Alaska forever

One of the most interesting parts of the US lies maybe not where you might think. I mean that New York, L.A., Washington, the Grand Canyon are all interesting places to visit, but a very unusual place to go might be the largest state of the Federation : Alaska.

Alaska has a very different history than the rest of the nation for several reasons:
- It is maybe the first American territory to be populated by settlers that would have crossed the straight separating Russia from America,
- Vitus Bering was indeed the first Russian to cross the straight in 1741, and therefore it became a Russian territory. It was only in 1867 that this huge piece of land was bought by the US for $7,2 millions.

Alaska became the 49th state on January 3rd, 1959 (Hawaii was incorporated as a state on August 21st, of the same year).

Resulting from these years of Russian occupation, several and unique orthodox churches were built in Alaska. Something unique in Northern America.

So if you're interested, the Alaska tourism bureau is a good place to begin your research otherwise you can always read this great article published in my newspaper the New York times.


Photo from nytimes.com