50 Fun Facts About Anchorage

About two in five Alaskans live in Anchorage; which far smaller city is the state capital?

Juneau. It has about a ninth of Anchorage's population, which is why Alaskans voted in the 1970s to build a new capital nearer the big city, then refused to pay for it.

About how many people lived in Anchorage at the 2020 census?

About 290,000. The count of 291,247 was slightly below 2010's after decades of growth, and estimates in the years after ran a few thousand lower.

Anchorage sits at the head of which body of water?

Cook Inlet. Its tidal range is so large that the incoming tide can arrive as a wall of water up to six feet high, which a few local surfers ride for miles.

Which arm of water lies to the north of Anchorage?

Knik Arm. A glacier of the same name feeds it, and the city's port sits on its shore, so nearly every container ship bound for Anchorage sails up it.

Anchorage began in 1915 as a tent city beside which waterway?

Ship Creek. King and silver salmon still run up it past the industrial yards each summer, so anglers cast for them within sight of downtown offices.

Construction of what triggered the founding of Anchorage?

The Alaska Railroad. Congress funded the line in 1914, and within a year the builders had moved their headquarters from Seward to a camp of tents that became the city.

Which summit above Anchorage is widely regarded as the most-climbed in Alaska?

Flattop Mountain. Its trailhead is half an hour from downtown, so thousands make the steep three-mile outing, which ends in a hands-on scramble.

The Municipality of Anchorage covers roughly 1,960 square miles, almost the size of which state?

Delaware. A 1975 merger of the city with its surrounding borough stretched the limits south to Portage Glacier, so most of 'Anchorage' is mountain and forest.

Anchorage is almost equidistant from New York, Tokyo and which Russian city?

Murmansk. All three cities lie roughly 5,500 kilometres from Anchorage, and the shortest route to the Russian port passes almost directly over the North Pole.

Anchorage's international airport is named after which long-serving US senator from Alaska?

Ted Stevens. The legislature renamed the airport for him in 2000, though it was the scene of a 1978 crash that he survived and his wife did not.

Anchorage first won the All-America City Award in 1956, three years before which milestone?

Alaska's statehood. Anchorage won as a territorial town while its newspaper publisher led the statehood campaign, then won again in 1965, 1985 and 2002.

Mount Susitna, on the skyline across the water from Anchorage, is better known by which nickname?

The Sleeping Lady. From the city its long, low outline looks like a woman lying on her back, and a local legend says she is a giantess waiting for her beloved.

The sailing master on the 1778 voyage into Anchorage's waters later commanded which ship?

HMS Bounty. William Bligh was 23 when he navigated the Resolution through these waters, and eleven years later his own crew mutinied and set him adrift in the Pacific.

The 1778 expedition that named Turnagain Arm, near Anchorage, was hunting for what?

The Northwest Passage. The arm proved to be another dead end, so the ships had to turn again, and the captain put his disappointment on the chart as 'River Turnagain'.

Which Alaska Native people's traditional homeland includes the site of Anchorage?

Dena'ina Athabaskans. Their name for the place, Dgheyay Kaq', now appears on city trail signs, and the downtown convention centre is named after them.

In 1915 residents of the new town of Anchorage voted to rename it what?

Alaska City. It won the August vote over suggestions such as Terminal and Gateway, but the authorities never made the change and the post office's 'Anchorage' stuck.

Anchorage's 1964 Good Friday earthquake is the second most powerful ever recorded; which country had the strongest?

Chile. Its 1960 earthquake reached magnitude 9.5; Alaska's 9.2 lasted about four and a half minutes and sent whole tracts of Anchorage sliding into the sea.

How did Genie Chance steady Anchorage after the 1964 earthquake?

Radio broadcasts. From the public safety building she relayed official instructions and passed messages between separated families, staying on the air through the night and all the next day.

Why did dozens of Anchorage homes slide seaward in the 1964 earthquake?

Liquefied ground. Minutes of shaking turned the soil under the bluff to slurry, and the broken, rippled land it left is now preserved as Earthquake Park.

Oil discovered where in 1968 shifted Anchorage's economy?

Prudhoe Bay. The North Slope strike proved to be the largest oil field in North America, and the companies that pumped it ran their Alaska operations from Anchorage offices.

In 1976 Alaska voters approved building a new capital near which town?

Willow. The choice kept the capital out of Anchorage itself and set off a land rush in the tiny town, but voters later refused to pay for the move and it never happened.

Which ski town, once called Glacier City, lies inside Anchorage's municipal limits?

Girdwood. It began as a gold miners' supply camp, and most of the town moved up its valley after the 1964 earthquake wrecked the original site beside the water.

Anchorage lies farther north than Oslo, Stockholm and Helsinki, but south of which capital?

Reykjavik. At 61 degrees north Anchorage sits about a degree above Helsinki, far enough to bring some 22 hours of usable daylight at midsummer.

Which range forms Anchorage's eastern boundary?

Chugach Mountains. Almost half a million acres of the range form one of America's largest state parks, most of it inside the city limits and 20 minutes from downtown offices.

Why are tourists warned off Anchorage's mudflats?

Fine glacial silt traps walkers. The flats look firm at low tide but can hold a leg fast, and one of the biggest tides in North America soon comes back in over them.

