Yvonne  Dykstra, age 12, of Holt, Mich., or her question:

What is the geography of Alaska

Some of Andy friends are thinking of becoming Alaskans and chances are they will be very welcome. For the Big State has plenty of room for settlers. Others wish only to visit and a summer trip up there is well worth it. You will see glittering fjords and snow

Some of Andy’s friends are thinking of becoming Alaskans and chances are they will be very welcome. For the Big State has plenty of room for settlers. Others wish only to visit and a summer trip up there is well worth it. You will see glittering fjords and snow white glaciers, forested slopes and vast gardens of wild Arctic flowers.  If you go far enough north, inside the Arctic Circle, you will see the sun at midnight.

Alaska, of course, is a huge state, a fifth as big as all the other 49 states put together.  In such a vast area we would expect a great variation in geography, climate and weather conditions, Two fifths of the Big State lie inside the Arctic Circle and this is no place to settle and bring up a family. The northern region is cut off from the interior by the lofty Brook Range where the grim peaks are clothed with year round glaciers.

The interior region of Alaska is mostly rolling plateau with a few mountains and scattered forests. Most of the soil is tundra which never thaws more than a few inches deep. In the short summers, this region is covered with gardens of wild flowers and alive with nesting birds. There are a few sizeable towns and a number of Eskimo villages,

We might wish to visit, but few of us would wish to stay in the western peninsula and the long necklace of Aleutian Islands which reaches almost across to Asia. Many of these grim islands, washed by polar seas and lashed by Arctic gales, are active volcanoes.

Those of us who wish to settle in Alaska will no doubt choose the panhandle or the southern coast area. One third of the people of Alaska live in the panhandle, the narrow strip of land between Canada and the Pacific Ocean. This region is made hilly by the Coast Range.

Its climate is more gentle than that of Chicago because the Pacific shores are washed by the warm Japan Current. The ocean cuts deep fords into the shore and small fertile valleys nestle among the steep mountains. To the north of the panhandle, the lofty Elias Range bends westward into the south coast area. Here there are many mighty glaciers, one of them bigger than Rhode Island. The climate of the Coast Range, like that of the panhandle, is mild summer and sinter, Some distance from the coast, the great Alaska Range lifts aloft its ice crowned peaks. The tallest is Mount McKinley, 20,320 feet above sea level, the highest mountaim in North America. These mountain tend to shelter certain valleys and bumper crops are harvested every summer.