Alaska is a state of the United States of America that is located in the extreme northwest portion of North America, west of Canada. It is the largest U.S. state in terms of area (by a substantial margin), along with being one of the wealthiest and most racially diverse.

The area that became Alaska was purchased from Russian interests on October 18, 1867 for $7,000,000. The land went through several administrative changes before becoming an organized territory in 1912 and the 49th state of the U.S. on January 3, 1959. The name "Alaska" is derived from the Aleut alaxsxaq, meaning "the mainland", or more literally "the object towards which the action of the sea is directed".

Alaska does not border any U.S. state; it abuts the Yukon and British Columbia, Canada, to the east, the Gulf of Alaska and the Pacific Ocean to the south, the Bering Sea, Bering Strait, and Chukchi Sea to the west, and the Beaufort Sea and the Arctic Ocean to the north.

Alaska has the largest land area of any U.S. state at 570,380 square miles (1,477,277 km²) and is over twice as large as Texas, the next largest state.

This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia listing for "Alaska".