19300 Pacific Highway South
P.O. Box 68947
Seattle, Washington 98168-0947
U.S.A.
Company Perspectives:
Connections. Around the globe. Based on a "from anywhere, do anything" philosophy. Simple concepts, difficult to deliver. But that's exactly what we're doing. And you haven't seen anything yet.
History of Alaska Air Group, Inc.
Alaska Air Group, Inc. is the holding company for Alaska Air, the tenth largest U.S. airline with the country's youngest fleet of aircraft. More than 12 million passengers a year fly Alaska Air, and nearly four million its sister airline, the group's subsidiary Horizon Air. Alaska Air maintains marketing agreements with Northwest Airlines, American Eagle, KLM, Quantas, and several small commuter carriers, and is also the largest wholesaler of Disneyland vacation packages in the United States.
1930s Origins
The company that eventually became Alaska Air was founded in 1932 by Linious "Mac" McGee, a veteran of several failed business ventures who had traveled to Alaska in 1929 and set himself up as a fur buyer. In 1931, McGee and a pilot friend, Harvey W. Barnhill, purchased a used three-passenger Stinson prop plane in San Francisco and shipped it to Alaska for use on McGee's fur-buying forays. By January 1932, "Barnhill & McGee Airways" were offering charter flights in advertisements in the Anchorage daily newspaper. Barnhill and McGee dissolved their partnership shortly afterward, and McGee took over the business.
Anchorage in the early 1930s was a frontier town with an economy based largely on credit. With pilots working on commission, ferrying freight and passengers across Alaska, McGee was able to build up a fleet of seven identical Stinson planes painted with the black-and-white "McGee Airways" logo. Battered by the worldwide Depression and the seasonal nature of the Alaskan economy, however, the business was constantly on the brink of failure.
In 1934, McGee merged his struggling airline with another Anchorage airline, Star Air Service, which had a fleet of eight planes. This company had gotten its start in April 1932, when two aviators from Seattle, Steven E. Mills and Jack Waterworth, who were backed by a friend who put up the money, arrived in Anchorage with a Deluxe Fleet B-5 two-seater plane and set up shop as flight instructors. With a combined fleet of 15 planes, Star was now Alaska's dominant airline, but the business, beset by high repair costs to its fragile wood and fabric planes, continued to struggle throughout the mid-1930s.
The era of high-risk Alaska bush flying began to wind down in the late 1930s, when Star Air Service started de-emphasizing charter flights in favor of more regularly scheduled service. In 1937, in an effort to stabilize its finances, the company was incorporated as Star Air Lines. The following year, Congress passed a bill creating the Civil Aeronautics Authority to regulate the growing commercial airline industry.
Competing under CAB in the 1940s
In preparation for the advent of governmental regulation, Star began paying pilots a salary, rather than allowing them to compete for commissions, painted its 15 planes a uniform orange with a black logo, and tried to stick to semi-regular schedules for its flights. In 1940, the Civil Aeronautics Board (CAB) held hearings in Anchorage. As a result of these, Star was awarded temporary certificates in 1942 for most of the routes it desired, including many flights from Anchorage to other points. However, the airline's petition for the crucial route between Seattle and Anchorage was denied in favor of politically well-connected Pan Am.
In 1941, the financially vulnerable Star was purchased by New York businessman Raymond Willett Marshall, who had interests in other transportation companies and saw that ownership of Star could be profitable for him. The following year, vice-president and board member Homer Robinson arranged to enlarge Star by purchasing three other Alaska airlines--Lavery Air Service, Mirow Air Service, and Pollack Flying Service&mdash well as a hangar at the Anchorage air field. In light of these additions, the company's name was changed to Alaska Star Airlines in mid-1942, and then, in 1943, to Alaska Airlines, Inc.
The most significant change to the airline during this time, however, came after America's entry into World War II in December 1941; the war resulted in a severe shortage of pilots. Nevertheless, the airline purchased its first multiengine plane, a Lockheed Lodestar, in 1943. In that same year, the company's stock was first traded on the American Stock Exchange.
Because Alaska Air was owned by an outsider, meetings of the Alaska Air board were moved to New York in the 1940s, and a series of somewhat powerless company presidents was hired and fired in the ensuing years. The airline was chronically short on equipment, funds, and reliability, and pilots were frequently forced to purchase fuel for their planes out of their own pockets.
In 1945, with the war winding to a close, the airline hired its first stewardesses. With the arrival of James A. Wooten as president in 1947, Alaska Airlines began a rapid postwar expansion. Wooten's professional background was in air freight, and his strategy was to buy up surplus planes, engines, and parts from the government, which was selling off vast amounts of equipment left over from the war. The airline's fleet increased dramatically, and to keep the planes busy, Alaska Air expanded its charter business. The federal government had liberalized the airline industry, and Alaska Airlines planes began flying everywhere, hauling almost anything, including live cattle. The company flew rice to Chiang Kai-shek's troops under siege by Mao Tse-tung's Communist forces in China and brought back Chinese laborers to work in Canada. Alaska Airlines planes flew Jewish refugees to Israel and 11 loads of German war brides to America. During the Berlin airlift, the company made 87 flights into Germany. All of this helped Alaska Airlines to become the world's largest charter airline by 1948.
