150 Fun Facts About Alaska That’ll Blow Your Mind

Article Overview: 150 fun facts about Alaska — wildlife, weather, geography, history, culture, food, weird laws, aviation, and film & TV.

Looking for fun facts about Alaska? You came to the right place. We didn’t just Google this stuff — we’ve lived it. Between the two of us, the AlaskaExplored crew has spent over two decades working, traveling, and filming all over the 49th state. We’ve shot in the Arctic, floated glaciers in Southeast, and chased northern lights through temperatures that killed our camera batteries before we could even roll.

I’ve spent most of my Alaska career in the camera department — and anytime we’re prepping a shoot, whether we’re tracking moose through snow or rigging a time-lapse in the Arctic, knowing this place cold is non-negotiable. Fun facts about Alaska have literally saved shoots. Like knowing most camera batteries die instantly at -60°F. Good to know beforeyou’re four hours from the nearest town.

Our crew has documented Alaska for National Geographic, Discovery, Disney, Animal Planet, and more. When we say we know this state, we mean it. These 150 facts are drawn from real experience, not just a search engine. Let’s get into it.

Fun Wildlife Facts About Alaska

The wildlife alone is enough reason to go. Alaska is home to species most Americans will never see outside a zoo — and up here, you might see a whale on the way to work! Here are some fun facts about Alaska and its animals:

1. A Kodiak bear can tip the scales at 1,500 pounds. Let that sink in.
2. Alaska has the highest bald eagle population in the United States — over 70,000 birds.
3. The largest salmon ever caught in Alaska was pulled from the Kenai River in 1985 and weighed 97 pounds, 4 ounces.
4. Alaska has five species of Pacific salmon: King, Coho, Sockeye, Chum, and Pink.
5. Nearly half the world’s northern fur seals gather on Alaska’s Pribilof Islands to breed.
6. A bull moose’s antlers can span 6 feet wide.
7. An estimated 10,000 humpback whales use Alaska’s coastlines as summer feeding grounds.
8. Eight whale species call Alaska’s waters home or visit regularly: Humpbacks, Belugas, Orcas, Right, Minke, Blue, Bowhead, and Grey.
9. The Alaska Department of Fish and Game estimates 175,000 to 200,000 moose roam the state.
10. Alaska has more caribou than people — by a significant margin.
11. The state is home to roughly 30,000 brown bears, more than anywhere else in the U.S.
12. Stellar sea lions — the world’s largest sea lions — are found in Alaska. Bulls can weigh over 2,500 pounds.
13. Alaska has documented wolf packs across nearly the entire state, one of the last places in North America where wolves thrive at scale.
14. The Pribilof Islands host the largest seabird colony in the Northern Hemisphere, with millions of birds nesting there annually.
15. Alaska is home to all three North American bear species: black bears, grizzly bears, and polar bears.

We’ve used Counter Assault Bear Spray on every Alaska shoot. Never had to use it. Plan to keep it that way.

Want to go deeper? Check out our Alaska Wildlife & Nature hub for guides on bears, salmon, whales, and more.

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Fun Weather Facts About Alaska

Yeah, it gets cold. But Alaska’s weather is way more complex — and wild — than just cold and snowy. Some of these fun weather facts about Alaska might genuinely surprise you:

16. Summer temps can reach 90°F. Winter temps can crater to -80°F in some spots. That is a 170-degree swing.
17. Barrow (now Utqiagvik) experiences 67 straight days of no sun in winter — and 80 consecutive days of daylightin summer.
18. Prospect Creek Camp holds the U.S. record for coldest temperature ever recorded: -80°F in January 1971.
19. On July 4, 2019, Anchorage hit 90°F — an all-time record — the same day records fell in Kenai, Palmer, and King Salmon.
20. Juneau averages 222 rainy days a year. Pack accordingly.
21. In 1915, Fort Yukon recorded an official temperature of 100°F. Alaska has hit triple digits. Tell your friends.
22. The Matanuska-Susitna Valley near Anchorage gets some of the most violent wind events in the state, with gusts regularly exceeding 100 mph in the passes.
23. Southeast Alaska’s coastal temperate rainforest receives over 150 inches of rain annually in some areas — more than most tropical locations.

