was the second governor of the state, but why did he resign that position in 1969? | Alaska's Governors
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to become Secretary of the Interior. Hickel is the only Alaskan to have headed a presidential cabinet department (1969-70).
| Though two of its territorial governors were born in Alaska, only one state governor was born there. Who was this Democrat who served as the first (and fourth) governor of the state of Alaska? | Alaska's Governors
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William Egan. Born in Valdez, Alaska, Egan is a genuine founding father of modern Alaska. Every governor since him was born elsewhere in the US, so it is accurate to say there has never been a governor born in the "state" of Alaska: Alaska was a territory when Egan was born.
| World War II brought a temporary reworking of the governorship in Alaska and it was again under military authority. Lt. General ____ ____ Buckner functioned as a kind of governor of the territory and its defenses from 1941-44. Interestingly, he was an avowed Southern racist. Can you fill in the blanks with his, somewhat ironic, non-Anglo namesake? | Alaska's Governors
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Simon Bolivar. Posthumously promoted to the rank of general, Simon Bolivar Buckner, Jr. is the son of Confederate General Simon Bolivar Buckner, Sr. He is officially credited as protesting the deployment of black soldiers to Alaska saying if they cross bred with Alaska natives they'd produce "the ugliest race the world has ever seen." Neither Buckner, Jr. nor his father likely had any Latin ethnic connections. The name must have been given in tribute to the great South American revolutionary's military prowess.
| The status of territory was given in 1912. Who was the very accomplished and popular territorial governor from 1939-53 who later served as a US Senator until his life of official public service was effectively ended with a loss to Mike Gravel in the Democratic primary of 1968? | Alaska's Governors
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Ernest Gruening. Gruening was a graduate of both Harvard University and its medical school, but began his professional life as a journalist. He later switched to public service and held several significant posts in the FDR administration, the last of which was an appointment to Alaska.
| In 1884, Alaska was recategorized as a district of the union. John G. Brady was the governor of the district from 1897-1906. Before he took this office, though, he co-founded the Sitka Industrial and Training School to help local natives. What is the current name of that institution? | Alaska's Governors
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Sheldon Jackson College. When the campus burned in 1882, the school was saved by Rev. Sheldon Jackson and eventually was renamed in his honor. Still located in Sitka, it is a fully accredited four-year liberal arts college.
| Alaska's first American governor was a military commander, representing the US Army's authority there from 1868. What other much more famous American leader of the period shared his name? | Alaska's Governors
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Jefferson Davis. Maj. Gen. Jefferson C. Davis (no relation to the Confederate President) was appointed to oversee Alaska just after the purchase from Russia. The Army remained in control of Alaska until 1877. For two years Alaska had no federal presence until the Navy and Revenue Cutter Service took authority in 1879.
| Many, if not most, Eskimo (Inuk and Yupik) tribes inhabited northern Canada, but some settled in the very north of Alaska. In winter, Inuits who lived on the coast hunted by waiting at natural or man-made holes in the ice for mammals like seals and walrus to come up for air. This method was probably learned by copying which animal? | Alaskan History 1: Pre-European "Discovery"
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polar bear. The caribou is not a carnivore. The eagle isn't large enough to carry off the seal or walrus, and, though the wolf does hunt some big game on land, it isn't proficient enough in the water to tackle such large marine mammals.
| The Aleut Indians occupied the Aleutian archipelago and became expert sea hunters. One of their marine crafts is now called by its Russian name, "baidarka". It was a long, narrow, low-riding boat designed for the stormy waters of the Bering Sea. If capsized, a skilled crew could right the boat by rolling it through with their bodies and paddles. The baidarka was excellent for hunting the elusive seal, otter, or even whale which fed and clothed the Aleuts. To what class of boat would this belong? | Alaskan History 1: Pre-European "Discovery"
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kayak. Kayaks are still used by native hunters today for subsistence. In addition, the more stable sea kayak is an excellent way for the adventure tourist to see small portions of the Alaska coast in protected areas. Open sea coastline, especially the Aleutians, is best left to the experts.
