Motels/Hotels/Hostels - Arctic Alaska

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ALASKA

Alaska, the largest in area but one of the least populated U.S. states, lies astride the Arctic Circle, apart from the "Lower 48" contiguous states. It is bordered on the north by the Arctic Ocean, on the east by the Yukon Territory, on the southeast by British Columbia, on the south by the Gulf of Alaska and the Pacific Ocean, and on the west by the Bering Sea, the Bering Strait, and the Chukchi Sea. Little Diomede Island, in the Bering Strait, is only 4 km (2.5 mi) from Russia's Big Diomede Island.

Initially inhabited by Eskimos, Aleuts, Athabascans, Tlingit, and Haida, Alaska was first visited by Europeans in the early 18th century. In 1867 the United States purchased Alaska from Russia for only $7.2 million. Alaska 's modern economic development was accelerated by World War II, when U.S. military bases were established here. Alaska became a state in 1959, and in 1968 great deposits of petroleum and natural gas were discovered in the Arctic coastal plain, or North Slope; commercial oil production from these fields began in 1977.

The name Alaska comes from an Aleut word thought to mean "mainland" or "land that is not an island"; the name originally was restricted to the Alaska Peninsula but by 1800 was used to denote all of present-day Alaska.