General Overview Of Alaska: History And Resources

Alaska has amazing beauty and resources. Alaska was previously owned by Russia in the 1870s.(purchase 1)Although some may not agree, Alaska has a lot of history and resources. Alaska has a lot of history and a lot of this history is very important. Alaska has cold rivers and tall mountains (Zimmerman). The tallest mountain in Alaska is 20,320 feet tall (Zimmerman). The longest river in Alaska is the Yukon River (Zimmerman). This river is over 83 miles long(Zimmerman). Alaska has a total of 12,000 lakes (Department of fish and game). Also, it was 3 million rivers (Department of fish and game). Also, it makes up half of the entire United States coastline (Zimmerman). Alaska is less than 20 miles away from Russia. In the winter an ice bridge is formed from Alaska to Russia. This place also has gold, wood, natural gas, and oil. It produces more revenue every day than the value when the United States bought it. (Quinn). Alaska pumps 30 billion barrels of oil each day (Quinn). One interesting thing is the northern lights in Alaska. These usually happen on clear nights(Northern). The northern lights are created by the earth’s magnetic field and the sun’s solar flares charging the particles in the air. This is some of the beauty of Alaska.

Alaska is cool but, it was not always ours. The first ownership of Alaska was by the Russians(purchase).In 1878 the United States made the decision to buy it (purchase). The person who made that decision was William H. Seward(purchase). This cost 7.2 million dollars(purchase). In today’s money this cost 166,000,000 dollars. Back when they first bought it costs 2 cents an acre(purchase). This was a very small cost back then because they didn’t know about all the oil and gold reserves. The rivers in Alaska make it so they can catch gold (NovaGold). The prior landscape was a thick forest with lots of bears(Zimmerman). This is why Alaska is so important.

Although Alaska has a lot of marvellous geographies it also has a lot of major resources. First, the United States has found that Alaska has one of the United States biggest gold supplies(rush). In 1848 the same year gold was discovered in California it was also discovered in Alaska(NovaGold). Rumours of gold in Alaska was spread through California mining camps(NovaGold). This rush brought over 30,000 people to Alaska to find gold (NovaGold). In the late 1800s, 100 million dollars of gold was excavated (NovaGold). A new Alaskan gold deposit found had 240,000 oz of gold(NovaGold). This is located in a fault line where the gold drops into the fault(NovaGold). Recently in 2014, Nova spent 10 million dollars to get to where the gold is(NovaGold). New deposits like this are found about every week. (Gold). This gold is valued at 656 million dollars(NovaGold). The gold rush names were the Alaskan gold rush, Yukon gold rush, Klondike gold rush and Bonanza gold rush. (Klondike). These are the most well-known resources in Alaska.

A valuable and important resource in America is oil because of the automotive industry. The most common way of drilling for oil in Alaska is offshore drilling(Elizabeth). One benefit of Alaskan oil is each Alaskan get 1,884 dollars in 2014 from the oil stipend(Elizabeth). To get this money you have to live in Alaska for a year then you are eligible to get a yearly oil snipe. They give out these stipends for letting the government use their land for profit. (Elizabeth).There is one downside for offshore drilling though. Over 11 million gallons of oil got dumped into the water by accident(State of Alaska). The oil spills are causing harm to the loss of fish, whales, and birds. On March 10, 2017, they discovered a new area for oil that is estimated to be at 2.1 billion barrels on Alaska north slope(Alaska).In conclusion, Alaska is full of thick black oil.

Next, a big business is wood, wood is a major part of the housing and everyday life.The 2 biggest forests of United States (Alaska 2). Alaska’s biggest forest is 17 million acres of forest(Alaska 2).Wood logging companies harvest over 50 million board feet each year(Alaska 2). Also, they have been doing this for over 50 years(Alaska 2). This is causing harm to the environment. They are hurting birds, bears, deer, wolf’s, porcupines and beavers(Alaska 2). The most common way to heat a home would be to use firewood(Miller).

Another way of heating is natural gas. Natural gas is an industry in Alaska. the big development was a new gas pipe.(Bradner). This pipe would be a total of 1500 miles long(Bradner). The pipe will be about 24 inches in diameter.(Bradner). This pipe would cost over 30 billion dollars(Bradner). It will save some money on transporting the gas. The pipe length was finished in 2010(Bradner). It also holds 16% of the United States gas reserves which is about 13 trillion cubic feet. Alaska ranks 3 in natural gas reserves.

Alaska has lots of cool and interesting geography it also has lots of diverse people. Alaska has over 23 million acres of land reserves(BLM). Another thing is Alaska has statewide healthcare(BLM).Most Alaskan are self-sustaining and are usually good shots(Alaska). Some major changes to Alaska are 2800 polar bear is now endangered from global warming(Barber).

The water levels are also rising in Alaska. Some more issues are the new trains that are being put in are causing a collision with moose(Glaciers). The reason for this is the ice caps are now melting(Glaciers). The Alaskan glaciers amount to half of the world’s(Glaciers). More and more of these are happening because of destroyed habitats(Glaciers). More rural homes in Alaska are having access to high-speed internet(Newlifeak).Another thing is in Alaska in 2025 they expect to have 50% of their energy be renewable(Newlifeak). Alaska has the lowest population density in the United States(Alaska Population).

In conclusion, Alaska is a historical and economic place. It has oil, gold, wood, and gas. It also has had lots of changes in the past. A big change was global warming. Lastly, it has big rivers and mountains.This is why Alaska can be a cool place or it can be looked at as a place of too much human involvement with habitats.