Did You Know? In Gold Rush days, prospectors sifted $3 million in gold from Nome’s beaches. Lake Hood is the world’s busiest floatplane base, averaging 800 takeoffs and landings on a peak summer day. The world’s largest sport-caught king salmon (97 lbs. 4 oz.) was pulled from the Kenai River.
Did You Know? The name Alaska has its roots in a Unangan Aleut word, Alaxsxax, which means mainland. Almost a quarter of Alaska’s indigenous people live in Anchorage. For about a year during World War II, Japan occupied Attu and Kiska, Aleutian island homes to indigenous Aleuts. The word kayak
Did You Know? Miners took more than $46 million in gold from the Nome area (1899-1910), or $1.34 billion today. The Chilkoot Trail, in U.S. and Canadian parks, is considered the world's longest outdoor museum. The Klondike Gold Rush brought 100,000 people to Alaska; about 40,000 got to the Yukon
Did You Know ... ? Juneau’s city limits encompass 3,108 square miles, 12 times the size of Singapore. In Alaska, glaciers cover an area roughly equal to South Carolina. The Valdez oil spill occurred on Good Friday 1989, 25 years after Alaska’s Good Friday earthquake. Haines is at the head
Did You Know? The Alabama Deep Sea Fishing Rodeo is the world’s largest fishing tournament, 3,000+ anglers and 75,000+ spectators. Dauphin Island was first called Massacre Island because of a suspected massacre there. Admiral David Farragut was near Fort Gaines when he said, "Damn the torpedoes, full speed ahead” (1864).
Did You Know? Salem College is the oldest women’s college in the nation (1772). Salem Band, America’s oldest continually active brass band, began performing in 1778. Richard Joshua Reynolds, 25, launched R.J. Reynolds as a chewing-tobacco maker in 1875. The muscadine, used in Yadkin Valley wines, was the first native
Did You Know? The New World’s first log cabins, based on Finnish architecture, were built at Wilmington (1638). E. I. du Pont de Nemours came to Wilmington in 1802 to get away from the French Revolution. Before John D. Rockefeller, Jr., created Historic Williamsburg, New Castle citizens rejected the idea
Did You Know? Arlington National Cemetery, the nation’s largest military cemetery, sees 27 to 30 funerals each weekday. George Washington’s farm sold produce at Alexandria’s Saturday market, which dates from 1753. The Pentagon groundbreaking occurred Sept. 11, 1941, precisely 60 years before the 9/11 attack. Arlington County has the highest
Did You Know...? Washington’s cherry trees, 3,000 of them, were a gift from Tokyo’s mayor in 1912. President John Quincy Adams swam the Potomac in the buff; once, someone stole his clothes. In 1800, D.C.’s first year as the capital, the government had 131 employees. The Washington Monument sinks a
Did You Know? English settlers landed at Virginia Beach before moving on to found Jamestown (1607). The Old Cape Henry Lighthouse at Fort Story is the oldest federally funded lighthouse (1791). Guinness cites Virginia Beach as having the world’s longest pleasure beach (approximately 35 miles). Virginia Beach’s original wooden boardwalk