Which large animal roams Anchorage in such numbers that drivers are warned to watch for it in winter?

Moose. Hundreds live inside the city all year, browsing in parks and backyard gardens, and more than a hundred are killed on its roads in a typical year.

Which marine mammals are often seen from the Seward Highway south of Anchorage?

Beluga whales. The white whales follow runs of salmon and hooligan up the arm in July and August, close enough to shore to watch from roadside turnouts.

What does local folklore say about fireweed going to seed?

Winter is six weeks away. The pink blooms open from the bottom of the stalk upward through late summer, so when the top ones turn to fluff, the saying goes, the season is spent.

Anchorage reached 90 degrees Fahrenheit for the first time on which holiday in 2019?

Independence Day. The reading beat the city's previous all-time high by five degrees, in a place where a normal July afternoon reaches about 66.

About how much snow fell on Anchorage in the record-breaking winter of 2011-12?

About 11 feet. The 134.5 inches nearly doubled the usual 75, yet three winters later the city set the opposite record with barely two feet.

Which volcano's 1992 eruption dusted Anchorage with ash?

Mount Spurr. An explosion at its Crater Peak vent, 78 miles away, dropped about an eighth of an inch of ash on the city that August and shut the airport for 20 hours.

As of 2025, Anchorage's airport ranked among the world's five busiest for which kind of traffic?

Air cargo. Freighters crossing between Asia and North America stop there to refuel, and both FedEx and UPS run hubs; in 2025 only Hong Kong and Shanghai moved more freight.

Container ships bring most of Anchorage's freight on a regular run from which West Coast port?

Tacoma. Two shipping lines make the run from Puget Sound several times a week, and the goods they land in Anchorage supply about 90 percent of Alaska's population.

Anchorage's port was renamed in 2024 for which late congressman?

Don Young. He represented Alaska in the House for 49 years and died in 2022 on a flight home; the Anchorage Assembly added his name to the port two years later.

Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson combined an Army post with a neighbouring base of which service?

Air Force. Elmendorf and the Army's Fort Richardson had been neighbours since the 1940s, and a 2005 base-closure review ordered them merged, which took effect in 2010.

Which oil company's Alaska headquarters is the tallest building in the state?

ConocoPhillips. Its 22-storey tower in downtown Anchorage has been Alaska's tallest since 1983, when it opened as the ARCO Tower at the height of the state's oil boom.

Alaska Airlines began in Anchorage but is now headquartered near which city?

Seattle. The airline started in 1932 as McGee Airways, flying between Anchorage and Bristol Bay; its head office is now in SeaTac, though it keeps major offices at Anchorage's airport.

Which common tax is absent in Anchorage?

Sales tax. Alaska collects none at state level and Anchorage adds none of its own, a gap the city's visitor bureau advertises as tax-free shopping.

Which event has its ceremonial start on Anchorage's Fourth Avenue each March?

Iditarod. The downtown run is for show: the teams are restarted the next day farther north, with roughly 1,000 miles of trail still between them and Nome.

What is the name of Anchorage's February winter carnival?

Fur Rendezvous. It grew out of the weeks when trappers and miners came into town with a winter's worth of furs, and now includes outhouse races and a Running of the Reindeer.

Which ECHL hockey team left Anchorage in 2017 to become the Maine Mariners?

Alaska Aces. They won three Kelly Cups in Anchorage, but a weak state economy and thinning crowds ended the team, and its franchise was sold to Portland, Maine.

What is the mascot name of the University of Alaska Anchorage teams?

Seawolves. The teams were the Sourdoughs until 1977, when a basketball coach tired of bread jokes renamed them after a sea creature of Tlingit legend.

Anchorage bid for both the 1992 and 1994 Winter Olympics; which city won the 1994 Games?

Lillehammer. Both had lost the 1992 vote to Albertville; in the next contest Anchorage ran second on the first ballot, then dropped out as the Norwegian town won.

The Great Alaska Shootout, hosted in Anchorage for 40 years, was a tournament in which sport?

College basketball. Powers such as Kentucky and North Carolina flew north each Thanksgiving from 1978, until rival events in warmer places lured the top teams away.

Who was the first Democratic presidential candidate to carry Anchorage since 1964?

Joe Biden. He won the city in 2020 even while losing Alaska as a whole, ending a Republican run there that dated from Lyndon Johnson's landslide.

Which Anchorage hospital is the largest in the state?

Providence Alaska Medical Center. In a state known for oil, the hospital's operator has often been ranked Alaska's largest private employer.

Anchorage's tap water comes mainly from which source?

Eklutna Lake. The glacier-fed reservoir also drives a hydroelectric plant, a double duty that left the river below it almost dry; its owners are now required to restore the flow.

What is the name of Anchorage's bus system?

People Mover. Elsewhere the term means a driverless shuttle train, but Anchorage's version is an ordinary network of city buses, on the road since July 1974.

What is Lake Hood, beside Anchorage's international airport?

A busy seaplane base. Floatplanes make as many as 600 takeoffs and landings there on a big day, and it is often called the busiest base of its kind in the world.

Which highway is the main road route from the Anchorage area north to Fairbanks?

Parks Highway. Although it passes Denali National Park, it is named for George Parks, a territorial governor, and Alaskans rarely use its official number, Route 3.