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Fun Facts About Alaska Sports

Not exactly a packed professional sports calendar up here. But what Alaska does have is genuinely unlike anything in the Lower 48:

24. The Iditarod sled dog race covers over 1,000 miles of Alaska’s most unforgiving terrain each March. It is one of the most demanding athletic events on Earth.
25. Alaska has no professional sports teams in any of the major leagues.
26. Basketball is a cultural institution in Alaska’s bush villages — it’s one of the main events in remote communities with few other entertainment options.
27. NBA star Carlos Boozer was born in Juneau, Alaska.
28. Lydia Jacoby, 17 years old and from Seward, Alaska, won gold in the women’s 100-meter breaststroke at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics. Her entire town watched on a big screen in a parking lot. Worth looking up.
29. Dog mushing is the official state sport of Alaska. Not just a race — historically it was the primary mode of winter transportation in bush communities.
30. The World Eskimo-Indian Olympics, held annually in Fairbanks, features traditional Alaska Native athletic competitions like the ear pull, kneel jump, and four-man carry — events designed to build the exact strength and endurance needed for survival in the Arctic.
31. Balto is the sled dog usually credited with delivering diphtheria medicine to Nome in 1925. But Togo — who pulled the team through 200 miles of brutal conditions before Balto’s final 55-mile leg — is arguably the real hero of that run.

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Facts About Alaska Industries

Dropping the “fun” here because industrial facts rarely earn it. But they matter — this stuff shapes what Alaska is and how it operates:

32. Alaska has more commercial fisheries than any other U.S. state.
33. More than 20,000 rural Alaskans work in the seafood industry.
34. The 1989 Exxon Valdez oil spill remains one of the worst environmental disasters in U.S. history. NOAA continues to track its ecological recovery decades later.
35. Prudhoe Bay is the largest oil field in North America.
36. Over 18 billion barrels of oil have moved through the Trans-Alaska Pipeline.
37. The Trans-Alaska Pipeline stretches over 800 miles and took 8 years to complete.
38. Alaska’s largest mineral export is zinc.
39. Tourism draws an average of 2 million visitors every summer.
40. In 2019, tourism directly supported over 52,000 jobs in the state.
41. The Tongass National Forest — the largest in the United States at 16.8 million acres — is in Alaska. It’s bigger than some countries.
42. Alaska accounts for roughly 60% of all U.S. seafood production by volume.

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Fun Facts About Alaska Film & TV

This one I know personally. I first worked in Alaska after the state passed its film tax incentive, and I’ve been coming back ever since:

43. Alaska’s film tax credit program launched in 2008, offering a 30% refundable tax credit on qualified in-state production costs.
44. The Alaska State Legislature ended the program in 2015, citing budget concerns — a decision still debated in the industry.
45. One of the first films shot in Alaska was “The Chechaquo” (1914) — a silent film about a gold rush prospector.
46. “Northern Exposure” (1990–1995), set in the fictional Alaskan town of Cicely, became a genuine cultural phenomenon.
47. “Murder, She Wrote” featured multiple Alaska-set episodes. File under: things you wouldn’t expect.
48. In the past decade, more than 25 reality shows have filmed in Alaska. We’ve personally worked on 9 of them.
49. Alaska has served as the backdrop for shows about crab fishing, bush pilots, gold miners, survivalists, and subsistence hunters — giving American audiences a window into lives most people will never live.

For the full breakdown, read: Filming in Alaska: Everything You Need to Know

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Fun Facts About Alaska’s Population

Alaska is an outlier in almost every category. Population is no different:

50. Alaska has the lowest population density of any U.S. state — roughly one person per square mile.
51. Anchorage is home to over 40% of the entire state’s population.
52. Only 7% of Alaskans are over 65.
53. Alaska Native people make up roughly 18% of the population.
54. 52% of Alaska’s population is male — the highest percentage of any U.S. state.
55. According to the 2020 U.S. Census, approximately 64.1% of Alaska’s population identifies as white.
56. Despite being the largest state by area, Alaska’s total population is smaller than most major U.S. cities — roughly 730,000 people.
57. Over 100 Alaska communities have voted under local option law to prohibit alcohol entirely. Flying a bottle of wine into a dry village is a felony.

