Nature Bulletin No. 549-A   January 11, 1975
Forest Preserve District of Cook County
George W. Dunne, President
Roland F. Eisenbeis, Supt. of Conservation

****:FROZEN ALASKA

Alaska, admitted to the Union in 1959 as our largest state, was 
purchased from Russia in 1867 for only $7,200,000. That huge 
peninsula has an area of 586,400 square miles -- more than twice the 
area of Texas and almost one-fifth of the whole United States. It is a 
treasure chest of vast wealth in gold, silver, copper, platinum and other 
important metals; of coal and petroleum; of fishes and furs; of forests, 
fertile soils and magnificent scenery. As our last frontier, it has become 
of vital strategic importance in our national defense.

Alaska was a rare bargain, obtained largely through the insistent efforts 
of William H. Seward, secretary of state, but most of its great natural 
resources were unknown then. The American people, opposed to the 
purchase, scornfully called it "Seward's Folly," "Walrussia," "Polaria," 
and "a giant icebox ".

In a way, it is an icebox. There are thousands of glaciers -- some of 
them immense -- in four great mountain ranges. More than a fourth of 
Alaska lies above the Arctic Circle which passes through Fort Yukon, 
only 1630 miles from the North Pole. Further, except for a relatively 
narrow fringe along the Pacific and Bering Sea coasts as far as the 
mouth of the mighty Yukon, the land is underlain with rock-hard 
permafrost.

Permafrost is the name given by geologists to permanently frozen 
ground, and it is responsible for some unique phenomena. Near its 
southern limit the depth is only a few feet, and each year enough of the 
upper portion thaws to permit tree growth and bountiful harvests of 
hardy crops. Above the Arctic Circle, where there is an enormous area 
of tundra -- bleak treeless plains known as the Barren Grounds -- 
permafrost extends two or three hundred feet below the surface, and 
only the topmost few inches ever thaw during the brief arctic summers.

At Nome, a gold mining town about 130 miles south of the Arctic 
Circle, the permafrost heaves and shifts during all seasons, and its 
surface becomes mushy or like quicksand in summer. A house may tilt 
one way and then the other but most of them are built on big skids that 
may be jacked up and kept level. Otherwise, walls cannot be plastered, 
doors won't close, and pipe lines break. On a slope they creep downhill. 
The federal building, although supported by piling driven deep into the 
frozen subsoil, has shifted so much that it must be replaced. Beneath 
Nome's new school, refrigerating pipes were installed to keep the 
permafrost from thawing.

The tundra, except for a few low mountains and a few shallow 
meandering streams, is a vast flat prairie spangled with innumerable 
lakes, ponds, marshes and muskeg bogs; because none of its small 
annual precipitation can seep into the permafrost. During nine months 
of the year, in addition to a few musk oxen, ptarmigan and snowshoe 
hares, there are innumerable lemmings, small rodents which furnish 
food for foxes, wolves and snowy owls. As the snow and ice melt, its 
carpet of lichens and mosses becomes visible. Then it comes alive with 
millions upon millions of birds, especially shorebirds and waterfowl. In 
June, it burgeons with green, and is gorgeously covered with plants that 
swiftly grow, bloom and make seed in the few weeks when there is 
warmth and no darkness. By late September the land again is white and 
desolate.