Alaska has about 640,000 residents

occupying 570,374 square miles,

or 365,039,104 acres of land.

Alaska is the largest state,

about 2.3 times the size of Texas and

about one-fifth the size of the Lower 48 states.

• The State Capital, Juneau, is America's most scenic state capital with magnificent Mendenhall Glacier nearby, was founded in 1880 by gold   miner Joe Juneau.

• The State Motto is "North to the Future".

• Mt. McKinley (Denali) at 20,320 feet is North America's highest peak.  It  is part of the Alaska Range, a chain with 23 peaks taller than 10,000 feet and 5,367 square miles of glaciers and ice fields.

• The State Bird, the Willow Ptarmigan, is a small (15-17 inches), arctic grouse that lives among willows and on open tundra and muskeg.  Plumage is brown in summer, changing to white in winter. The Willow Ptarmigan is common in much of Alaska.
   

• The State Fish - King Salmon
   

• The State Flower, the wild Forget-Me-Not, is a perennial that is found throughout Alaska, from Hyder to the Arctic Coast, and west to the Aleutians.
   

• The State Fossil - Woolly Mammoth
   

• The State Gem - Jade
   

• The State Insect - Four-spot skimmer dragonfly
   

• The State Land Mammal - Moose
   

• The State Marine Mammal - Bowhead Whale
   

• The State Mineral - Gold
   

• The State Sport - Dog mushing
   

• The State Tree - Sitka spruce

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