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Fun Facts About Alaska’s Northern Lights

The northern lights are my favorite thing to photograph and one of the main reasons people make the trip — they deserve their own section:

58. The aurora borealis appears in greens, yellows, reds, pinks, and blues depending on altitude and atmospheric gases.
59. The northern lights are completely silent — no sound, despite what movies suggest.
60. Alaska’s Indigenous cultures have long understood the aurora as spirits dancing in the sky — it’s woven deep into oral tradition.
61. The aurora is visible from space.
62. Alaska isn’t the only spot — Canada, Iceland, and Norway are also prime aurora destinations.
63. The lights occur when charged solar particles collide with Earth’s upper atmosphere.
64. May through August brings near-constant daylight to much of Alaska, making aurora viewing nearly impossibleduring those months.
65. Fairbanks is considered one of the best places on Earth to see the northern lights, sitting directly under the “aurora oval” — the ring around the magnetic pole where activity is most consistent.

If you’re serious about shooting the aurora, a fast wide-angle lens is the single biggest upgrade you can make — something in the f/1.8–f/2.8 range. Canon shooters, the Canon RF 15-35mm f/2.8L is a work horse in the cold. Sony shooters, the Sony 20mm f/1.8 G is our pick. We also have a full guide on Northern Lights Photography.

For aurora trip planning, the University of Alaska Fairbanks Geophysical Institute Aurora Forecast is the gold standard.

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General Facts About Alaska

The foundational stuff — perfect for school reports, trivia nights, and settling arguments:

66. Alaska’s state motto is “North to the Future.”
67. The state capital is Juneau — in Southeast Alaska, and you cannot drive there. No roads connect it to the rest of the state.
68. The state nickname is “The Last Frontier.”
69. The name “Alaska” comes from the Aleut word “Alyeska,” meaning “great land.”
70. The state bird is the Willow Ptarmigan. Locals joke it should be the mosquito.
71. The state flower is the delicate Forget-Me-Not.
72. Alaska’s state tree is the Sitka Spruce.
73. The official state insect is the Four Spot Skimmer Dragonfly.
74. The official state fish is the Chinook (King) Salmon.
75. Jade is the official state gemstone — Alaska doesn’t have a designated state rock.
76. Alaska’s state flag — featuring the Big Dipper and North Star — was designed by 13-year-old Benny Benson in 1926 as part of a territory-wide contest.
77. Alaska is the only state with official recognition of 20 Indigenous languages alongside English.
78. Alaska is divided into boroughs rather than counties — and some areas are so remote they fall into unorganized borough territory with no local government at all.

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Fun Facts About Alaska’s Geography

Alaska’s geography is genuinely difficult to wrap your head around. The numbers help — a little:

79. The Aleutian Island chain stretches over 1,200 miles and includes 69 islands.
80. Denali rises 20,310 feet above sea level — the highest peak in North America.
81. Alaska is home to 17 of the 20 highest mountain peaks in the United States.
82. The state contains more than 3 million lakes and over 3,000 rivers.
83. Lake Iliamna — over 1,000 square miles — is the 7th largest lake in the United States.
84. The Yukon River stretches 1,980 miles, making it the 3rd longest river in the U.S.
85. Alaska has an estimated 100,000 glaciers, covering roughly 5% of the state.
86. Including islands, Alaska has 33,904 miles of coastline — more than all other U.S. states combined.
87. Alaska holds the northernmost, easternmost, and westernmost points in the United States simultaneously.
88. Alaska has 70 active volcanoes.
89. The state averages 5,000 earthquakes per year.
90. The 1964 Good Friday Earthquake — magnitude 9.2 — is the most powerful earthquake ever recorded in North America.
91. At its closest point, Alaska is only 50 miles from Russia.
92. The Chugach and Tongass National Forests are the two largest national forests in the United States. Both are in Alaska.
93. Alaska touches two oceans: the Pacific to the south and the Arctic Ocean to the north.
94. Alaska covers 591,000 square miles — more than twice the size of Texas.
95. About 85% of Alaska sits above the 60th parallel north.
96. The state is home to more than 40% of the entire U.S. wilderness area.

