Talk:Alaska/Archive 1

message: This article states:
 "Alaska is administratively divided into "boroughs," as opposed to "counties." The function is the same,
 but whereas most states use a three-tiered system of decentralisation - state/county/township - 
 Alaska only uses two tiers - state/borough."
I believe Hawaii also uses a two-tier system.  None of its cities are incorporated municipalites, with all governing done at the county and state levels.  Do any other states operate this way?
Is this true? Alaska seems to have incorporated cities within and not seperate from the boroughs. (Check the constitution as one source.) So it would seem that the system is three-tiered, with the borough being much like a strong county government found in southern and western states. Can anybody help clear this up? --68.160.179.30 21:29, 30 July 2006 (UTC)
replies: text: Most of Alaska is federal land, with the next largest land group being the state. There are several incorporated boroughs, with large chunks of state and federal land in between. Some municipalities are incorporated, so we have a three-tier system, plus the Native corporation lands and village councils. Not quite three-tier; maybe three-tier plus a parallel three-tier? Deirdre 18:57, 24 August 2006 (UTC)
thread_title:  Two-Tier system 

message: I notice the coordinates are mentioned in the detailed info sidebar, but I'm wondering if some sort of further trivia should be added to this article, establishing the fact that the Aleutian islands cross the 180° Longitude mark, thus making Alaska the eastern-most state in the US instead of Maine. 207.177.12.151 04:18, 1 Oct 2004 (UTC)
replies: text: "East" and "West" on a sphere are relative terms.  You are making them relative to the Prime and 180° meridians, whereas others would define them relative to the center of the land mass you are referring to. --Locarno 13:58, 17 August 2005 (UTC)
thread_title:  Alaska, eastern-most state 

message: An automated Wikipedia link suggester has some possible wiki link suggestions for the Alaska article:
* Can link pre-Columbian population: ...riety of Native American groups. Most if not all of the pre-Columbian population of the Americas probably took this route, but continued fur... (link to section)
* Can link Unimak Island: ...ive volcanoes are found in the Aleutians.  For example, Unimak Island is home to Mt. Shishaldin, a moderately active volcano ... (link to section)
* Can link above sea level: ...moderately active volcano that rises to 9,980 ft (3,042 m) above sea level.  The chain of volcanoes extends to Mount Spurr, west o... (link to section)
* Can link federal government: ...lly cross longitude 180°.  Much of Alaska is managed by the federal government as national forests, national parks, and [[national... (link to section)
* Can link dairy products: ...main agriculture output is seafood, although nursery stock, dairy products, vegetables, and livestock are produced and used internally... (link to section)
* Can link natural gas: ...urism]] sector. Its industrial outputs are crude petroleum, natural gas, coal, gold, precious metals, zinc and other mining, seafoo... (link to section)
* Can link precious metals: ...trial outputs are crude petroleum, natural gas, coal, gold, precious metals, zinc and other mining, seafood processing, timber and wood... (link to section)
* Can link US Congress: ...[1904]]–1968) was the territorial delegate to the US Congress from 1944 to 1958, and was elected as the first sen... (link to section)
* Can link Lieutenant Governor: ... elected to statewide office was Fran Ulmer, elected as Lieutenant Governor in 1994.... (link to section)
* Can link savings account: ...ge graduate and top student, who donated his entire $24,000 savings account to charity and moved into the Alaskan wilderness.  1997, IS... (link to section)
* Can link urbanized area: ...rage]], home of 260,283 people, 225,744 of whom live in the urbanized area.  It ranks a distant third in the [[List of U.S. cities by ... (link to section)
Notes: The article text has not been changed in any way; Some of these suggestions may be wrong, some may be right.
Feedback: I like it, I hate it, Please don't link to — LinkBot 11:28, 1 Dec 2004 (UTC)
thread_title:  Suggest 11 possible wiki links for [[Alaska]]. 

message: Is there anyway the text could begin at the top?  It starts halfway down the right side panel.
:I observe this also. I'm not quite sure how to fix it. Deco 18:53, 6 Apr 2005 (UTC)
thread_title:  Move the beginning of text up 

message: Why no mention of Alaska's history under Russian rule? Surely this is an important part of it's history?--Alun 09:56, 13 May 2005 (UTC)
thread_title: Russian Alaska?

