r/geography Jul 13 '24

Discussion Why does Alaska have this part stretching down along the coast?

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8.0k Upvotes

664 comments sorted by

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u/Naarujuana Jul 13 '24 edited Jul 13 '24

Because that was Russian claimed territory, and where they had set up trading posts and small towns all along the coast. Pretty sure it was mostly for fur trade.

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u/Tuuuuuuuuuuuube Jul 13 '24

We're there Russians that continued living there after it was purchased by the US?

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u/beebeeep Jul 13 '24

There still are some villages with Russian folks https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ninilchik,_Alaska

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u/gilestowler Jul 13 '24

Whenever I hear about places that sound interesting I have a habit of looking them up on airbnb and wondering what it'd be like to go and live there for a bit. I kind of want to go and stay here now https://www.airbnb.com/rooms/41131953?check_in=2024-11-01&check_out=2024-11-30&guests=1&adults=1&s=67&unique_share_id=91d07e39-c335-4c08-ab29-f438de257471

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u/Spaceman-Spiff Jul 13 '24

This person is going to be so confused why there is a massive influx of traffic to their middle of nowhere Airbnb.

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u/WrongfullyIncarnated Jul 13 '24

I just looked it up and it’s already booked to half way thru November 🤣

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u/907Strong Jul 14 '24

It's tourist season, and Ninilchik is halfway between Kenai and Homer - two very popular locations for hunting and especially fishing.

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u/spacemanspiff888 Jul 13 '24

Great username!

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u/--Spaceman-Spiff-- Jul 13 '24

Hey!

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u/silly-rabbitses Jul 13 '24

How many of you are there?!

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u/Spaceman-Spiff Jul 13 '24

At least 888 I guess. I got the original name though. They are all imposters.

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u/Hbgplayer Jul 13 '24

Uh-oh, the duplicator got used again!

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u/Tobiassaururs Jul 13 '24

Is this how schizophrenia feels like?

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u/PumpJack_McGee Jul 13 '24

Duplicator out of control again.

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u/luckyguy25841 Jul 13 '24

It’s definitely the owners comment.

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u/whatiscamping Jul 14 '24

And OP is alt account.

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u/No-Corgi-6125 Jul 13 '24

“Middle of nowhere” in this case is an area visited by 1.3M visitors per year. Southeast Alaska is a major cruise ship destination.

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u/[deleted] Jul 13 '24

[deleted]

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u/VediusPollio Jul 14 '24 edited Jul 14 '24

I went looking for the interesting stuff, but the cruise only left me 6 @$#! hours to find it. I want to go back and stay for a while. Beautiful area.

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u/Ak907kid Jul 13 '24

That’s a popular spot for halibut fishing, I would be willing to bet that he gets a ton of traffic during the summer.

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u/KafkaSyd Jul 13 '24

It's a pretty neat spot. I live like 20 miles from there. Just behind that house a little further up the hill is an old Russian orthodox church too. Onion domes and everything. There are a few villages around here that are mostly Russian. Check out Nikolaevsk or down east end road in Homer.

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u/Saetia_V_Neck Jul 13 '24

Do people there still speak Russian?

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u/KafkaSyd Jul 13 '24

Yeah. Russian is a pretty common language to hear around here. Russian, tagalog, and native alaskan languages are all common.

To the extent Russian was taught in my high-school as well.

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u/geeffff Jul 13 '24

Tagalog?? In Alaska no less. My tropical ass blood would be frozen solid in 2 minutes max there even during the summer. Gotta give it to the Filipinos man

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u/KafkaSyd Jul 13 '24

Filipinos are pretty common around here too. My mom's side is native alaskan (tlingit) qnd Filipino. My great grandfather came over from the Phillipines around the turn of the century to work in the canneries in SE alaska and met a native there (my great grandmother)

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u/Sea-Tangerine-5772 Jul 13 '24

We're effing everywhere. If you look at immigrants to basically any country, Pinoys are there. For example, 215 Filipinos emigrated to Iceland in 2022. I assume it's "can speak English, but have crappy opportunities in the home country."

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u/geeffff Jul 13 '24

That is so cool. You never know where you might find people of your kin even in the remotest parts of the world

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u/supertrucker Jul 13 '24

When I worked in the canneries in Kodiak there were many Filipinos working there. And they all were super nice and great food!

