On January 3, 1959, Alaska was admitted to the United States as the 49th state. The population of the state is over 630,000. The name "Alaska" is most likely derived from the Aleut word for "great country" or "mainland." The natives called it "Alyeska", meaning "the great land." It is bordered by the 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. Alaska is the largest state, about 2.3 times the size of Texas and about one-fifth the size of the Lower 48 states.

Although the state naturally spans five time zones, in the 1980s Alaska's middle time zone was stretched so almost the entire state would lie all in one zone, known as Alaska Time. It's one hour earlier than the West Coast's Pacific Time, four hours earlier than Eastern Time. The Yukon Territory and British Columbia, Canada are in the Pacific Time Zone. Alaska observes Daylight Saving Time.

Little Diomede Island, off the west coast of Alaska, is only 2 1/2 miles from the former USSR and the northernmost point of North America. The Eskimo town of Barrow is about 1200 miles from the North Pole. Alaska has the largest glacier in North America, the Malaspina, which is larger than Rhode Island. In fact, ice fields cover over 28,800 square miles of Alaska and that's about 4% of the state! Because of the limited highway system and the topography of Alaska, flying is the most important means of getting around and one in every 36 Alaskans has a pilot's license!