ALASKA superlatives
In the words of the TravelAlaska folks, they have "more mountains than buildings,
more wildlife than people and more glaciers than stop lights."
Following are my observations. . . .
These all apply to the USA as a whole.
- largest state (in land area)
- 570,833 square miles
- largest cities (in land area)
- Sitka: 4530 square miles;
- Juneau: 3248 square miles;
- Anchorage: 1940 square miles
- most inaccessible capital city
- Juneau
- (There is no road to there from anywhere else.)
- fewest counties (tied with Louisiana)
- zero
- longest state border that's a straight line
- 647 miles
- most coastline
- 34,000 miles
- most land per person
- 580 acres
- highest peaks
- Mt. McKinley's south peak: 20,320 feet above sea level
- Mt. McKinley's north peak: 19,470 feet above sea level
- (Fifteen more of the top twenty are in Alaska.)
- highest volcano
- Mt. Wrangell: 14,163 feet above sea level
- northernmost point
- Point Barrow: latitude 71° N
- westernmost point
- Cape Wrangell1
- most islands (I think)
- 1800 of them with official names
- most rivers (I think)
- 3000
- most lakes (I think)
- 3,000,000
- largest glacier
- Bering Glacier: 2250 square miles
- largest fjord
- Lynn Canal
- most national parks
- eight2
- largest national parks
- Wrangell-St. Elias: 20,587 square miles;
- Gates of the Arctic: 13,238 square miles;
- Denali: 9492 square miles;
- Katmai: 7385 square miles;
- Lake Clark: 6297 square miles
- largest national forest
- Tongass: 26500 square miles
- largest state park
- Wood-Tikchik: 2500 square miles
- least sunny days per year in a major city
- Anchorage
- most precipitation
- heaviest recorded snowfall
- 974.5 inches: Thompson Pass, 1952-1953
- highest recorded snow pack
- 356 feet: Kenai Peninsula, 1976-1977
- lowest recorded temperature
- -80° F: Prospect Creek, 1971
- most earthquakes
- 1000 per year 3.5+ on the Richter scale
- biggest earthquake
- 9.2 on the Richter scale: 27 March, 1964
- most hours of summer daylight
- most hours of winter nightdark
- least poison ivy and poison oak
- approximately none
- fewest reptiles
- approximately none
- largest oilfield
- Prudhoe Bay
- largest zinc mine
- Red Dog
- largest totem pole collection
- longest dogsled race (duh)
- Iditarod: 2400 miles
- highest percentage of government employees
- highest percentage of people who walk to work
- highest percentage of high school graduates
- highest percentage of personal computer owners
- highest percentage of people who shop by mail (per city)
- Juneau: 81%
- Fairbanks: 71%
- largest and busiest seaplane base
- Anchorage
- most registered pilots per capita
- one person in sixty
- most ice cream consumed per capita
- most Harley Davidson owners per capita
- most breweries per capita
- most outhouses
- fewest nudist colonies
- zero
- most superlatives listed by me
1
This is the westernmost point when measured from the geographical center of the USA. If you measure from the prime meridian, Alaska has both the easternmost and westernmost points, since the 180th meridian passes through Alaska. Pochnoi Point is at 179° 46' E, and Amatignak Island is at 179° 10' W.
2
If you count Sequoia & Kings Canyon as two parks, then California ties Alaska. They (S&KC) began as separate but contiguous parks, and now they are administered as a single unit. Alaska's national parks are Denali, Gates Of The Arctic, Glacier Bay, Katmai, Kenai Fjords, Kobuk Valley, Lake Clark, and Wrangell-St. Elias.