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Facts About Alaska’s Culture

Alaska’s culture runs a lot deeper than the rugged outdoorsman image it usually gets:

97. Alaska has 228 federally recognized tribes.
98. The largest Alaska Native communities are the Yup’ik and Inupiat.
99. These communities have been here for thousands of years, each with distinct languages, traditions, and ways of life.
100. Over 200 languages are spoken across Alaska.
101. The state hosts cultural festivals year-round celebrating Alaska Native heritage, arts, and music.
102. Approximately 1.24% of Alaskans hold a pilot’s license — one of the highest rates in the world.
103. The Alaska State Fair in Palmer draws over 300,000 visitors annually and is famous for its giant vegetable competition (more on that below).
104. Blanket tossing — or nalukataq in Inupiaq — is a traditional Alaska Native celebration practice. Hunters are tossed high into the air on a walrus-hide blanket as a way to spot game from altitude. It’s now also part of cultural festivals.

Alaska’s Indigenous culture deserves far more than a bullet list. Check out our piece on Alaska’s Artists & Art Museums for a look at how the state’s creative traditions are being carried forward.

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Facts About Alaska’s History

Alaska is a young state with a long, complicated history:

105. In 1867, Secretary of State William H. Seward purchased Alaska from Russia for $7.2 million — about 2 cents per acre. It was mocked as “Seward’s Folly.” The joke aged poorly.
106. The discovery of gold in 1896 triggered a gold rush that brought over 100,000 people to the territory.
107. Alaska became the 49th state on January 3, 1959.
108. The only WWII battle fought on American soil was on Attu Island in Alaska’s Aleutian chain.
109. Wyatt Earp ran a saloon in Nome, Alaska. That one always lands.
110. Alaska Day is observed on October 18 — the anniversary of the formal transfer of the territory from Russia to the United States.
111. Danish explorer Vitus Bering was the first European to sight Alaska, in 1741, on a voyage from Siberia.
112. The first permanent Russian settlement in Alaska was established on Kodiak Island in 1784.
113. The Alaska Highway — connecting the contiguous U.S. to Alaska through Canada — was built during WWII in just 8 months by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.
114. In 1913, six years before the 19th Amendment, Alaska granted women the right to vote.

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Fun Facts About Alaska’s Government

Not exactly a party over here — but some of these are genuinely worth knowing:

115. Alaska was one of the first places in the U.S. to adopt ranked-choice voting, which it used for the first time in the 2022 general election.
116. Alaska has just one representative in the U.S. House of Representatives.
117. Alaska has no state income tax and no state sales tax — and until recently, it actually paid residents to live therevia the Permanent Fund Dividend.
118. The Alaska Permanent Fund was established in 1976 to share oil revenues with residents. Eligible Alaskans receive an annual payout — some years it’s exceeded $2,000 per person.
119. Mary Peltola made history as the first Alaska Native sworn into Congress.
120. William A. Egan was Alaska’s first governor.
121. Alaska is home to 8 National Parks: Glacier Bay, Kenai Fjords, Lake Clark, Katmai, Gates of the Arctic, Denali, Kobuk Valley, and Wrangell-St. Elias.
122. Sarah Palin‘s 2008 vice-presidential run put Alaska politics in the international spotlight — for better or worse.
123. In 2025, the federal government renamed Denali back to Mount McKinley by executive order. Alaska’s state government continues to use Denali.

