The 50 States: Alaska

We continue our tour of the 50 with Alaska!

The grandest state of them all was admitted to the union in 1959, but the US actually purchased the land in 1867 for 2 cents per acre. If you were to overlay a map of alaska over a map of the US, you would find that Alaska can actually reach from east coast to west coast. It's frickin big, jack! The land was mostly considered worthless until gold was found in 1880 by Joe Juneau. This kicked off a massive Gold Rush and accounts for the reason why anyone at all lives there today. Japan invaded the Aleutian Islands in 1943 which began the 1000 mile war. This state has given us such things as oil, seafood, eskimos, dog mushing, bears, Jack London, and also that really crap dog movie with Cuba Gooding Jr.

• Mountain Goats - Going to Alaska (live)
• The Softies - Alaska
• The Rebelaires ft. Sammy Smith - Alaska Rock
• Johnny Horton - North to Alaska
• Ted Hawkins - North to Alaska
• Johnny Cash - Springtime in Alaska