Closer to home, in the late 1940s the airline added popular charter flights from Anchorage to Honolulu and also began regular, though technically "nonscheduled" flights, that originated in Chicago and passed through Seattle on their way to Alaska. The frantic pace of charter flights mandated by Wooten put Alaska Air into the black, and finally the airline outgrew its facilities in Alaska, moving its base of operations to Paine Field in Everett, Washington, and making Anchorage a branch office.
However, the lax state of federal regulations that had made this flourishing activity possible was coming to an end. In 1949, the CAB shut down Alaska Airlines entirely for a short period for safety violations and levied heavy fines. Subsequently, the airline was completely prohibited from engaging in its worldwide charter business and allowed just eight trips a year between Alaska and the continental United States. Wooten left his post as president shortly thereafter, and the airline's second era of high-flying adventure came to a close.
Retrenching in the 1950s
With its sphere of activity restricted to Alaska, the company turned its attention to consolidation of its standing within the state, buying two smaller airlines, Al Jones Airways and Collins Air Service, in 1950. Throughout his tenure as owner of Alaska Air, Raymond Marshall had run the company with an eye to his own financial gain, rather than the long-term welfare of the airline itself. In 1951, with continued financial improprieties crippling the company's operations, the CAB forced Marshall out of day-to-day control over the airline by compelling him to place his stock in a five-year voting trust. In that year as well, the CAB granted Alaska Air a temporary certificate for a route outside Alaska, the long-coveted Seattle-Alaska run.
In 1952, Nelson David, a CAB-appointed president, took over, and a period of rebuilding financial and operational stability within the airline ensued. By 1957, the airline was in functional shape, and David and his cohorts departed to make way for the arrival of Charles F. Willis, Jr., a decorated World War II pilot who took over as president and chief executive officer by purchasing most of Marshall's stock in the company.
Under Willis's direction, Alaska Airlines began to make up in personality what it lacked in capital. The company became the first to show movies on planes in the late 1950s, and with the inauguration of service on its first pressurized plane, a DC-6 that allowed pilots to fly above rough weather rather than through or around it, Alaska Air introduced "Golden Nugget" service, which included an on-board honky-tonk saloon with a piano.
In 1960, the company was allowed to shuck its cumbersome bush routes to tiny towns in the interior of Alaska, and the following year the airline entered the jet age with the purchase of a Convair 880. Locked in tough competition with Pan Am, Northwest, and another regional carrier, Pacific Northern, Alaska Air turned to cheap and imaginative gimmicks to try to set itself apart from the competition throughout the 1960s. In addition to the "Golden Nugget" promotion, the company offered safety instructions read in rhyme ("A life vest is beneath each seat / They're stored so we won't lose 'em. / Now fix your eyes on the stewardies / They'll show you how to use 'em."), fashion shows in the aisles of the planes, and bingo games en route. The airline also worked to promote tourism within Alaska, organizing charters from the continental United States to the frozen north. In 1963, the company conducted a promotional tour of Japan in an effort to further expand the state's appeal.
In 1964, the company was finally given a permanent certificate from the CAB for its most important route, the nonstop flight from Seattle to Anchorage. During this time Alaska Air also added two important new planes to its fleet: the Lockheed Hercules, a massive cargo plane which it used to fly oil-drilling equipment to Alaska's North Slope and, in the early 1970s, to South America; and the Boeing 727, which would become the company's signature passenger aircraft.
Celebrating the Alaska Centennial in 1967
In 1967, as Alaska celebrated its centennial, the company adopted a "Gay Nineties" promotional theme with stewardesses dressed in Edwardian garb. In the same year, the airline expanded its coverage of Alaska to include exclusive service to the Southeast corner of the state with the opening of an airport in Sitka, Alaska. This led to the acquisition, in the following year, of two smaller airlines: Alaska Coastal Ellis and Cordova Airlines. The "Gay Nineties" theme gave way in 1970 to "Golden Samovar" service, complete with Cossack costumes and beverages served from giant Russian samovars, in recognition of the company's introduction of charter service to Siberia. After many years of diplomatic wrangling, the airline was able to win permission for more than two dozen flights in 1970, 1971, and 1972.