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Fun Facts About Alaska’s Food & Farming

This section might surprise you more than any other. Alaska grows things that will make your jaw drop:

124. Alaska holds multiple world records for giant vegetables. A Matanuska-Susitna Valley grower set the record with a 138-pound cabbage. The fair has also seen 65-pound cantaloupes and 35-pound broccoli stalks.
125. The secret is the midnight sun — up to 20 hours of daylight in summer gives plants an extended photosynthesis window. The result is faster growth, larger produce, and — genuinely — sweeter carrots.
126. The Alaska State Fair in Palmer hosts an annual giant vegetable competition that draws farmers and spectators from around the world. After the event, giant vegetables are donated to feed seniors and wildlife conservation animals.
127. Palmer itself was created in the 1930s as an experimental New Deal farm colony — FDR’s administration relocated struggling Midwestern farmers to the Matanuska Valley to test large-scale Arctic farming.
128. Alaska produces some of the finest wild-caught seafood on Earth — king crab, Dungeness crab, halibut, and five species of salmon, all harvested from waters with strict federal and state sustainability management.
129. King crab season in the Bering Sea is one of the most dangerous jobs in America — and one of the most lucrative. Fishermen can earn tens of thousands of dollars in a matter of days if the conditions hold.
130. Alaska has a growing craft beer scene, with Anchorage and Juneau leading the way. Breweries regularly incorporate local ingredients like spruce tips and Alaskan berries.
131. Muktuk — raw or frozen whale skin and blubber — is a traditional Alaska Native food that has sustained Indigenous communities through Arctic winters for thousands of years. It’s high in Vitamin C and calories, both critical in a climate where fresh produce is unavailable for months.
132. Alaskan wild blueberries grow low to the ground across the tundra and are considered among the most flavorful in the world. Locals pick them by the gallon.

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Weird Alaska Laws

Alaska has some of the most geographically motivated — and sometimes just flat-out strange — laws in the country. Here’s what’s real and what’s legend:

133. It is illegal to wake a hibernating bear in Alaska. General wildlife harassment statute — and also just common sense.
134. Under Alaska law, it is illegal to hunt game animals on the same day you’ve been in an airplane — a specific rule born from the reality that pilots were spotting herds from the air and hunting them an hour later.
135. Over 100 Alaska communities have voted to go completely dry under local option law. Possession of alcohol in these communities is a criminal offense. Flying a bottle of wine in from Anchorage is a felony.
136. It is illegal to whisper in someone’s ear while they’re moose hunting. This is a real safety-based statute — moose are large, hunters are armed, and startling someone mid-shot is genuinely dangerous.
137. The “pushing a moose from an airplane” law that circulates online? Likely not a real statute — it probably originated from the infamous Talkeetna Moose Dropping Festival, where moose droppings (not live moose) were dropped from a helicopter onto a target. PETA eventually got involved and that was that.
138. Alaska does not have counties — it has boroughs. And some areas are so sparsely populated they exist in an Unorganized Borough with no local government whatsoever.
139. The Haines Hammer Museum is a real place. It is America’s only museum dedicated entirely to hammers. It opened in 2000 and has over 2,000 hammers on display. We can’t explain it, but we respect it.

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Fun Facts About Alaska’s Aviation

Aviation is as much a part of Alaska’s culture as fishing or mushing — probably more so in remote areas. It’s not a hobby up here. It’s infrastructure:

140. Alaska has more registered aircraft per capita than any other U.S. state — roughly 1 in 58 Alaskans is a licensed pilot.
141. There are more float planes operating in Alaska than anywhere else in the world. Lakes and rivers serve as runways in communities with no roads.
142. Merle “Mudhole” Smith and other early bush pilots were so critical to Alaska’s development that they’re considered folk heroes. Bush pilots delivered mail, medicine, and supplies to communities that had no other access.
143. Lake Hood in Anchorage is the busiest floatplane base in the world — handling nearly 200 daily operations on average, peaking higher in summer.
144. Many rural Alaska communities are accessible only by air or river — no roads, no railroads. For these communities, small planes aren’t a luxury; they’re the only option.
145. Alaska Airlines — headquartered in Seattle but deeply rooted in Alaska — got its start flying passengers and freight to remote Alaskan villages in the 1930s.

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Things We’ve Learned the Hard Way

Twenty-plus years between the two of us working and filming in Alaska will teach you things no guidebook covers. These aren’t trivia — they’re facts that have bitten us, cost us gear, or made us look like idiots in front of our cast. Filed here so you don’t repeat our mistakes.