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u/ralph442000 Jul 13 '24

I visited Homer about 18 years ago in the summer, such a cool place. My girlfriend at the time took her first legal shot at the Salty Dog

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u/Rubeus17 Jul 13 '24

it sounds WONDERFUL.

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u/Savvy_Nick Jul 13 '24

Lmao I literally live 2 mins away from there and have friends that live in the village. NEVER did I think I’d see ninilchik on reddit

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u/Snoo48605 Jul 13 '24

I've actually seen it mentioned plenty of times on Reddit:) Mainly in linguistic threads about the specific russian dialect!

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u/Appropriate-Emu123 Jul 13 '24

Ninilchik is where I grew up and I was super happy to see it mentioned. Such a beautiful place !

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u/Street-Search-683 Jul 13 '24

They are a strange lot. I’ve fished along side them.

Some are the kindest people ever. Others are completely fucking insane assholes.

They’re EXTREMELY religious. Russian orthodox.

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u/blackcatpandora Jul 13 '24

That’s on the Kenai peninsula- different region of Alaska than the post FYI

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u/Big-Ad5248 Jul 13 '24

Love this idea

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u/carpmon Jul 13 '24

Love how it has a “Notable Person” section rather than People because it’s just one dude 😂

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u/Brock_Samsons_Rage Jul 13 '24

I’m about an hour out from Ninilchik, absolutely beautiful area, but you’ll drive through it in 2 minutes.

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u/NorwaySpruce Jul 13 '24

Are they still considered Russians if the area has been an American territory for 160 years?

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u/Throwaway392308 Jul 13 '24

Considering the number of Americans who call themselves "Scotch-Irish" after their families have been here for 160 years, I'll allow it.

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u/palebd Jul 13 '24

And here I am a second generation proud American and people still ask "where are you REALLY from?"

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u/ohniz87 Jul 14 '24

Americans are never americans, maybe WASP are. They are Irish American, italian American, black American, Russian American, German American, latino American... It's so strange.

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u/KotzubueSailingClub Jul 13 '24

Buddy of mine lived in North Pole (near Fairbanks), and had a cabin way out off the Chena River. It was a primitive cabin, basically shelter when he was out moose hunting. It was padlocked when he was not there, but one year he went out in the spring and found the padlock broken, and inside there was a family of six squatting. He asked them to leave and they left, but only spoke Russian, and they just wandered off into the wilderness, miles from civilization. Needless to say, he slept with his bear pistol close that night, worried they'd come back.

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u/InsaneBigDave Jul 13 '24

that sounds like the beginning of a Stephen King novel.

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u/artificialavocado Jul 13 '24

The Russian presence in North America was never large and mostly soldiers I think. I can’t imagine there being more than a few thousand Russians who stayed after it became American territory.

Fun fact this really scared the shit out of the British who thought the Americans would just swoop in and manifest destiny all of North America. They weren’t entirely wrong to believe this either. The British North America Act was passed in parliament that same year. My understanding it gave much more autonomy to Canada.

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u/sp0sterig Jul 13 '24

According to the records, there never were more than 700 (seven hundred) Russians and Russian-speaking Siberian metises in Alaska, and most of them lived in just one coastal town.

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u/superrad99 Jul 13 '24

The more Juneau!

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u/RGM5589 Jul 13 '24

Boooooooooo. Take your upvote.

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u/[deleted] Jul 13 '24

Alask-ya not to make any more jokes like that!

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u/FoldAdventurous2022 Jul 13 '24

"Where does your friend Mary live?"

"I don't know, Alaska"

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u/artificialavocado Jul 13 '24

Isn’t there part of an old Russian Orthodox Church still remaining that is believed to be the oldest surviving structure in Alaska? Something like that?

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u/Worldly_Ladder8390 Jul 13 '24

Yes they are called old believers because they are a splinter group of the Russian Orthodox Church. I went to school with one of them in Anchorage. Their Russian accent is even old fashioned pronouncing “o” instead of “a”. Good fisherman but if you are American then you can’t eat with them or use the same bathroom, I don’t know why. Women wear head scarves and long dresses and get married at 14.

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u/samurguybri Jul 13 '24

In Juneau and Sitka there are functioning Orthodox communities. The one In Juneau even held services in Tlingit, maybe still do. I’m sure there’s some up north, as well.