Despite the promotional fanfare service to the Soviet Union brought, the airline as a whole was in difficult straits. Throughout the first two years of the 1970s, company cargo planes sat idle, sapping revenues as work on the Alaska pipeline was held up. A further blow came on September 4, 1971, when an Alaska Air jet crashed on landing in Juneau with a loss of 111 lives. It was the worst single-plane domestic air disaster to date. Financially, despite the CAB's award of exclusive rights to serve Southeast Alaska, the airline was struggling badly. Finally, president and chief executive officer Willis was deposed in 1972 by the airline's board and replaced by Ronald F. Cosgrave, a board member who had gotten his start in business providing Alaskans with mobile homes.
When Cosgrave took over, Alaska Air was $22 million in debt to its creditors. In an effort to salvage the company, the airline cut flights and employees and dropped its freight business entirely. The new management also set out to improve the airline's punctuality in hopes of banishing its unflattering image as "Elastic Airlines." By 1973, the airline's performance had improved and it was turning a small profit. In this new, less-flamboyant phase, symbolized by the more sober logo of a native Alaskan that was painted on the tail of the company's planes, the airline remained profitable throughout the mid-1970s.
With the passage of the Airline Deregulation Act of 1978, the American airline industry underwent a radical transformation. Alaska Airlines also underwent a transformation of sorts at the start of the new era. The real estate arm of the company was broken off into a separate company. Cosgrave became chairman of the new firm, relinquishing the reins of the airline to his close associate, Bruce R. Kennedy. In alliance with Alaska Air, Cosgrave then launched a failed campaign to take over one of the airline's competitors, Wien Air Alaska, that later resulted in federal fines for Alaska Airlines and its leaders for improprieties during the attempt.
Kennedy's role as leader of Alaska Air was to shepherd the airline through the marked expansion of the brave new unregulated world of the 1980s. Immediately, the company placed two more continental American cities on its route map: Portland, Oregon, and San Francisco, California. The Arctic cities of Nome and Kotzebue, and then Palm Springs, California, were added shortly; and Burbank and Ontario, California, came on line in 1981.
By 1985, Alaska Air was serving cities in Southern California, Idaho, and Arizona as well, and profits were up. The company was able to settle a three-month-long strike by its machinists in June, part of an overall strategy to pare labor costs to the bone and maintain peace with its unions. In November, the company introduced a popular daily air freight service from Alaska called "Gold Streak."
Anticipating further expansion, the airline formed Alaska Air Group as a holding company in 1985. Horizon Air, a Seattle-based regional commuter airline serving the Pacific Northwest, was purchased in 1986. A year later, the company bought California-based Jet America Airlines, which was merged into Alaska Airlines after getting slammed by larger airlines on its East-West routes from Southern California to the Midwest. Despite this setback, Alaska Air pressed ahead with its expansion into the hotly contested California market.
In an effort to compensate for the seasonal imbalance in travel to Alaska, much of which takes place during the summer, the airline in 1988 inaugurated service to the Mexican resort cities of Mazatlan and Puerto Vallarta, whose high season is the winter. By 1989, the company served 30 cities in six western states outside Alaska, and 70 percent of its passengers flew south of Seattle. The airline had successfully used its base in Alaska as a springboard to profitable performance in larger markets. Alaska Air continued its emphasis on customer service as its calling card, stressing higher-quality food and more leg room on its flights than on other airlines.
New Vision for the 1990s
In 1990, the company unveiled a strategic plan that included lease orders for 24 new Boeing 737-400 aircraft. One provision of the transaction was the company's sale of a $60 million preferred stock position to International Lease Finance Corporation (ILFC), lessor of the airplanes. A creative feature of the stock transaction was that the conversion rights were purchased by a large group of Alaska's management employees, who were to redeem the stock from ILFC and convert it to common stock no later than 1997. The conversion feature was structured to create an incentive for management to achieve strong stock performance through operating results. At the same time, Alaska announced a large repurchase of shares, using proceeds of the preferred stock sale, and began an employee stock purchase plan.
The airline further expanded its route map in 1991, adding the international destinations of Magadan and Khabarovsk in the Russian far east, and Toronto, its first city served north of the American border and east of the Rockies. (Toronto was eventually dropped in July 1992.) As the company notched awards for customer service and marked its 19th consecutive year of profits in a turbulent industry, Kennedy retired in May 1991 and was succeeded by Raymond J. Vecci.
Furious competition descended on Alaska Air's home turf after the carrier declined to buy its rival MarkAir Inc. in the fall of 1991. Since it began carrying passengers in 1984, MarkAir had worked out feeder arrangements with Alaska Air that kept competition to a minimum. However, after the buyout offer was refused, it unleashed low-cost service on the Anchorage-to-Seattle market and others within Alaska, where Alaska Air earned nearly one-third of its revenues.
In 1992, Alaska Air posted its first loss--$121 million--in 20 years. Under Vecci, the carrier canceled two planned maintenance facilities and deferred a massive $2 billion aircraft purchase; it was able to increase utilization of its existing planes, however. The company cut back on unprofitable routes and even tampered with its award-winning customer service formula, economizing on in-flight meals and other amenities. Attempting to reduce costs on labor resulted in predictably tense relations with the unions. The strict fiscal regimen produced prompt results; Alaska's losses fell to $45 million in 1993 and produced a $40 million profit in 1994. Record-setting cargo operations accounted for about eight percent of these revenues.