message: I'm surprised that there isn't more about gold or oil in this article. I was always under the impression that one of the big reasons that purchasing alaska was not a "folly" was the large amount of gold and oil reserves. I don't know this for a fact so I won't add it, but if true I think this connection should be made in the history section.
68.49.142.108
:As far as I remember, the gold and oil resources were unknown at the time Seward was pushing for the acquisition of Alaska. Maybe there were rumblings of potential reserves, but the gold rush didn't happen until after Alaska was made a territory of the US. Once the gold and oil reserves were discovered, people realized we got a good deal on the purchase price...
:I don't remember what Seward's big reason for pushing for the purchase of Alaska was...maybe someone who's more of an Alaska history buff can fill the article in...perhaps Steven Haycox at UAA could be converted to a Wikipedian! (I may take a course in Alaska history next semester or the following one. I'll update as I learn more.) cluth 01:15, July 16, 2005 (UTC)
:Sorry, I should have made it more clear - I meant in retrospect it wasn't a bad deal. I was just saying that there is no real mention in the entire article about gold or oil, which seems like an important asset today. 
:You make a good point, the article doens't really state why we wanted Alaska from Russia. I'd be interested in knowing Seward's reasoning
:68.49.142.108
: In this section there should be more infomation on gold and oil.
"Gold" used to be a large part of the economy, but now it is relatively minor (mining is not in the top-3). Oil is the largest industry but hardly the sole item. I'm going to change the "gold and oil" mention at the top to something more accurate.
Alaskan economy now is really based on tourism, oil is right now an issue since the oil companies have been a party to some corruption in the state.  When Alaska was bought, oil was not not something  that was valued, per say.  As said before gold used to be a major part of the economy, now all we (yes I'm Alaskan) do now is goldpan as a hobby or for just plain bordem in the mountains.  And again more tourists goldpan than actual Alaskans (depending on where you live). -bob  —Preceding unsigned comment added by 209.193.50.187 (talk) 04:39, 9 September 2007 (UTC)
thread_title: Gold and Oil

message: ::The only penguins we have are in the zooJedG 00:06, 27 March 2006 (UTC)
thread_title: Penguins

message: Please don't link to Savings Account. I believe this bot's text refers to the subject of the nonfiction novel Into the Wild by Jon Krakauer. --65.16.61.35 21:18, 1 September 2006 (UTC)
thread_title: Savings Account

message: Silly question perhaps but when did geographers realise that Alaska was in North America? Signor Eclectic 22:00, 2 August 2006 (UTC)
thread_title: North America

message: How was this determined? I live in a town of 30k (Suburb of Eagle River), and it's not listed at all. It's suburb-ness is slightly disputed, but I still think it a candidate for the middle bracket. DevastatorIIC 03:39, July 26, 2005 (UTC)
: Eagle River is part of the Municipality of Anchorage, so it is incorporated into Anchorage's population with the rest of the Municipality. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 69.137.152.241 (talk) 13:48, 14 December 2006 (UTC)
thread_title:  "Important cities and towns" 

message: How does the state collect revenue?  I heard once that there was effectively a negative income tax rate in Alaska due to abundant tax revenue from oil and the pipeline.  Is this still true?  Is there any personal or business state income tax there?  --Locarno 13:53, 17 August 2005 (UTC)
thread_title: State revenue/State Income tax

message: Oops!  It's a shame you can't go back and fix the description of edits.  I wrote Reverted edits by 24.127.76.160 to last version by Canderson7 but I meant to say Reverted edits by 168.102.134.58 to last version by Canderson7—GraemeMcRaetalk 16:04, 26 October 2005 (UTC)
thread_title:  Incorrect description of my latest change 

message: There was an article in the Anchorage Daily News on Dec 17 2002, "Poland honors second 'ski' to lead Alaska," which seems to indicate that there isn't much evidence that Wlodzimierz Krzyzanowski was the first administrator of Alaska. (This information is also contained in the pages Department of Alaska and Włodzimierz Krzyżanowski)  -- We should find references to support or deny this.
:I don't have references at hand, but it was sort of a misunderstanding.  Krzyzanowski referred to himself as "governor" or the equivalent, but as you said, there's nothing to support this, nor to suggest that he meant he was in charge of the whole state. -- A. 20:21, 16 March 2007 (UTC)
thread_title:  First American administrator? 

message: Can someone check out the inflation adjusted cost of purchasing alaska.  $90M in 2005 seems too small.   I just checked the CPI calculator for the US and it put $7 in 1914 to something like $139 now, so the $90M figure seems too low. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 211.31.196.78 (talk • contribs) .
:Yea, I went to another site and confirmed a number around $130M 2005 dollars.  Great catch! I'll make the change. -Scm83x 11:05, 17 December 2005 (UTC)
thread_title:  Inflation adjusted Cost of Purchase of Alaska 

message: "It is also the only state in which the majority of citizenry must pass through a foreign country when driving to its capital city. Alaska's capital city, Juneau, is accessible only via ship or air. There are no roads leading in or out of Juneau."
If there are no roads to it, then the statement about passing through a foreign country when driving is wrong, because you can't drive there at all.
Someone please fix this; I don't know which is correct.
Ken Arromdee 15:09, 2 March 2006 (UTC)
replies: text: Whoever added that may have been thinking of driving to Haines or Skagway (which does require traversing Canada) and then putting the car on a ferry the rest of the way, but you're right, that doesn't at all count. I'll reword it. —Zero Gravitas 19:26, 2 March 2006 (UTC)
thread_title:  Contradiction 

