There’s Nothing Trivial About Alaska
But Here's An Alaska Cruising Trivia Game
Questions: (see answers below)
1) Approximately how many glaciers are there in Alaska? Choose: (a) 1,000 (b) 10,000 (c) 100,0002) Which Alaska cities are the largest (in land mass) in North America?
3) Who was Juneau’s most notorious outlaw?
4) Name the northernmost, southernmost, westernmost, and easternmost states of the U.S. - and describe how you can visit the state capital of three of the four on a single cruise?
5) Which state of the U.S. has the longest shoreline?
6) The occasional expedition cruiseship calls at Little Diomede Island in Bering Strait, off Alaska’s west coast. How far away is Russia?
7) The nation’s two largest National Forests are located in Alaska. Where are they?
8) Every state has its state symbols. What are Alaska’s?
9) Where did the name "Alaska" come from?
10) Where may a cruiser find the world's largest concentration of American bald eagles?
11) In which port city will you find Alaska's oldest building?
12) Which is the tallest mountain in North America? And what is the controversy surrounding its name?
Answers:
1) Incredibly, the correct answer is (c); there are an estimated 100,000 glaciers in Alaska, taking up 29,000 square miles of the 49th State's surface. The longest tidewater glacier in Alaska is Hubbard Glacier, 76 miles long and more than five miles wide at it's face. A number of the larger cruiseliners sailing Alaska waters visit this huge river of ice located not far from the Tlingit Native village of Yakutat, near the northern end of the Southeast Alaska panhandle.2) Cruise ports Sitka and Juneau. Sitka at 4,710 square miles, Juneau at 3,108 square miles,. (Source: Alaska Almanac.)
3) If you answered Jefferson R. “Soapy” Smith you’re wrong. Soapy did his nefarious thing in Skagway, to Juneau’s north. Robert Stroud, “the Birdman of Alcatraz” committed the 1909 Juneau murder that sent him to prison - including Alcatraz after he also killed a Leavenworth prison guard.
4) You can probably win a bar bet with this one: Hawaii, the 50th State of the Union is the southernmost state of the U.S. The southernmost point in the southernmost state is on the - duh! - southern shore of the Big Island. Most northerly point in the USA is - you guessed it - Alaska. (Pt. Barrow to be precise.) Alaska is also the farthest west. Look at your globe; Alaska's Aleutian Islands chain stretches west to and beyond longitude 180 degrees, the official dividing line between western and eastern hemispheres. That’s further west even than Hawaii.
Now here’s the really surprising fact: Alaska also qualifies as the most easterly - yes, easterly - state in the United States. Alaska's tiny Semisopochnoi Island can be found just inside the eastern hemisphere, along with other more notable Alaskan islands including Amchitka (of U.S. atomic testing note) and far-out Attu Island, site of a bloody World War II battle during which U.S. infantrymen defeated occupying Japanese forces. So...if your Alaska cruise makes a port call at Juneau you will have visited the capital city of the most northern, most western and most eastern state in the USA.
5) No brainer here. Alaska has more shoreline than all the rest of the nation’s coastal states combined - an impressive 6,640 miles of mainland coastal shores and a mind-blowing 33,904 miles if you count the shores around islands.
6) Big Diomede Island (part of Russia) is only two and a half miles distant. On a clear day Alaskan Eskimo residents on Little Diomede can see their Russian cousins’ island. The international date line squeezes between them. Thus, when it is Sunday on Little Diomede it is Monday on Big D.
7) Tongass National Forest, the largest at 17 million acres, is located in Southeast Alaska panhandle. In fact it takes up most of the land and waters of the panhandle except for a few cities and villages, Glacier Bay National Park, and some other city/state/federal setasides. Second largest is Chugach National Park, no slouch at 5.6 million acres. It abuts Anchorage, Seward, Valdez, and Girdwood as well as Chugach State Park.
8) Alaska’s flag contains eight gold stars - the Big Dipper and the North Star, on a field of blue. The flag was designed by an Aleut seventh-grade school boy, Benny Benson, who entered (and won) a Territorial flag contest conducted by the American Legion. By adoption of the Territorial Legislature, it became the official territorial (and later the state) flag on May 2, 1927.
Other symbols:
State flower: Forget-Me-Not
State bird: Willow Ptarmigan
State fish: King Salmon
State Marine Mammal: Bowhead Whale
State Fossil: Wooly Mammoth
State Gem: Jade
State Sport: Dog Mushing
State Tree: Sitka Spruce
State Motto: North to the Future
State Song: "Alaska's Flag"
9) It's derived from an Aleut word meaning "Great Land."
10) Up to 3,000 (or more) American bald eagles flock to the Chilkat River near Haines in Southeast Alaska in late fall and winter, seeking late-run salmon who migrate annually to the ice-free waters. Visitors view eagles in the vicinity during the cruise season as well, but not in the record numbers that fly there starting in October.
11) Erskine House, in Kodiak, was built by the Russians, probably between 1793 and 1796.
12} North America's tallest peak rises to a height of 20,320 feet and - on a clear day - may be seen from the port city of Anchorage or the interior city of Fairbanks. The U.S. Board of Geographic Names insists the mountain's official monniker is Mt. McKinley - named in 1896 to honor William Mckinley of Ohio who at the time was a candidate for President of the United States. Alaskans, who note that the Ohioan never once set foot in Alaska, insist upon using the original Athabascan Indian name: Denali. The Alaska Legislature officially renamed the mountain "Denali" in 1976 and the Alaska State Geographic Names Board designates it that way as well. Biggest obstacle to changing the name on the federal roster is the Ohio congressional delegation, who staunchly defend their favorite son.Take your choice. (The publisher of this website is an unabashed "Denali person.")