In 1993, competition heated up, as the legendary low-cost airline Southwest Airlines entered the Pacific Northwest market by acquiring regional carrier Morris Air. United Airlines simultaneously transferred many competing routes to its less expensive shuttles. Alaska Air was able to reduce its costs, while maintaining a level of customer service that helped make it the leading carrier out of Seattle, Portland, and Anchorage. Alaska Air billed itself as "the last great airline." Still, analysts argued that Alaska Air was in need of deeper cuts, and the company was also plagued by union strikes by flight attendants.
In early 1995, Vecci was dismissed and replaced by John Kelly, formerly CEO of Horizon Air. Alaska and Horizon expanded West Coast routes to capitalize upon a new "open skies" agreement between the United States and Canada. Alaska Air also added a new Russian destination. Its competitor MarkAir had by then centered its jet service on Denver.
In 1996, Alaska Air conducted the first commercial passenger flight using Global Position System (GPS) navigation technology. It announced plans to become the first airline in the world to integrate GPS and Enhanced Ground Proximity Warning System (EGPWS) technology, adding a real-time, three-dimensional display of terrain. The system was scheduled to be operational in all the carrier's Boeing 737-400s by April 1999.
Innovation was important to the company. In 1989, Alaska Air had become the first airline to use head-up guidance systems to operate in foggy conditions. In 1995, it became the first U.S. carrier to sell tickets over the Internet. The airline installed self-service "Instant Travel Machines" that printed boarding passes and allowed customers to bypass the traditional ticket counter. The addition of an X-ray device to the unit was being tested in Anchorage in the spring of 1999, which would allow passengers to check their own baggage. For in-flight emergencies, the carrier also planned to provided automatic external defibrillators in all planes by the year 2000.
Alaska Air's operating revenues were $1.59 billion in 1996, and increased to $1.74 billion the next year. The impressive revenue growth of 1998&mdash′ofits were up 49 percent to $190.5 million--continued into 1999. Alaska Air had evolved into a lean, low-cost carrier. As it approached a new century, the airline again looked to expand, buying Bombardier regional jets and Boeing 737s and adding new training and maintenance facilities.
Principal Subsidiaries: Alaska Airlines, Inc.; Horizon Air Industries, Inc.
Related information about Alaska
pop (2000e) 626 900; area
1 518 748 km²/586 412 sq mi. US
state, divided into 23 boroughs, in the extreme NW corner of the
continent, ‘The Last Frontier’ or ‘The Great Land’, separated from
the rest of the nation by Canada; first permanent settlement by
Russians on Kodiak I, 1784; managed by the Russian-American Fur
Company, 1799–1861; period of decline, as Russians withdrew from
the area; bought by the USA, 1867 (known as Seward's Folly, after
the chief US negotiator); gold discovered in 1889 (at Nome) and
1902 (at Fairbanks); territorial status, 1912; Aleutian islands of
Attu and Kiska occupied by the Japanese (Jun 1942–Aug 1943);
granted statehood as the 49th state, 1959; large oil reserves
discovered in 1968 (Alaska Pipeline from Prudhoe Bay to Valdez
completed in 1977); the largest state, but the least populated;
capital, Juneau; other chief city, Anchorage; bounded N by the
Beaufort Sea and Arctic Ocean, W by the Chukchi Sea, Bering Strait,
and Bering Sea, S by the Gulf of Alaska and the Pacific Ocean, and
E by Canada (Yukon territory and British Columbia); a third of the
area within the Arctic Circle; rivers include the Yukon (with
tributaries the Porcupine, Tanana, and Koyukuk), Colville,
Kuskokwim, Susitna and Copper; North Slope in the N, rising to the
Brooks Range, part of the Rocky Mts; Kuskokwim Mts in the SW;
Aleutian Is and Aleutian Range in the SW; Chugach Mts along the S
coast; Wrangell Mts in the SE; highest point Mt McKinley
(6194 m/20 321 ft); oil, natural gas, wide range of
minerals; food processing, paper, lumber, seafood; eight national
parks; tourism; balance between industrial development and
landscape preservation an ongoing controversy.
unreferenced
otheruses
Alaska (IPA: ) is a U.S. state, located on the northwest
tier of North
America. It is by far the largest state in area, but
one of the least populated. It is the 49th state, having been
admitted to the Union on January 3, 1959.
Alaska is thus an exclave of the United States that is part of the
continental U.S. but is not part of the contiguous U.S.
(The other two exclaves of the United States are the Northwest Angle of
Minnesota, and Point Roberts, Washington.) Alaska is also the only
mainland state whose capital city is accessible only via ship or air. No roads connect Juneau
to the rest of the state.