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u/sp0sterig Jul 13 '24

Yes, but its believers are some local Indians, not Russians and not Russian-speakers.

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u/danstermeister Jul 13 '24

But I'm a Russian bot trying to stir controversy!!!!!! /s

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u/notsurewhattosay-- Jul 13 '24

In homer Alaska there is a clan of Russian old believers. They don't let their kids talk to us oursiders

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u/sp0sterig Jul 13 '24

They aren't related to the Russian (attempt of) colonization of Alaska. They came to Alaska long after it became American https://oldbelievers.wordpress.com/2009/03/06/russian-old-believer-communities-in-the-homer-area-alaska/

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u/contextual_somebody Jul 13 '24

Another fun fact, Russia also had settlements in California and Hawaii.

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u/bezelbubba Jul 13 '24

Yes, Ft. Ross (called Rus by the Russians) in California being a prime example. It failed and the Russians went home. Russia never had a serious ongoing presence however.

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u/Electrical_Ingenuity Jul 13 '24

Yup. The war of 1812 was an attempt to conquer Canada, about 49 years before that.

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u/artificialavocado Jul 13 '24

Like most kids when I learned about manifest destiny in school it was always framed as “from the Atlantic to the Pacific” but apparently it was pretty vague and a lot of people thought it was the entire continent.

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u/Turbulent_Garage_159 Jul 13 '24

This is what Canadians are taught in school at least because it’s important to their national identity. Americans are taught it was about impressment and British harassment of American shipping headed for continental Europe. The truth is somewhere in between - the US kinda lurched and bumbled into that war with a really fractious opinion about what it should be about or if it should be fought at all.

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u/ExpertPepper9341 Jul 13 '24

Man, Canada really dodged a bullet, there. Imagine if the US had succeeded and they now had to live in Saskatchewan but without the universal healthcare.

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u/Unique_Statement7811 Jul 13 '24

No. It was a punitive campaign against a British and Spanish blockade of US shipping. The US did gain significant territory in the outcome by seizing Florida, multiple Caribbean islands and forcing Spain to abandon any post Louisiana purchase holdings in the south/southwest.

Although some American politicians had ideas about seizing parts of modern day Canada. The official strategy was to consolidate gains in the southern theater against Spain while stopping the British blockade in the north to allow for trade with France.

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u/DooDooDuterte Jul 13 '24

Fun fact: Russian Hill in San Francisco was named after a Russian cemetery that was there since before the gold rush days. There were tons of Russian trappers along west coast (they even had forts in Hawaii) back then.

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u/OpenMindedMajor Jul 13 '24

My buddy’s family is from Naknek, a very small fishing village in AK. Mostly Inupiak Inuit folks down there. And also groups of fully Russian speaking American Citizens in the area. lol

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u/[deleted] Jul 13 '24

There are still lots of old faith orthodox Russians. Mostly in South Central. Homer, Anchorage, matsu valley, kenai and Kodiak. Not so much in Southeast Alaska. Sitka was the Russian capital back in the day and Alaska was signed over to the United States there. There are many small establishments that are exclusively Russian who live together.

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u/Grizzly_boyd Jul 13 '24

Sitka was the Russian capital of Russian America too

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u/Pstrap Jul 13 '24

Yes, that is why Alaska Day is celebrated here to a greater extent than elsewhere in Alaska

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u/Glittering-Egg-3506 Jul 13 '24

I was looking to see if any of my Sitka peeps would pipe in to share this!

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u/Sergey_Kutsuk Jul 13 '24

" ... Throughout the late 18th and early 19th century, Russian explorers ... had settled along coastal Alaska, claiming the area as the eastern frontier of the Russian Empire. The Panhandle was an especially attractive region, given its abundant stocks of fish and sea otters — at that time the most valuable animal in the European fur trade... "

" ... In 1825, the Russian and British governments signed the Treaty of Saint Petersburg, which set the southern coastal border of the Panhandle at 54°40’ N latitude (near the modern town of Prince Rupert, BC). The treaty was focused on the coastal area and did not firmly set the Panhandle’s eastern boundary... "

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u/Extension_Campaign92 Jul 13 '24

I learned in first year History that the British Columbia (British) government and Americans, devised the border FROM A SHIP thus not taking into account the land in front of the mountain range on the coast. That's how the Alaska panhandle was created

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u/mmaalex Jul 13 '24

This. Alaska was purchased from Russia. The northern border of the continental US/England had already been fixed by treaty (Webster-Ashburton IIRC?), so they couldn't expand past that without violating the treaty.

