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Alaska

The spike is inscribed, "Presented to Col. Frederick Mears by the city of Anchorage in commemoration of the building of the Alaska Railroad 1915-1923."

The Alaska Railroad’s Golden Spike Hammered in by President Harding Will Return to Its Home State

The spike’s installation marked the completion of the Alaska Railroad in 1923. It’s spent most of the time since then in the hands of private owners

Togo and his owner, musher Leonhard Seppala, in 1927

Discover Alaska

This Heroic Dog Raced Across the Frozen Alaskan Wilderness to Deliver Life-Saving Medicine—but His Contributions Were Long Overlooked

Togo, not Balto, was the driving force behind the 1925 Serum Run to Nome, which found teams of mushers and sled dogs delivering antitoxin to children suffering from diphtheria

The Douglas C-54D Skymaster vanished during a routine transit flight from Anchorage to Great Falls, Montana, on January 26, 1950.

The Enduring Mystery of a Plane That Vanished in the Icy Canadian Wilderness With 44 People On Board

Seventy-five years ago, a Douglas C-54D Skymaster disappeared en route from Alaska to Montana. No trace of its crew and passengers, including a pregnant mother and her young son, has ever been found

Roadhouses, like the Talkeetna Roadhouse (shown here), are a testament to Alaska’s pioneer ancestors and an essential part of the state’s Northern heritage.

Discover Alaska

How Alaska’s Historic Roadhouses Are Standing the Test of Time

The multipurpose lodgings along trails and rivers capture the state’s pioneering culture and spirit

Matanuska Glacier north of Anchorage is one of the best spots for a more intense experience in the Alaskan wilderness.

Discover Alaska

Seven Ways to Explore Alaska’s Endangered Glacial World

With the state’s glaciers retreating at alarming rates, there is no time like now to trek, climb, paddle and fly to see them

President Dwight D. Eisenhower enthusiastically declares Alaska statehood on January 3, 1959.

On This Day in History

On This Day in 1959, Alaska—One of America’s Riskiest Investments—Became the 49th State in the Union

Before Alaska became an American state, Russia invaded and subjugated its people for fur trading

The giant Santa statue near the Santa Claus House in the town of North Pole, Alaska

Why Is Santa From the North Pole? Here’s How the Legend Originated and Why Different Towns Lay Claim to It

Santa Claus is usually good news for tourism—and locales all over the world embrace their proximity to the Christmas figure

François Lanoë, an archaeologist at the University of Arizona, helped discover an 8,100-year-old canine jawbone in Alaska in 2023.

Humans Fed Salmon to Canines 12,000 Years Ago, Study Suggests, Hinting at the Origin of Our Relationship With Dogs

New research indicates early humans and canines were interacting in the Americas 2,000 years earlier than previously thought

Polar bears are spending more time on land as sea ice shrinks.

Polar Bears Are Exposed to More Parasites, Viruses and Bacteria as the Arctic Heats Up

Pathogens are more common in polar bears living in the Chukchi Sea now than they were three decades ago, a new study suggests—but it’s not yet clear what that means for the mammals’ health

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The Enterprising Woman Who Built—and Lost, and Rebuilt—a Booming Empire During the Klondike Gold Rush

With flinty perseverance and a golden touch, Belinda Mulrooney earned an unlikely fortune in the frozen north and reshaped the Canadian frontier

Grazer (128) is a back-to-back champion of Fat Bear Week—and the first working mother to win the popular online contest.

‘Highly Defensive’ Mother Bear Grazer Defeats Male That Killed Her Cub to Win Fat Bear Week

For the second year in a row, Grazer bested the massive male named Chunk to take the crown in the single elimination online popularity contest at Katmai National Park and Preserve

480 Otis, a beloved brown bear made popular by the Explore.org bear cams of Alaska’s Katmai National Park and Preserve, hunts for salmon at a popular bear fishing spot known as “the jacuzzi” on July 20, 2014.

The Chonky Superstar of Fat Bear Week Is Missing, and the Competition Won’t Be the Same Without Him

While other bears battled over fish in a prime spot, Otis would sit off to the side and wait for the fish to come to him. But so far this year, he hasn’t been spotted in Katmai National Park and Preserve

Intense flooding continued on August 7, after the sudden draining of a glacial lake near the Mendenhall River in Juneau, Alaska.

When a Glacial Dam Burst, an Alaskan Town Was Hit With a Sudden Flood

From Alaska to Peru and the Himalayas, glacial lakes are suddenly breaking free and causing deaths and millions of dollars in damages

Video footage captured by a remotely operated underwater vehicle shows the cable winch of the S.S. Dellwood, a 3,500-ton U.S. Army vessel that had been installing communication lines when it collided with a submerged rock pinnacle.

Discover Alaska

Unraveling the Mysteries of the Battle of Attu, the ‘Forgotten Battle’ of World War II

Underwater archaeologists discovered three shipwrecks submerged near the small Alaskan island, which was the site of one of the deadliest conflicts in the Pacific

Gilkey Trench in the Juneau Icefield

Alaska’s Juneau Icefield Is Melting at an ‘Incredibly Worrying’ 50,000 Gallons per Second, Researchers Find

Between 2010 and 2020, the icefield lost 1.4 cubic miles of ice each year, according to a new study

An orange tributary of the Kugororuk River.

Alaska’s Rivers Are Turning Orange as Thawing Permafrost Releases Metals Into Waterways

A new study identifies at least 75 Arctic streams where minerals, especially iron, are staining water with a rusty hue

About 75 percent of Americans are expected to travel by car this summer. Taking the scenic route along such roadways as Highway 101, seen above in Del Mar, California, can make the trip even more worthwhile.

Seven of the Most Beautiful Roads in the United States

From Alaska to Florida, these serene and exhilarating stretches beg you to take the scenic route

Male belugas were more likely than females to change the shape of their melons, or foreheads.

Belugas May Communicate by Changing the Shape of Their Squishy Foreheads

Scientists documented five different melon shapes among the marine mammals living in captivity: push, flat, lift, shake and press

The earthquake on March 27, 1964, dropped Anchorage’s Fourth Avenue and some cars on it roughly 20 feet below normal.

How the Great Alaska Earthquake Shook Up Science

Sixty years ago, the largest earthquake in U.S. history shocked geologists. It’s still driving scientific discoveries today

Tens of millions of people watched Monday's total solar eclipse.

When Are the Next Solar Eclipses? 2026 Promises Totality in Europe, While Much of America Has a Decades-Long Wait

The next total solar eclipse visible from the contiguous U.S. won’t take place until August 23, 2044—but eclipse chasers will have other opportunities to experience totality before that

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