It is bordered by Yukon
Territory and British Columbia, Canada to the east, the Gulf of Alaska and the Pacific Ocean to the
south, the Bering
Sea, Bering
Strait, and Chukchi
Sea to the west, and the Beaufort Sea and the Arctic Ocean to the north. If a map of Alaska were
superimposed upon a
map of the 48 contiguous states, Alaska would overlap Texas, Oklahoma, Kansas, New
Mexico and Colorado, and if the state's westernmost point were
superimposed on San Francisco, California, its easternmost point
would be in Jacksonville, Florida. Anchorage and many growing towns,
such as Palmer,
and Wasilla,
lie within this area. Petroleum industrial plants, transportation, tourism, and two military bases form the
core of the economy here.
- The Alaska
Panhandle, also known as Southeast Alaska, is home to many of
Alaska's larger towns including the state capitol Juneau,
tidewater glaciers and
extensive forests. Tourism, fishing, forestry and state
government anchor the economy.
- The Alaska
Interior is home to Fairbanks. The geography is marked by large
braided rivers,
such as the Yukon
River and the Kuskokwim River, as well as Arctic tundra lands and shorelines.
- The Alaskan
Bush is the remote, less crowded part of the state,
encompassing 380 native villages and small towns such as Nome, Bethel, Kotzebue and, most
famously, Barrow, the northernmost town in the United
States.
The northeast corner of Alaska is covered by the Arctic
National Wildlife Refuge, which covers 19,049,236 acres (79,318
km²).
With its numerous islands, Alaska has nearly 34,000 miles
(54,700 km) of tidal shoreline. The island chain extending west
from the southern tip of the Alaska Peninsula is called the Aleutian Islands. For
example, Unimak
Island is home to Mount Shishaldin, a moderately active volcano that rises
to 9,980 ft (3,042 m) above sea level. The chain of volcanoes extends to Mount Spurr, west of
Anchorage on the mainland.
One of North America's largest tides occurs in Turnagain Arm just south
of Anchorage. (Many sources say Turnagain has the second-greatest
tides in North America, but it has since been shown that several
areas in Canada have larger tides, according to an Anchorage Daily
News article dated 6/23/03.
)
Alaska is home to 3.5 million lakes of 20 acres (8 ha) or largerwww.knls.org/English/akfact.htm. The
Bering Glacier complex near the southeastern border with Yukon, Canada, covers 2,250 square miles (5,827 km²)
alone.
The Aleutian Islands cross longitude 180°, so Alaska can be
considered the easternmost state as well as the westernmost. The
International Date Line jogs west of 180° to keep the
whole state, and thus the entire continental United States, within
the same legal day.
According to an October 1998 report by the United States Bureau of Land Management, approximately
65% of Alaska is owned and managed by the U.S.
federal government as national
forests, national
parks, and national wildlife refuges. The Arctic
National Wildlife Refuge is managed by the United States Fish and Wildlife Service.
Of the remaining land area, the State of Alaska owns 24.5%;
Fairbanks, on the other hand, has a separate borough (the Fairbanks North
Star Borough) and municipality (the City of
Fairbanks).
See also:
- List of
Alaska rivers
- List of Alaska National Parks
- Alaska
Peninsula
- Bristol
Bay
History
Alaska was first inhabited by humans who came across the Bering Land Bridge.
Eventually, Alaska became populated by the Inupiaq, Inuit and Yupik Eskimos,
Aleuts, and a variety of
Native American groups. Alaska became a Russian colony
in 1744, but the first
Russian settlement, Nikolaevsk on Kodiak Island, was founded only in 1784 by Grigory Shelikhov. By
today the only Russian settlement in Alaska is Nikolayevsk on
Kenai Peninsula,
enpopulated by old
believers in 1968.
Spaniards explored the
coast and made some settlements during the 18th century. It would
create, on July 1,
1867, "one dominion under
the name of Canada", and this led to expressions of "grave
misgivings on the establishment of a monarchial state to the north"
in what Canadians then called "the republic to the south". (See
McNaughton's Short History of Canada.) U.S.
Secretary of State William Seward thus urged, and the United States
Senate thus approved, the treaty authorizing the purchase of Alaska from
Imperial Russia for
US$7,200,000 on April 9,
1867. The United States
took possession and the American flag was raised over Alaska on
October 18, which is
commemorated as Alaska
Day.
Russia still used the Julian Calendar in 1867, and the world had not yet been
divided into standard time zones; Thus, Friday, October 6, 1867, the day before the physical
transfer of ownership, was followed by Friday, October 18, 1867?which was Saturday, October 7, 1867 in Russia. Alaska celebrates
the purchase each year on the last Monday of March, calling it
Seward's
Day.
Supposedly, the first American administrator of Alaska was Polish immigrant W?odzmierz
Krzy?anowski. Eisenhower signed the Alaska Statehood
Act on July 7,
1958, and Alaska formally
became a state on January
3, 1959.
