Alaska is a state of the United States (since January 3, 1959), located in the northwest corner of the American continent, with its capital in Juneau. It was the penultimate in joining the United States. It is surrounded by the Arctic and Pacific oceans, shares a border with Canada, and is separated from Russia by the Bering Strait.
Alaska is named after the Aleut word Alyeska or alaxsxaq, meaning "great land" or, more literally, "the object against which the action of the sea is directed."
The United States tried in the early decades of the twentieth century to improve communications (especially to connect Alaska with the rest of the United States by rail), and to promote settlement of the Matanuska Valley. However, World War II naval