They had to follow food resources according to seasonal and migratory conditions.. These hunting and gathering people depended largely on fish, moose, caribou, and berries for subsistence, so they moved constantly to where the best supplies would be. Weather in the interior of Alaska can be extreme, but indigenous peoples of every region of the world have found ways to endure climatic conditions. Legends are generally formed to reflect or explain existing lifestyles, not the reverse; and the Athabascan people had litle competition for this region of Alaska with its small concentrations of food.
| Mild climates in the South East created living conditions allowing the Coastal Indians time to develop their indigenous arts. One of the most popular of all Alaskan Native sights is an art developed (among others) by ancestors of the modern Tlingits, Haidas, Eyak, and Tsimshians to record history, geneaology, and status of families and clans. What are they? | Alaskan History 1: Pre-European "Discovery"
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totems. Totems or totem poles are common throughout the northwest of the continent. The Coastal Indians of Alaska have a long tradition with them. Because they are made of wood and prone to decomposition, though, truly ancient artifacts don't exist today.
| The most populous tribe of the Coastal Indians were the Tlingits. They settled in the region of Alaska that today contains Sitka, Skagway, and the Tongass National Forest? What is this appendage like region of Alaska commonly called? | Alaskan History 1: Pre-European "Discovery"
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the Alaskan Panhandle. If the rest of the Alaskan mainland is viewed as a pan, then South East Alaska does look somewhat like its handle. It is a region dominated by coastline, good for subsistence fishing and hunting. Other tribes of the Coastal Indians were (and are) the Haidas, the Eyaks, and the Tsimshians.
| According to one theory, people entering western Alaska were temporarily blocked from spreading further across the Americas because of something scientists now call Wisconsin glaciation. What does this mean in laymen's terms? | Alaskan History 1: Pre-European "Discovery"
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ice fields formed by the last ice age. When dealing with pre-history, periods as short as a winter season or the time it takes to backtrack a mountain route to select another are meaningless, but the final ice age may have prevented much movement beyond western Alaska for a number of generations. The ultimate point is that the first inhabitants of Alaska may have a much, much longer history than those in any other part of the Americas. "Temporarily" is a relative term in paleontology.
across a now eroded land bridge. The idea of a "Bering Land Bridge" to western Alaska has long been a dominant theory of how humans first migrated to the New World.
Asiatic. The consensus among paleontologists is that the first visitors to North America would have been Asiatic. Ethnic features of modern Alaskan natives support this theory.
| With the growing threat of Japanese invasion, the US Army prioritized construction of a supply road from Alaska through Canada connecting with the contiguous 48 states. Begun in March of 1942, approximately how long did the initial construction of this 1,522 mile Alaska-Canada Highway take? | Alaskan History 3: Before Statehood
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6.5-7 months. Finished in one summer construction season, road crews working from opposite directions met at Mile 588 on September 24, 1942. The highway was officially dedicated on November 20. The early days of private automobile travel on the "Alcan" Highway were, of course, the stuff of nightmares. The road's length and remote route made it impossible to maintain properly with the technology of the day. Those days are largely past, however, and it has been completely paved.
| Alaska contains the only US soil occupied by a foreign military during WWII. Imperial Japanese forces held Alaskan islands in the North Pacific for more than a year. To what island group do these formerly occupied islands of Attu, Agattu, and Kiska belong? | Alaskan History 3: Before Statehood
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Aleutian Islands. The Aleutian "Chain" of islands stretches from mainland Alaska across most of the north Pacific toward the Kamchatka Peninsula of Russia. It was regarded as a strategic military position by both the US and Japan during the war in the Pacific. The Pribilof Islands in the Bering Sea are famous for fur seals, though since 1966 hunting there has been illegal. The Kodiak Archipelago in the Gulf of Alaska contains Kodiak Island, the second largest island in the US. Two of Alaska's major cities, Sitka and Ketchikan are located in the Alexander Archipelago. This group of islands on the Alaska Panhandle was at the heart of activity in Russian Alaska.
| During the Great Depression, Franklin Roosevelt, as part of his "New Deal" programs, relocated hundreds of agricultural families to a fertile valley north of Anchorage. What is this valley called? | Alaskan History 3: Before Statehood
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Matanuska-Susitna Valley. The "Mat-Su" Valley is known for producing some of the biggest vegetables in the world. Though it has a short growing season, the long daylight hours of Alaskan summers allow cabbages to grow upwards of 60 lbs. The Tanana Valley is another agricultural area farther north in Alaska. The Valley of Ten Thousand Smokes is a popular tourist attraction in Katmai National Park of southwest Alaska. The "smokes" emitting from the valley floor are the result of the eruption of Novarupta in 1912. Mendenhall is the valley that contains Juneau, the capital of Alaska.