Alaska suffered one of the worst earthquakes in recorded history on Good Friday 1964 (see
Good Friday
Earthquake).
In 1976, the people of Alaska amended the state's constitution,
establishing the Alaska Permanent Fund. In March 2005, the fund's value
was over $30 billion.
Prior to 1983, the state lay across four different time zones?Pacific Standard
Time (UTC -8 hours) in the southeast panhandle, a small area of
Yukon Standard Time (UTC -9 hours) around Yakutat, Alaska?Hawaii Standard Time (UTC -10
hours) in the Anchorage and Fairbanks vicinity, with the Nome area and most of the
Aleutian
Islands observing Bering Standard Time (UTC -11 hours). In 1983
the number of time zones was reduced to two, with the entire
mainland plus the inner Aleutian Islands going to UTC -9 hours (and
this zone then being renamed Alaska Standard Time as the Yukon Territory had
several years earlier (circa 1975) adopted a single time zone
identical to Pacific Standard Time), and the remaining Aleutian
Islands were slotted into the UTC ?10 hours zone, which was then
renamed Hawaii?Aleutian Standard Time.
Over the years various vessels have been named USS Alaska, in honor of the state.
During World War II
three of the outer Aleutian Islands?Attu, Agattu and Kiska?were occupied by Japanese troops. But ranked by population density,
Alaska is the least densely populated at 1.1 people per square mile
(List of U.S. states by population density), with the
next nearest ranking state, Wyoming, at 5.1 per square mile, and
the most densely populated, New Jersey, at 1,134.4 per square
mile.
For purposes of the federal census, the state is divided into
artificial divisions defined geographically by the United States
Census Bureau for statistical purposes only.
Race and ancestry
The largest ancestry groups in the state are: German (16.6%), Alaska
Native or American Indian (15.6%), Irish (10.8%), British (9.6%), American (5.7%), and Norwegian (4.2%).
Fairbanks also has a sizeable black population as well.
As of 2000, 85.7% of
Alaska residents age 5 and older speak only English at home and
5.2% speak Native American languages. Spanish speakers make
up 2.9% of the population, followed by Tagalog speakers at
1.5% and Korean
at 0.8%. The indigenous languages, known locally as Native
languages, belong to two major language families.
- Aleut
- Eskimo family
- Central
Alaskan Yup'ik
- Siberian Yupik
- Alutiiq (Pacific Yupik)
- Sirenikski
- Naukan
- Inupiaq
- Athabaksan-Eyak-Tlingit family
- Tlingit
- Eyak
- Ahtna
Athabascan
- Dena'ina Athabascan
- Deg Xinag Athabascan
- Upper Kuskokwim Athabascan
- Holikachuk Athabascan
- Koyukon
Athabascan
- Gwich?in Athabascan
- Lower Tanana Athabascan
- Tanacross Athabascan
- Upper Tanana Athabascan
- Haida
- Tsimshian
As the homeland of two of North America's major language
families, Eskimo-Aleut and Athabaskan, Alaska has been described as the
crossroads of the continents, providing evidence for the recent
settlement of North America via the Bering land
bridge.
Religion
Notable is Alaska's relatively large Eastern Orthodox
Christian
population, a result of early Russian colonization and missionary work among indigenous
Alaskans.
Economy
The state's 2005 total gross state product was $39.9 billion. Tourists
have contributed to the economy by supporting local lodging.
Alaska's economy is heavily dependent on increasingly expensive
diesel fuel for heating, transportation, electric power and light.
This has changed for the most part in Anchorage and to a
lesser extent in Fairbanks, where the cost of living has dropped somewhat
in the past five years.
Federal Government employees, namely United States Postal Service
(USPS) workers, receive a
Cost Of Living Allowance usually set at 25% of base pay, owing to
the fact that while the cost of living has gone down, it is still
one of the highest in the country.
The introduction of big-box stores in Anchorage, Fairbanks
(Wal-Mart in March of
2004), and Juneau also did much to lower prices. Many rural
residents come in to these cities and purchase food and goods in
bulk from warehouse clubs like Costco and Sam's Club. Some have embraced the free shipping offers
of some online retailers to purchase items much more cheaply than
they could in their own communities, if they are available at
all.