message: I propose this merge simply because I found North to the future in the list of stubs in WikiProject Alaska. While it is a state motto, I believe the information contained therein may appeal to a wider audience when placed under its own section in the main Alaska article. Kareeser|Talk! 17:09, 3 March 2006 (UTC)
replies: text: Approximately half the states have pages for their mottos as well, so I'm not sure there's a really compelling reason to move this one... —Zero Gravitas 19:06, 3 March 2006 (UTC)

text: (edit to add: I don't really have a strong opinion either way, though. —Zero Gravitas 19:16, 3 March 2006 (UTC)
replies: text: Hmm.. well I was bold and moved it (before reading the above comments). I don't think state mottos need their own articles, unless they're particularly notable somehow. But in this case I just thought the info was better placed, and would get more visibility, in Alaska. --Fang Aili 20:56, 11 March 2006 (UTC)
thread_title: Merger of [[North to the future]] to [[Alaska]]

message: An introduction ought to be a bit longer than "a state located on the west coast". 18.251.5.83 03:29, 24 March 2006 (UTC)
thread_title: Why does this article have no introduction?

message: WP:LEAD
I added a little bit to the lead section, although not enough. I am very interested in this state, and hope to get it to featured standard because of WP:1FA. Raichu 15:01, 23 May 2006 (UTC)
thread_title:  WP:LEAD 

message: About seven months ago, an anon changed the etymology of the name to read:
:The name "Alaska" is most likely derived from the Aleut word Alyeska, meaning greater land as opposed to the Aleut word Aleutia, meaning lesser land. To the Aleuts, this distinction was a linguistic variation distinguishing the mainland from an island.
This greater/lesser "Aleutia" assertion seems very dubious. There's no source, and not a single Ghit to verify; in fact, the only pages with both Alyeska and Aleutia in the text are copied from this article, or typoed the word "Aleutian", or were about something totally unrelated. I'd be surprised if "Aleutia" were even remotely Aleut to begin with; to me it reads like a guesswork backformation from "Aleutian".
I've copied the text here so it's easily available to reinsert should an actual source for this exist, but for now I'm putting it back how it was. —Zero Gravitas 23:21, 30 May 2006 (UTC)
thread_title:  Etymology 

message: Anyone who knows Alaskan goldrush history knows who "Soapy" Smith is!  He is regarded as "Alaska's Outlaw."  I have a website devoted to this historical figure and keep having to re-list it on this site, because someone has taken it upon themself to delete it as "spam." The website is only on the story of Soapy Smith and has a lot on Alaska.  I sell nothing on this site.  It irks me that I have been asked by this person to have to prove why "Soapy" Smith belongs here...Can I get some help from others here? Soapy 04:53, 31 May 2006 (UTC)
replies: text: I looked over the link and the site, it's a good resource. The reason I would delete it from the Alaska article is that it is not particular to Alaska as a whole; those are the primary external links that you would want to keep for that particular article (eg the state website, census information). I don't think you're spamming or putting in the link for vanity as the other edit summaries say- I think it just doesn't fit for the overall article. I do love the article on Soapy Smith, pretty interesting stuff. You're doing good work! Teke 18:14, 31 May 2006 (UTC)
replies: text: At least, if it is kept, change the link description to something more generic, right now it sounds very spam-link, probably the reason it was removed. -- SmthManly / ManlyTalk / ManlyContribs 18:25, 31 May 2006 (UTC)
thread_title:  Leave Soapy Smith Link up!! 

message: I was looking at Western Australia and saw there that
It (meaning Western Australia) is, after the Sakha Republic in Russia, the second largest subnational entity (Statoid) in the world.
I thought it would be nice to include the fact that Alaska is in sixth place on that list, but then I noticed a problem:
The info box gives the following figures -- Total Area 663,267 sq mi (1,717,854 km²) -- which matches the number shown on the aforementioned statoid list, but the Geography section tells a different tale:
Alaska is the largest state in the United States in terms of land area (it is larger in area than all but 18 of the world's nations) at 570,374 square miles (1,477,261 km²), over twice as large as Texas, the next largest state.
That number would push Alaska down from sixth to ninth place on the list.
So my questions are as follows:
#Can anyone explain this discrepancy? I'm thinking land area to total area, including coastal waters, or the Aleutian Island chain, or something similar.
#Would someone like to put the explanation into the article (besides me :)?
#Does anyone either approve of or reject my notion to add the fact that Alaska is the sixth largest statoid into that paragraph?
Thanks for caring. -- Eliyahu S Talk 10:29, 31 August 2006 (UTC)
thread_title:  Size (Area) Contradictions? Improvements? 

