Anchorage is a town born in boom that matured into a surprisingly cosmopolitan city without losing its wilderness roots.

It's a melting pot of cultures - Eskimos and Indians who first ventured into the area 6,000 years ago, Russians who came for fur, prospectors who searched for gold and adventurers who turned a city of tents into a major crossroads for the world.

It's a town of distinct looks and sounds that change with the seasonal flow. Huge migrations of birds fill the air with cackles in spring and fall, while in the mountains; skiers take advantage of one of the longest seasons in the world. Days are crisp and colorful, ideal for fishing or clamming or hiking.

Winter turns Anchorage into a snowy wonderland, perfect for skiing, snowmachining, dog mushing, ice skating, ice fishing or just soaking in a hot tub as the Northern Lights dance overhead. At night, the city comes alive with theatre, art, music, dance and sports.

As the days grow endless, Anchorage bursts into a medley of color, the streams fill with returning salmon, the hillsides beckon and Beluga whales flourish in the Cook Inlet.

Anchorage is home to more than 262,000 residents, two-fifths of the entire population of Alaska, and serves as the financial, communications and transportation hub for the state. Its residents are younger, more educated, more international than those found in cities of similar size, and with 18,000 Eskimo, Indian and Aleut inhabitants, Anchorage is the largest Native village in Alaska.

Anchorage sits in a bowl at the head of historic Cook Inlet, named for the famed British explorer who searched in vain for the Northwest Passage. The municipal boundaries encompass almost 2,000 square miles, about the same size as Delaware.

The city is located as far north as Helsinki, Finland, and as far west as Honolulu, Hawaii. In flight time, Anchorage is seven hours from Tokyo, eight hours from Paris, three hours from Seattle, 5.5 hours from Chicago and less than eight hours from New York City. Anchorage International Airport is served by 30 foreign and domestic air carriers with more than 150 flights each day.

Anchorage enjoys a moderate climate, comparable to the Coastal Northwest in the spring, summer and fall, and to Rocky Mountain resorts in the winter. Spring and summer days last more than 17 hours; winter and fall about 9.5. Anchorage receives about 15 inches of precipitation each year, mean seasonal snowfall 69 inches.

Anchorage is an easy city to move around, thanks to the original grid laid out by railroad engineers in 1915. Lettered streets run north-south and numbered avenues run east-west.

Anchorage has 300 restaurants that serve everything from gourmet to fast food to down-home cooking. Many restaurants feature Alaska seafood, including salmon, crab, halibut, shrimp, scallops, clams and oysters. The Runzheimer index ranks Anchorage food costs as similar to those charged in Atlanta, Las Vegas and Boston. Dress at most Anchorage restaurants is as formal or casual as you feel.

Anchorage has 13 main stages where entertainment ranges from classics to comics to concerts, along with 35 movie screens and dozens of watering holes. The centerpiece of Anchorage nightlife is the 170,000-square-foot Alaska Center for the Performing Arts, in the heart of downtown.

Anchorage has eight museums, including the Anchorage Museum of History and Art, which contains one of the world's most comprehensive collections of Alaskan and northern art, ranging from prehistoric to contemporary. The museum, at 121 W. 7th Avenue in downtown, presents more than 30 new exhibitions and shows each year. The museum has six permanent galleries, including the second floor Alaska Gallery which traces the evolution of Alaska's Natives and the exploration, settlement and development of modern Alaska. Museum also houses a gift shop, cafe and auditorium where Native dance troupes frequently perform during the summer. Hours are 9am - 6pm during the summer; 10am - 6pm Tuesday - Saturday; 1pm - 5pm Sunday during the rest of the year.

Anchorage's two universities sit next door to one another, joined by paths for bikers and skiers. Alaska Pacific University, 4101 University Drive, is rated as one of the nation's top liberal arts universities in the region. Its Atwood Center is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
The University of Alaska Anchorage, 3211 Providence Dr., has the largest campus and the biggest enrolment in the state university system. Art shows, drama and music performances are held throughout the year, as are sports competitions that feature the Seawolves, the university's team name.