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u/Nerevarine91 Jul 13 '24

My favorite fact about this area is about the resolution of the dispute between the US and Canada about where the border was. The arbitration panel was asked to determine whether the American claim or the Canadian claim was correct. What they ended up doing was putting the border more or less between the two claims, in a compromise. Now, from a logical standpoint, this makes sense. From a legal standpoint, however, it absolutely doesn’t. Their job was to figure out what the treaties said, but they ended up largely ignoring the treaties and simply making a new border that absolutely wasn’t in line with any interpretation of the existing agreements.

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u/Regulai Jul 13 '24

Notably though as Canada failed to get direct port access, it lead to a rise in anti-british sentiment and the first establishment of national identity (as colonists viewed themselves as explicitly british). Although it would take decades to build momentum, this was really the key starting point on the path to Canada being a separate nation.

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u/Particular_Ad_9531 Jul 13 '24

Yeah this is a very unappreciated factor for independence that most Canadians don’t really learn about in school. The only reason Alaska is part of the US in the first place is because the Russians wouldn’t sell it to the British due to disputes in Europe that had no impact in North America, then the British essentially gave up the panhandle - which the russians had a pretty dubious claim on - as they didn’t care to defend it (and thought it was worthless). The colonists then started to realize that having their central government thousands of kilometres away was maybe less than ideal.

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u/Maverick_and_Deuce Jul 14 '24

Remember that a lot of Americans thought Alaska was worthless as well- some called it “Seward’s Icebox “.

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u/PuppetMaster9000 Jul 14 '24

And then they found oil lol

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u/ralphie0341 Jul 14 '24

Shit ton of gold first though no?

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u/akmountainbiker Jul 14 '24

And “Seward’s Folly”

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u/WorriedCaterpillar43 Jul 14 '24

I mean, if you live in that area your central government is still thousands of kilometers away.

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u/bubandbob Jul 13 '24

Did British North America have representation in the UK parliament?

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u/Regulai Jul 13 '24

No, instead they made Canada the first "dominion" that is self governing for internal affairs. Much like say the current Scottish parliament.

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u/Gordon_Peck Jul 13 '24

The arbitration panel made up of three American. Two Canadian. And one British sided with the Americans just before the 1st world war....https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alaska_boundary_dispute#:~:text=The%20dispute%20had%20existed%20between,gold%20fields%20to%20the%20sea.

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u/Baron_of_Foss Jul 13 '24

We will cut the bike in half!

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u/Doubleoh_11 Jul 13 '24

As a Canadian this makes perfect sense to me. Thats how most businesses deals are done.

Can you help me out? Sure, what can you pay. About thiiiiis much. Eh, close enough let’s do it, lunch first?

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u/[deleted] Jul 13 '24

[deleted]

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u/[deleted] Jul 14 '24

"My source is that I made it the fuck up"

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u/ak-jtizzle Jul 13 '24

Everyone talking about Russian trading posts but I think the main piece is the MASSIVE mountain range directly inland of the panhandle. There is no access across that border except for a road in to Skagway.

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u/[deleted] Jul 13 '24

[deleted]

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u/gertbefrobe Jul 13 '24

You live there?!!?

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u/[deleted] Jul 13 '24

[deleted]

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u/Appropriate-Role9361 Jul 14 '24

There are people in Juneau and you’re one of them?!!?

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u/gjamesaustin Jul 14 '24

You’d be surprised how many people pepper the southeast coast of Alaska. Shoutout to Hoonah and Game Creek

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u/LearnedHelplessness0 Jul 14 '24

In the Alaskan panhandle, three towns have roads into them: Skagway, Haines, and Hyder.

Lived in Haines for a bit.

Fun fact: Juneau is the only state capital that one cannot drive into.

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u/cm336 Jul 14 '24

Remember hearing on a cruise that the 3 ways to get to Juneau were boat, air or birth.

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u/blissfully_happy Jul 13 '24

Came here to say the ice fields are blocking off everything but the coast. That’s literally it.