146. Cold kills batteries before you realize it’s happening.

Most camera batteries start losing capacity around 32°F and fail well before -20°F. In interior Alaska, -40°F is a normal workday. We carry three times as many batteries as we think we need, rotate them inside our jackets between setups. Your battery plan is your shoot plan.

Hand warmers stuffed in your jacket pocket next to your spare batteries work just as well as any gear solution we’ve tried. HotHands are cheap and they’re everywhere in Alaska.

147. Your LCD screen starts ghosting at subzero temperatures

Around 14°F (-10°C), camera LCD screens start showing ghosting — the previous frame lingers on screen as the liquid crystals slow down in the cold. At -10°F it’s pronounced enough that you can’t fully trust what you’re seeing. We monitor from the eyepiece in extreme cold and treat the LCD as a backup only.

148. “Freeze-up” and “break-up” are scheduling constraints, not just expressions.

During the fall and spring transition windows, travel across much of Alaska becomes genuinely dangerous or impossible — ice that was safe to cross yesterday can be rotten today. We’ve had logistics collapse mid-production because a river we needed to cross was no longer passable. Build contingency into every Alaska schedule.

149. Volcanoes can ground your flight. Seriously.

Alaska has 70 active volcanoes, and when one kicks up ash, it doesn’t just look dramatic — it shuts down air travel across entire regions. Volcanic ash destroys jet engines, so the FAA doesn’t mess around. We were once stuck in Anchorage for two days waiting on a flight to Dutch Harbor because of ash in the flight corridor. No workaround, no alternate route — you just wait. It’s the only place we’ve ever had a production delayed by a volcano.

150. Nobody knows Alaska like the locals

The best location tips, travel advice, and wildlife intel we’ve ever gotten came from bush pilots, fishing guides, subsistence hunters, and village elders. They know things that aren’t on any map. The crews that do their best work here show up with good questions, not all the answers already decided.

For everything you need to know before a production in Alaska, read our full guide: Filming in Alaska: Everything You Need to Know

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Facts about Alaska FAQ’s

What is the most surprising fun fact about Alaska? 

Probably that Alaska holds the northernmost, easternmost, and westernmost points in the United States simultaneously — because the Aleutian Islands cross the 180th meridian into the Eastern Hemisphere.

How big is Alaska compared to other states? 

Alaska covers 591,000 square miles — more than twice the size of Texas. You could fit about 20 average-sized U.S. states inside it.

Is Alaska really as cold as people say? 

Yes and no. Interior and Arctic Alaska can hit -80°F in winter. But coastal and Southeast Alaska are much milder. Anchorage in July can feel like a comfortable Pacific Northwest summer. It’s an enormous state with wildly different climates depending on where you are.

What wildlife can you actually see in Alaska? 

Bears (all three North American species), moose, wolves, caribou, bald eagles, Dall sheep, humpback whales, orcas, sea otters, harbor seals, Steller sea lions, salmon — and that’s a partial list. Alaska’s wildlife density is genuinely unmatched anywhere else in the United States.

How many people live in Alaska? 

Roughly 730,000, with over 40% concentrated in Anchorage. That’s a smaller population than most major U.S. cities — spread across a state larger than most countries.

What languages are spoken in Alaska? 

English dominates, but over 200 languages are spoken across the state, including more than 20 distinct Alaska Native languages: Yup’ik, Inupiaq, Athabascan, Tlingit, Haida, Tsimshian, and others. Alaska officially recognizes all 20 Indigenous languages alongside English.

Does Alaska really pay people to live there? 

Yes. The Alaska Permanent Fund Dividend distributes a portion of the state’s oil revenues to eligible Alaska residents every year. The amount varies — it’s been as low as a few hundred dollars and as high as over $3,000 in a given year.

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More Alaska Articles

If you dug these 150 fun facts about Alaska, the crew has plenty more:

• 42 Hilarious Alaska Jokes
• Alaska Quotes: 30 Memorable Sayings About the Last Frontier
• Famous People from Alaska
• Movies About Alaska
• Filming in Alaska: Everything You Need to Know
• 9 Restless Alaska Ghosts

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Have a fact we missed? Drop it in the comments — we read every one.

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