Alaska is one of only six states with no state sales tax and one of seven
states that do not levy an individual income tax. Other types of local taxes levied
include raw fish taxes, hotel, motel, and B'n'B "bed" taxes, severance taxes,
liquor and tobacco taxes, gaming (pull
tabs) taxes, tire taxes and fuel transfer taxes. citation needed Fairbanks has one of the
highest property taxes in the state as no sales or income taxes are
assessed in the Fairbanks North Star Borough (FNSB). A sales tax
for the FNSB has been voted on many times, but has yet to be
approved, leading law makers to increase taxes dramatically on
other goods such as liquor and tobacco. The state's road system covers a relatively
small area of the state, linking the central population centers and
the Alaska
Highway, the principal route out of the state through Canada. One unique feature of the
road system is the Anton Anderson Memorial Tunnel, which links the
Seward Highway
south of Anchorage with the relatively isolated community of
Whittier. The
tunnel held the title of the longest road tunnel in North America
(at nearly 2.5 miles 4 km) until completion of the 3.5 mile
(5.6km) Interstate
93 tunnel as part of the "Big Dig" project in Boston,
Massachusetts. The tunnel retains the title of the longest
combination road and rail tunnel in North America.
The Alaska
Railroad runs from Seward through Anchorage, Denali, and Fairbanks to North Pole, with spurs to Whittier and Palmer (locally known
as "The Railbelt"). Alaska has a well-developed ferry system, known as the
Alaska Marine
Highway, which serves the cities of Southeast and the
Alaska
Peninsula. The system also operates a ferry service from
Bellingham, Washington up the Inside Passage to Skagway. In the
Prince of Wales Island region of Southeast, the Inter-Island
Ferry Authority also serves as an important marine link for
many communities, and works in concert with the Alaska Marine
Highway. Cities not served by road or sea can only be reached by
air, accounting for Alaska's extremely well-developed Bush air services—an
Alaskan novelty.
Anchorage itself, and to a lesser extent Fairbanks, are serviced by
many major airlines. retrieved September 11, 2006.State of Alaska Office of
Economic Development. retrieved September 11, 2006.).
However, regular flights to most villages and towns within the
state are commercially challenging to provide. Alaska Airlines is
the only major airline offering in-state travel with jet service
(sometimes in combination cargo and passenger Boeing 737-200s) from
Anchorage and Fairbanks to regional hubs like Bethel, Nome, Kotzebue, Dillingham,
Kodiak, and
other larger communities as well as to major Southeast and Alaska
Peninsula communities. The bulk of remaining commercial flight
offerings come from small regional commuter airlines like: Era Aviation, PenAir, and Frontier Flying
Service. The race commemorates the famous 1925 serum run to
Nome in which mushers and dogs like Balto took much-needed medicine to the diphtheria-stricken community
of Nome when all
other means of transportation had failed. Mushers from all over the
world come to Anchorage each March to compete for cash prizes and
prestige.
In areas not served by road or rail, primary summer transportation
is by ATV and primary winter
transportation is by snowmobile, or "snow machine," as it is commonly
referred to in Alaska.
Law and government
Presidential elections results
Year
|
Republican
|
Democratic
|
| 2004 |
61.07%190,889
|
35.52% 111,025
|
| 2000 |
58.62%167,398
|
27.67% 79,004
|
| 1996 |
50.80%122,746
|
33.27% 80,380
|
| 1992 |
39.46%102,000
|
30.29% 78,294
|
| 1988 |
59.59%119,251
|
36.27% 72,584
|
| 1984 |
66.65%138,377
|
29.87% 62,007
|
| 1980 |
54.35%86,112
|
26.41% 41,842
|
| 1976 |
57.90%71,555
|
35.65% 44,058
|
| 1972 |
58.13%55,349
|
34.62% 32,967
|
| 1968 |
45.28%37,600
|
42.65% 35,411
|
| 1964 |
34.09% 22,930
|
65.91%44,329
|
| 1960 |
50.94%30,953
|
49.06% 29,809
|
Alaska is often characterized as a Republican-leaning state with strong Libertarian tendencies.
Local political communities often work on issues related to land
use development, fishing, tourism, and individual rights as many residents are proud of their
rough Alaskan heritage. It is very important to note that, as of
9/2004, well over half of all registered voters choose
"Non-Partisan" or "Undeclared" as their affiliation (source: Alaska
Department of Elections www.gov.state.ak.us/ltgov/elections/regbypty.htm),
despite recent attempts to close primaries.
Alaska Natives,
while organized in and around their communities, are often active
within the Native corporations which have been given
ownership over large tracts of land, and thus need to deliberate
resource conservation and development issues.
In presidential elections, the state's Electoral College votes have
been most often won by a Republican nominee. Only once has Alaska
supported a Democratic nominee, when it supported Lyndon B. Johnson in
the landslide year of 1964,
although the 1960 and 1968
elections were close. Juneau stands out as an area that supports
Democratic candidates.
When the United States Congress, in 1957 and 1958, debated the
wisdom of admitting it as the 49th state, much of the political
debate centered on whether Alaska would become a Democratic or Republican-leaning state. Still, despite its libertarian
leanings, the state regularly takes in more federal money than it
gives out, a fact that can be attributed at least partially to its
equal representation in the United States Senate.