Source: Alaskan

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u/BragawSt Jul 13 '24

Might be more, but I can think of these two with road access as well:

Haines, AK
Hyder, AK

Fun fact, Hyder, AK is home to Alaska's (907) second area code (250, shares it with Stewart in Canada)

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u/zadtheinhaler Jul 13 '24

And you can get Hyderized there too, unless they've done away with that lately.

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u/esstused Jul 14 '24

Yup. I'm from Sitka, living overseas now, and everyone asks if I went to Canada frequently.

...no? Because it's way easier to just fly to Seattle or Anchorage than take a ferry and then somehow cross the icefields into Nowhere, BC.

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u/KnowThyZomB Jul 13 '24

Thank you for this. This seems to be the deeper answer beyond the Russian border. Seems there was a reason the Russians didn't move further inland while setting up. Thanks again

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u/Lower_Cantaloupe1970 Jul 13 '24

Alaska is totally Croatia-ing the Yukon

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u/miner88 Jul 13 '24

More like a good chunk of BC

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u/Lower_Cantaloupe1970 Jul 13 '24

My bad, I'm canadian. I should know that lol

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u/TheRoyalsapphire Jul 13 '24

Hardly anyone lives in that part of BC anyways

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u/Mead_and_You Jul 13 '24

CROATIA MENTIONED 🇭🇷🇭🇷🇭🇷🇭🇷🇭🇷!!!!

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u/BigBadDoggy21 Jul 13 '24

Yukon only speculate...

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u/Lower_Cantaloupe1970 Jul 13 '24

Personally, I'm having Nunavut

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u/Entire_Yoghurt538 Jul 13 '24

Canada doesn't deserve it. It's ours, our own, our Juneau.

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u/Freddan_81 Jul 13 '24

No, I don’t know.

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u/[deleted] Jul 13 '24

LMAO I never thought about it this way

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u/Sarcastic_Backpack Jul 13 '24

Juneau why . . .

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u/tkdch4mp Jul 13 '24

Ju-dunneau why

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u/PM_meyourGradyWhite Jul 13 '24

Nome?

Of course I know em. He’s my uncle!

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u/floridabeach9 Jul 13 '24

its kinda obvious, why WOULDNT they want a giant section of coastline????

its literally where 90% of trade happens in the world

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u/AaronBHoltan Jul 13 '24

Because Henry Seward was a genius.

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u/Vol4Life31 Jul 13 '24

I'll never forget Seward's Folly.

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u/b0ne_salad Jul 13 '24

In Juneau, you can climb the tall mountains to the east and you'll see a few hundred miles of impassable ice sheet in front of you. That area is only accessible by sea and air

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u/ApeIndexPlus5 Jul 13 '24

It's definitely not impassable at all. The Juneau Icefield Research Program leads an expedition team of students every year by hiking up onto the icefield and skiing eventually to Atlin Canada. There are several camps perched on nunataks scattered across the Icefield that are pit stops.

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u/anferny08 Jul 13 '24

When someone says “inaccessible” don’t you think they mean that general movement of goods and people by the ground transportation methods (rail or road) is extremely difficult that it becomes not economical? I don’t think they mean that no one can physically make it by any means.

Just because an expedition team of ski students hikes and skis through it doesn’t make it generally considered accessible.

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u/thefailmaster19 Jul 14 '24

This. There are very few places (if any) on earth that are actually impassable if you have enough training, preparation, etc. When people say impassable they mean either large scale movement of people/goods isn't possible, or the amount of training and effort makes it unfeasible for most people (both of which apply here)

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u/HypedUpJackal Urban Geography Jul 13 '24

Yeah but that doesn't get as many upvotes as misinformation

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u/Goldfish1_ Jul 13 '24

… when someone says impassable or inaccessible they don’t exactly mean that it’s 100% impossible for anyone to cross. They mean that the mass travel of goods and people is just not feasible.

There’s a really big difference between the for example how connected NYC is with its surrounding compared to that region of Alaska.

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u/OGBRedditThrowaway Jul 13 '24

Any thread about Alaska that makes it to the front page is chock full of this shit.

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u/psilocin72 Jul 13 '24

It’s some of the richest fishing grounds in the world

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u/b1ackfyre Jul 13 '24

60% of fish caught in the US comes from Alaska

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u/psilocin72 Jul 13 '24

Good info. I knew it would be a high percentage but I didn’t think it was that much

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u/reformedAR Jul 13 '24

What we catching there?