| Though founded as a headquarters for construction of the Alaska Railroad, Anchorage would come to rely heavily on air traffic. What airport located near the downtown would quickly become one of the busiest civilian aircraft venues in the US after it opened in 1930? | Alaskan History 3: Before Statehood
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Merrill Field. Merrill Field gives thousands of private pilots convenient access to the remote areas of Alaska inaccessible by road or boat and is among the nation's foremost small plane airfields. Lake Hood in Anchorage is the busiest float plane airport in the world. Birchwood Airport is a small airport north of Anchorage. Alaska's largest airport renamed for its longtime US senator Ted Stevens is one of the busiest cargo hubs in the country.
| In 1925, a diptheria epidemic in Nome, Alaska threatened to wipe out the entire population of the city and spread to the surrounding communities. An antitoxin serum had to be delivered but rough weather prevented safe or reliable air travel to the city. A relay of dog sleds was organized and braving the elements and hazardous terrain of the Iditarod Trail, the serum was delivered in time. The mushers became national heroes, but even more famous were their lead dogs. One of them became the subject of a animated film in 1995. What was the dog's name? | Alaskan History 3: Before Statehood
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Balto. Balto and his team, driven by Norwegian musher Gunnar Kaasen, ran the last stretch of the trail, delivering the serum to Nome. Occupying this position of glory, Balto became the natural choice to receive the most attention of the many dogs involved in the effort. Togo, another lead dog on the Iditarod serum run, actually braved a more hazardous section of the trail, but got much more modest attention than Balto. Seppala is the last name of the musher who drove Togo's team. Yukon King is the fictional lead dog of Northwest Mounted Police Sergeant Preston from the radio and TV show.
| Gold was discovered in northwest Alaska in 1899. Cities such as Fairbanks (Alaska's second largest city) were formed as stops on transportation routes to southern ports. The construction of the Alaska Railroad commenced in 1902 to connect Fairbanks to a port city in south central Alaska. What is its name? | Alaskan History 3: Before Statehood
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Seward. The namesake of William H. Seward, Seward, Alaska is a city of just over 3,000. Its port was useful for freight arriving in and leaving the state, making it a logical end of the line for the railroad. Each summer tourist season brings hundreds of thousands of tourists there by cruise ship to access the Great Land at large, and locally to view scenic Kenai Fjords. Anchorage, eventually Alaska's largest city with its busiest port, is a stop on the Alaska Railroad line but not the terminus. Whittier, like Seward, is a popular port for cruise ships as it gives direct access to Prince William Sound. Nome is the site of the discovery of gold that prompted the Alaska Gold Rush in 1899.
| One of the earliest explorations of Alaska was the result of a commercial survey effort. In an effort to link North America and Russia with telegraph cable, Western Union dispatched a survey expedition (including famed naturalists Robert Kennicott and W.H. Dall) to explore the possibilities of running the line through the Bering Strait to link with another Asian line. What river, the longest in Alaska, was fully mapped for the first time as the result of this expedition? | Alaskan History 3: Before Statehood
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Yukon . The Yukon begins in British Columbia and empties into the Bering Sea some 2,300 miles further downstream. The 1,980 miles of the river that flow through Alaska have been a major transportation route in western North America, especially important during the Klondike Gold Rush. Kennicott' who died on the Yukon River during the expedition, is remembered by a river, glacier, and valley named for him in Alaska. Years after the expedition, W.H. Dall identified a white species of sheep in the area of Mt. McKinley. These came to be known as Dall Sheep.
October 18. October 18 is now called Alaska Day and is a state holiday. March 30, 1867 was the date the treaty for purchase was signed with Russia. The holiday is now called Seward's Day and celebrated each final Monday of March. April 9 of 1867 was the date the treaty was approved by the US Senate. October 6, not October 17, was the last day of Russian ownership. Through the combination of the moving the International Dateline and a switch from the Julian calendar used by Russia to the Gregorian, Alaskan residents never lived through October 7-17, 1867. Curiously, October 6 and the next day October 18 were both Fridays.
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