Alaska—The Last Frontier (49)
Capitol: Juneau
Admitted into Union: January 3, 1959
State Flower: Forget-Me-Not
State Tree: Sitka Spruce
State Bird: Willow Ptarmigan
Population: 0.6 million

Ladies, take your pick: The gold rush started in 1902 helped populate the 49th state…mostly with men. Alaska’s population is now 52% male. Oddly enough, there are no professional sports teams or arenas in Alaska, although you will find plenty of hockey and dogsledding enthusiasts. Our Alaskan Trapper comes in hunter orange or olive, with a camo strap. Not bad bait for the rugged, outdoorsy type.

Santa, Baby… Want to send your wish list to the fat man in the red suit? You can reach him at North Pole, Alaska 99705, where winter temps dip to –70ºF.

Moose Manners: On the Last Frontier, it’s a legal offense to push a live moose out of a moving airplane. In fact, moose cannot even be viewed from an airplane. And in Fairbanks, you can get busted for serving a moose a beer.

All that Beach and No Bikini: Alaska has the longest coastline in the Union: 6,640 miles—longer than all other states combined!—but summer temps along much of that coastline seldom break 70 degrees.

Land of the Midnight Sun: In Barrow, where the temperature can get as low as –54ºF in winter, the sun never sets from May 10 to August 2.

Yeah, it’s big: The name Alaska is from the Aleut word “alyeska,” which means “great land” or “mainland.” At 570,000+ square miles, it’s the largest state in the Union. Mt. McKinley/Denali is the highest mountain in North America at 20,320 feet. Named after a US President in 1896, it was renamed Denali (“the high one,” its original Native American name) in 1975. Even the Alaskan state fossil is super-sized: the wooly mammoth.

Duck! The Alaska Pipeline is 800 miles long and can’t be buried in many places because of permafrost. It runs up to 8 feet above ground in some areas so moose, elk, and other animals can migrate under it.

Time killers: Those long Alaskan winters have inspired some odd entertainment on the Last Frontier. In Big Lake you can enter the Classic Car Sinking Lottery to guess the correct date, hour, and minute a classic Mustang parked on the ice will break through the thawing of Big Lake. In Talkeetna, enjoy the Moose Dropping Festival, complete with a moose poop toss.

Mush, mush, you huskies! Dog sledding is life in Alaska. In Wasilla, you can visit the Musher's Hall of Fame as well as Stuffed Togo, the preserved remains of the sled dog who lead a team delivering diphtheria serum to Nome in 1925, crossing 345+ miles without rest. The supply trail they traveled became the Iditarod Trail race route.

It’s a girl thing: Alaska is known as the state “where the men are men and women win the Iditarod.” In 1985, Libby Riddles was the first woman to win it, and in 1986, Susan Butcher scored the first of four victories.

“Seward’s Folly”: The US bought Alaska from Russia in 1867 for $7.2 million in a purchase negotiated by then Secretary of State William Seward. He was thought a fool until gold—and plenty of it—was discovered there in the late 1800s.

Hold the Moo, Please: When a slab of a glacier breaks off, the glacier is said to be “calving.” When a “calf’ enters the water, it makes a sound like thunder.

Benny’s Big Blue: Alaska’s flag was designed by a 13-year-old boy named Benny Benson, who won a design contest for students in 1926.

Famous Alaskans: Aleksandr Baranov, Margaret Elizabeth Bell, Susan Butcher, Vitus Bering, Charles E. Bunnell, Carl Ben Eielson, Molly Hootch, Jewel, Joe Juneau, Austin Lathrop, Sydney Lawrence, Hilary Lindh, John Griffith (Jack) London, Ray Mala, John Muir, Virgil F. Partch, Joe Redington, Sr., Libby Riddles, Howard Rock, Anna Tibeluk