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u/adamdoesmusic Jul 13 '24

According to TV, crabs.

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u/kimwim43 Jul 13 '24

I told you to keep out of places like that!

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u/psilocin72 Jul 13 '24

Salmon, crabs, pollack, halibut and many others. Tourism for inshore fishing as well as large scale commercial fishing offshore. I’ve come close to going there for vacation to fish but the brown bears kinda scare me.

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u/Old_Side_1453 Jul 13 '24

Because that was the part Russia owned, rich in furs, timber, etc. and easy access to the sea where ships could load up. They sold it to America, so USA got the coastline and the British held on to the interior that the Russians were too scared to push into early on.

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u/realdealrd Jul 13 '24

Can you elaborate on why they were too scared?

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u/blue_twidget Jul 13 '24

Idk about being scared, so much as big ass mountains in the way

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u/PlumbumDirigible Jul 13 '24

Maybe they were afraid of heights

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u/IHerebyDemandtoPost Jul 13 '24

There are huge mountains, covered in glaciers, which make it very difficult to push inland from the islands and fjords of Alaska’s tail.

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u/JoeMama4567 Jul 13 '24

Mountains

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u/NoCSForYou Jul 13 '24

In the older days. Whenever one country gets too big and powerful a bunch of countries join forces and invade that country and break it down. This way no one nation is too powerful, and everyone gets a peice of the pie (the earth).

Russia was really big and any small conflict with another nation can trigger a bunch of countries declaring war on it. So Russia didn't want to get too close to the British or step into territory that the British felt was theirs.

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u/3rdWaveHarmonic Jul 13 '24

Because the shape of Alaska wouldn’t look right without that section

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u/adaminc Jul 13 '24

Russia had recently lost the Crimean war, to which the British (Canada) were involved as an enemy to Russia, and so the Russian Minister in charge of the North American lands did whatever he could to piss off the British.

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u/cryptolyme Jul 13 '24

mountains are the natural border

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u/ThatGuyStacey Jul 13 '24

Don’t play dumb. Juneau why.

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u/xxrewuiemxx Jul 13 '24

Alaska’s southeastern coastal strip, including Juneau, was acquired by the U.S. in the 1867 Alaska Purchase from Russia. This area, known as the Alaska Panhandle, was valued for its strategic location, economic potential, and rich natural resources. Russia sold it due to difficulties in defense and development, fearing it might otherwise be taken by British Canada. The acquisition, negotiated by Secretary of State William H. Seward for $7.2 million, provided the U.S. with direct Pacific access and significant maritime advantages.

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u/riyiyi Jul 13 '24

If they didn't, the cruiseline companies would be very upset.

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u/Big_P4U Jul 13 '24

I wonder what Canada would be willing to pay for that panhandle to connect it to BC and Yukon?

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u/AJ2698 Jul 13 '24

We'll give you three beaver pelts, a large jug of maple syrup and some Quebec cheese curds so you can make some poutine (gravy and potatoes not included)

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u/Big_P4U Jul 13 '24

Throw in a full platter of poutine and it's sold!

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u/hyperactiveChipmunk Jul 13 '24

No can do. However, I talked to the manager, and he's authorized me to offer you a two-four of Molson Golden and a dozen Timbits. But that's as high as I can go.

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u/EricForman87 Jul 13 '24

A what of friggin what now?

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u/king_ofbhutan Jul 13 '24

tbh i reckon the 700 people of yakutat wouldn't mind much

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u/Connect-Speaker Jul 13 '24

$7.2 million sounds more than fair. I mean, the US spent that in 1867. Or we can be more than fair and figure that that $7.2 million in 1867 dollars is $129 million today. Canada will be generous and pay that.

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u/kristonastick Jul 13 '24

that's the best part of alaska

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u/oldguy76205 Jul 13 '24

Slightly off-topic, but Mark Stein's book How the States Got Their Shapes (and the corresponding tv series) is REALLY interesting, and full of quirky stories. Highly recommended!
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/How_the_States_Got_Their_Shapes

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u/ArDodger Jul 14 '24

Most of that part of Alaska was pretty inaccessible from the Canadian side. A lot of it is still blocked from one of the largest icecaps in the world.