In recent years, the Alaska Legislature is a 20-member Senate serving 4-year
terms and 40-member House serving 2-year terms. Republican Wally Hickel was
elected to the office for a second term in 1990 after jumping the
Republican ship and briefly joining the Alaskan
Independence Party ticket just long enough to be reelected. As
the longest-serving Republican in the Senate (sometimes nicknamed
"Senator-For-Life"), Stevens has been a crucial force in gaining
Federal money for his state.
Until his resignation from the U.S. Senate after
being elected governor, Republican Frank Murkowski held the
state's other senatorial position and, as governor, was allowed to
appoint his daughter, Lisa Murkowski as his successor (under massive public
pressure, the State legislature amended the constitution to
eliminate gubernatorial appointments in the future).
Alaska's sole U.S. Representative, Don Young, was re-elected to his 17th consecutive
term, also in 2004. Sitka ranks as America's largest city by area,
followed closely by Juneau.
Cities of 100,000 or more people
|
Towns of 10,000-100,000 people
|
Towns of fewer than 10,000
people
|
- Ketchikan
- Sitka
- Wasilla
- Kenai
- Kodiak
- Palmer
- Bethel
|
|
- Barrow
- Unalaska
- Valdez
- Soldotna
- Homer
- Nome
- Petersburg
- Kotzebue
|
|
- Seward
- Dillingham
- Cordova
- Haines
- North Pole
- Ester
- Delta Junction
- Glennallen
|
25 richest places in Alaska
Ranked by per
capita income:
1. Attu Station, Alaska $26,964
|
Education
The Alaska Department of Education and Early Development
administers many school districts in Alaska.
In addition, the state operates a boarding school called Mt. The
University of
Alaska has been successfully combating this fact by offering four-year
scholarships to the top 10 percent of Alaska high school graduates,
the Alaska Scholars Program.
Domestic abuse
and other violent crimes are also at notoriously high levels in the
state;
Notable Alaskans
- Tom Bodett:
radio personality and Motel 6 spokesman.
- Ray Mala
(1906-1952) is the first Native American movie star and the only
film star the State of Alaska has yet to produce. He starred in
MGM's Oscar-winning classic
"Eskimo/Mala the Magnificent" filmed entirely on location in
Alaska.
- Edward Lewis
"Bob" Bartlett (1904–1968) was the territorial delegate to
the US Congress from 1944 to 1958, and was elected as the first
senior U.S.
Senator in 1958 and re-elected to a full 6-year term in 1960
and again in 1966. There are streets, buildings, and even the
first state ferry, named for him.
- Scott Gomez,
(1979–) a professional ice hockey player who was the first Latino
player in the NHL.
- Ernest
Gruening (1886–1974) was appointed Governor of the Territory of Alaska
in 1939, and served in that position for fourteen years. He was
elected to the United States Senate in 1958 and re-elected in
1962 and served until 1969.
- Jay Hammond
(1922–2005) was Governor during the building of the Alaska Pipeline and
established the Alaska Permanent Fund, providing Alaskans with
essentially free money. He was also governor during passage of
the Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act and
effectively served to moderate associated issues within the state
among disparate interest groups ranging from conservationists to
natives to pro-development interests.
- George Sharrock (1910–2005) moved to the territory before
statehood, eventually elected as the mayor of Anchorage and
served during the Good Friday Earthquake in March 1964. The infamous
confidence man and early settler, who ran the goldrush town of
Skagway,
Alaska, 1897-98.
- Fran Ulmer was
the first woman elected to statewide office—she became Lieutenant
Governor in 1994.
- Curt
Schilling and Shawn Chacon are active players in the MLB native to Alaska.
- Jewel
Kilcher is a famous recording artist with hit singles,
"Foolish Games",
"You Were
Meant For Me", "Who Will Save Your Soul", "Hands", "Standing Still",
"Intuition", and the
poetry book "A Night Without Armor".
- Dominic S.
Lee (born 1943), the writer of "The American Missionaries,
the Mandarins, and the Opium War: Circa 1839 to 1911", being a
Hong Kong-born
Chinese, being the main actor in modernization of Arctic Alaska
in construction industry.
- Susan
Butcher (1954-2006), dog-musher, four-time winner of the
Iditarod and the second woman to win that race.
Motto
"North to the Future" is the official state motto of
Alaska, adopted by the Alaska Legislature for the 1967 centennial of the
Alaska Purchase.
The motto, meant to portray Alaska as a land of promise, was coined
by Juneau
journalist Richard
Peter, who called it "a reminder that beyond the horizon of
urban clutter there is a Great Land beneath our flag that can
provide a new tomorrow for this century's 'huddled masses yearning to
be free'."
Libraries
The four main libraries in the state are the Alaska State
Library in Juneau, the Elmer E. Alaska is
one of three states (the others are Delaware and Rhode Island) that does not have a Carnegie library.
See also
- History of
Alaska
- Alaska
purchase
- Music of
Alaska
- Scouting in
Alaska
References
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