HISTORY
Anchorage's roots date back to about 4,000 BC when descendants of the first people to cross the land bridge that connected Siberia to Alaska reached the area, establishing fishing and hunting camps. One expert believes that occupation of the Upper Inlet began by Athapascans, with Eskimos arriving about 1 B.C. and remaining through 1500 A.D. Eklutna, an Athabascan Indian village on the northeast corner of Anchorage, has been continually inhabited for 1,000 years. Point Woronzof, near the airport, was the site of a decisive battle between Pacific Eskimos and Tanaina Indians in approximately 1650 at which time the Tanaina established dominance of the Knik Arm area. The main settlement was called "Eydlughet" or "Ikluat," and used only in winter.

In the mid-1700's, Russian trappers and hunters arrived, followed in 1778 by Capt. James Cook on his third and final voyage. The discovery of gold at Crow Creek, just 40 miles south of downtown Anchorage, sparked a rush that lasted into the 20th century.

But it was coal, and later oil, that turned a sleepy settlement into a bustling town. Construction began in 1914 on a federal railroad from the port of Seward, 126 miles south of Anchorage, through the coal fields of Interior Alaska, to the gold claims near Fairbanks, 358 miles to the north. The midpoint construction headquarters was Anchorage, and by July of 1915, thousands of job seekers and opportunists had poured into the area, living in a tent city on the banks of Ship Creek near the edge of the present downtown.

That July produced the "Great Anchorage Lot Sale," a land auction that shaped the future of the city. Some 655 lots were sold for $148,000 or an average of $225 each. A month later, the town voted to call itself Alaska City, but the Federal government refused to change its name from Anchorage.

The first train from Seward steamed into Anchorage in 1918, but it would take five more years of construction before President Warren G. Harding arrived to drive the golden spike that signalled the completion of the line. The railroad remained in federal hands until 1985 when it was sold to the State of Alaska. Today the Alaska Railroad serves an important transportation link through what is called the Railbelt of Alaska. Passenger service is provided to Denali National Park, Fairbanks, Seward and the community of Whittier. (Call 907-265-2494 for information). The railroad connects into the state ferry system at Seward and Whittier.

World War II brought a period of unprecedented growth to the Anchorage area. When the Japanese invaded American soil in the Aleutian Islands, Anchorage became so strategically important that the military built a large Army post called Ft. Richardson and an air field that became Elmendorf Air Force Base. To link these military installations with the rest of the nation, the Alaska Highway was pushed through in less than nine months, an engineering feat that ranks as one of this century's greatest.

Anchorage entered the war years with a population of 7,724 and emerged with 43,314. The military remains an important part of life in Anchorage, creating about 16,000 jobs. Today Richardson is headquarters for U.S. Army Alaska and Elmendorf houses F-15s. Both installations have interesting wildlife museums and 18-hole golf courses open to the public. Visitors can take a self-guided tour of Richardson and visit the fish hatchery, national cemetery, museum and golf course. Ask for pass at the gatehouse. On Good Friday, 1964, a massive earthquake measuring 9.2 on the Richter Scale ripped through Southcentral Alaska. It was the largest tremor ever recorded in North America, releasing 80 times the energy of the historic San Francisco quake of 1906. The massive shock and seismic waves killed 131 people in Alaska and the upper Pacific coast. Thousands of people lost their homes and businesses as entire blocks crumbled and a subdivision fell into the sea. Residents rebounded in record time, and within a year, Anchorage's first high-rise hotel started reshaping the skyline. The story of the Good Friday earthquake is recounted in interpretative displays at Earthquake Park near the airport.

Oil fuelled a modern-day boom with the discovery and development of the Prudhoe Bay oil field, the largest in North America. On June 20, 1977, Prudhoe Bay oil started flowing through the $8 billion trans-Alaska pipeline, and today, with the development of other North Slope oil fields, just under two million barrels a day flow south to the pipeline's terminus at Valdez.

Anchorage Travel