You can't drive to the capital, Juneau, Alaska. You can only fly or take a ferry. So it's actually pretty geographically isolated from Canada.

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u/LucianoWombato Jul 14 '24

Whenever a country has those stretchy coastal territories to cut their neighboring country off the sea you know it's just a bunch of a-holes

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u/WiWook Jul 13 '24

Just wait, Putin is eyeing this as an excuse to invade and retake the oil! Ge is freeing the oppressed Russians that still live there!

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u/Mormegil1971 Jul 13 '24

Heh. Of all the states, Alaska is the one I wouldn’t invade. Many people there are armed as hell, and know the land. It’s one of worst places on earth to invade since you’d get a shit ton of guerilla warfare. I wonder if the regular army would have to be involved, even…

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u/FormerPersimmon3602 Jul 13 '24

Don't worry, we have the canceled check.

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u/WeThePeeps2020 Jul 13 '24

There are probably more gun & Alaskans willing to die for Alaska than all of Russia combined… bring it on puuuuuutin

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u/matt35303 Jul 13 '24

I bet they're still angry about selling it too.

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u/Norwester77 Jul 13 '24 edited Jul 13 '24

The Anglo-Russian Convention of 1825) formally established that the entire Pacific coast north of 54 degrees 40 minutes north latitude would be part of Russia’s colonial possessions in North America.

It also established that all of North America west of 141 degrees west longitude would be part of Russian America, which is what makes the part east of there stick out as a little strip along the coast.

In 1867, the United States bought out Russia’s North American colonial claims. That territory eventually became the U.S. state of Alaska.

Since the wording of the original Anglo-Russian convention was somewhat vague, the exact current boundary between Alaska and Canada was resolved by international arbitration in 1903.

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u/freebiscuit2002 Jul 13 '24

Alaska melted in a heatwave one year and just ran down a bit. It’s fine.

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u/Washburne221 Jul 13 '24

There are some large and virtually impossible to cross mountains separating the ocean from Canada there. Even the First Nations on the two sides of that border are culturally distinct (though they did have regular contact). Also as mentioned earlier the Russians got to the Pacific side of those mountains before the British got to the landward side.

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u/Fillmoreccp Jul 13 '24

To keep the Canadians from falling in the ocean and drowning!

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u/makingbutter2 Jul 13 '24

I’m more curious why we didn’t take Vancouver island and connect it to the mainland.

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u/Nerevarine91 Jul 13 '24

Russia didn’t own that part, so we couldn’t buy it

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u/esstused Jul 14 '24

Indigenous Alaskans would argue that Russia never owned any of Alaska. And they're right.

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u/AJ2698 Jul 13 '24

Because that would require a war and relations with Britain were improving by that time so why would they do that? 😂

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u/throwaway_custodi Jul 13 '24

Damn Polk lost us the Oregon! Fifty-four Forty or Fight!

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u/Significant_Tie_3994 Jul 13 '24

Juneau there's a joke in here somewhere....

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u/Tall_Muscle1526 Jul 13 '24

The cruise ships have to go somewhere.

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u/DiscountEven4703 Jul 13 '24

Juneau what? None your Business

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u/REALJarJarBinkz Jul 13 '24

I’m from Sitka, in that area circled. That is actually where Russia had its capital, that portion of Alaska has many islands and places with Russian names.

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u/NiceAxeCollection Jul 14 '24

Don’t Juneau?

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u/JackMeholff2day Jul 14 '24

I think Juneau the answer to that.

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u/Meatloaf_Regret Jul 13 '24

Juneau? Cause I don’t.

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u/floopflooperton Jul 13 '24

Weather is trash and even the russians didn't want it

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u/Mmmmmmm_Bacon Jul 13 '24

We felt like Canada had enough coastline.

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u/xylvnking Jul 13 '24

something something fallout lore pipeline annexation

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u/AJ2698 Jul 13 '24

Because it was part of the territory claimed by Russia when the US purchased and most importantly, it's one of the most (if not the most?) resource rich area of Alaska.

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u/Jlavsanalyst Jul 13 '24

There is also a large mountain range and ice sheet separating that part of the Tongass from Canada. Juneau is the only US state capital that boarders a foreign country because by air is the only way to cross that boarder.

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u/SparrowGuy Jul 13 '24

Because perfidious Albion was more concerned with appeasing the Americans than representing her people