Alashka — the Great Land.
So the Aleuts called the huge mass of moun-tains and forests to the east of their islands. The name evolved to “Alaska”; the meaning remains unchanged. Largest of the 50 states, the wondrous 49th could wrap just her rugged Pacific coastline around that of the Lower 48. Her Aleutian Island chain reaches westward nearly to the Date Line — so far that it almost touches tomorrow. The crown of North America is hers, snow-topped Mount McKinley. And beyond the Arctic Circle, Point Barrow —northernmost tip of the United States — thrusts into the bleak Beaufort Sea.
Alaska dazzles the visitor with variety, from the grandeur of glacier-studded mountain ranges to the excitement of growing cities; from fertile farmland where 70-pound cabbages grow to barren, windblown wastes, and seemingly endless stands of timber.
But the real adventure of Alaska lives with her people —men and women as varied and strong as the land; sourdoughs and soldiers; courageous bush pilots and indomitable Eskimo hunters; oil engineers wresting treasure from a hostile environment and university students probing the mysteries of brilliant northern lights.
In Alaska, first Special Publication of the 1969 - 70 series, author Bern Keating examines the state’s exciting past and promising future. Nearly 200 color photographs illustrate the 208-page volume, which includes two of the Society’s maps —Alaska and the Top of the World.
Place names evoke the state’s storied past. The lure of gold left its mark on maps —Eureka, Utopia Creek, Bonanza Bar —as prospectors filed claims to ransack far reaches of the land. Maybe Creek tells of a miner’s doubt and hope rolled into one.
As one weary prospector struggled back to camp in 1896, the Presidential nomination of Ohio’s candidate “was the first news we received on our way out of that wonderful wilderness.” So he bestowed the candidate’s name on the pinnacle of the continent —Mount McKinley. “That wonderful wilderness,” in a measure more generous than that of any other state, still awaits today’s prospectors — and readers of Alaska.

Cover: Stylized head of a beaver dominates part of a restored Tlingit Indian memorial pole that stands amid similar columns in Saxman Totem Park, near Ketchikan.

NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC PHOTOGRAPHER GEORGE F. MOBLEY