message: Someone mentioned a long time ago at the top of this talk page that the article's lacking a climate section. I never really noticed that until now, but yeah--it does need one! (That's probably one of the top questions people looking up this article have...) Also, the map on the Hungarian Wikipedia (http://hu.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kép:Alaska-fhwa-map.jpg) is pretty good. I found it on a DOT website and uploaded it and will see if I can figure out where to put it in the article. cluth 08:54, 12 September 2006 (UTC)
replies: text: After uploading the image, I saw a watermark in the top of the image that said mapgraphics.com. Therefore, even though it is hosted on US government servers, it probably doesn't count as a work of the government. I'm linking the image here--click on the thumb to view a larger version and help determine its copyright status. cluth 09:11, 12 September 2006 (UTC)
thread_title:  Climate and geography 

message: Shouldn't the list of regions list the Aleutians seperately (or at all)?  I'm no expert on Alaska, but I was under the impression that the islands were considerably different from the rest of the state geographically, culturally, geologically, meteorologically, etc.  Is there a formula or reference for only including the four regions here?  Papercrab 03:49, 13 September 2006 (UTC)
replies: text: This article is about the state of Alaska, the islands are part of the state. -Icewedge 03:00, 16 September 2007 (UTC)
thread_title:  Regions 

message: If you don't mind me mentioning it, the opening map is somewhat confusing. I realise that in paper maps it is traditional to insert faraway places in a little box, but when viewed on a small screen it simply doesn't work. Surely it is possible that one of those editing this article could download a map which included Canada and made some kind of sense about the location of Alaska?Abtract 17:44, 2 October 2006 (UTC)
replies: text: What about one of these? --Astrokey44 23:40, 4 January 2007 (UTC)
replies: text:  i agree the map shown shows no distinctions between the US and Canada  —Preceding unsigned comment added by 209.193.50.187 (talk) 06:40, 9 September 2007 (UTC)
thread_title: Map

message: I don't understand this statement: "Juneau averages over 50 inches of precipitation a year, while other areas receive over 275 inches" which immediately follows a statement that Juneau is in the wettest region of Alaska.  Is it supposed to be 27.5? --Aguerriero (talk) 22:18, 4 November 2006 (UTC)
replies: text: I can't find this statement. I think it has been removed. -Icewedge 03:02, 16 September 2007 (UTC)
replies: text:  Yes, quite some time ago.  Looks like someone tried to start an article on Alaskan climate which has since been deleted.  The loss of this particular statement is okay with me, though, since it was obviously bogus in the first place. Unschool 06:32, 16 September 2007 (UTC)
replies: text: Why would an article on the climate of Alaska be deleted that seems pretty notable? -Icewedge 20:56, 16 September 2007 (UTC)
replies: text:  Not sure.  I'm also not sure that Alaska needs its own climate section, but I wouldn't oppose it.  I was only celebrating that the false fact about precipitation was deleted. Unschool 23:47, 16 September 2007 (UTC)
replies: text: Hmmm, well the removal of false facts is a good think to celebrate :) -Icewedge 16:19, 17 September 2007 (UTC)
thread_title:  Climate figures 

message: Ok, which figure is correct for Alaska's land area: 545,000 sq. miles or 638,000 sq. miles? I see two different figures given.Jlujan69 01:59, 8 November 2006 (UTC)
replies: text: See my earlier discussion, above. --Eliyahu S Talk 12:47, 4 December 2006 (UTC)
replies: text: Judging from the figures in our List of U.S. states by area, two different figures are defensible, depending on whether you mean land area or total area.  Alaska has about 90,000 square miles of water area.  The Alaska article should have some sort of explanation of this point instead of just giving two seemingly inconsistent figures. JamesMLane t c 11:15, 12 January 2007 (UTC)
thread_title:  Size of Alaska--which is correct? 

message: I removed 36 crazyfists from the list of notable alaskans, I think it's a little early to list them there. Mainstream coverage is limited and a search at adn.com brings only a handful of relevant results. Farsnickle 11:23, 4 December 2006 (UTC)
thread_title:  Notable Alaskans 

message: The Wikipedia:WikiProject U.S. states format has been updated to include a new Sports section, that covers collegiate sports, amateur sports, and non-team sports (such as hunting and fishing).  Please feel free to add this new heading, and supply information about sports in Alaska.  Please see South_carolina#Sports_in_South_Carolina as an example. NorCalHistory 16:42, 9 December 2006 (UTC)
thread_title:  New ''Sports'' section added to updated [[Wikipedia:WikiProject U.S. states]] format