April 2024 April is birch syrup season in the boreal forest of Alaska’s interior. It’s a busy time for the Alaska-owned Kahiltna Birchworks, one of the world’s largest birch syrup makers. Company founders Michael and Dulce East started the business over 30 years ago from their remote homestead near Talkeetna, and in 2023 they sold [...]

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  Since 1969, the Oomingmak cooperative has been keeping Alaskans warm with qiviut hats, scarves, and other accessories that are handknit in remote Arctic villages. Qiviut is the famously soft underwool that muskox shed in spring. “It has a great insulating quality,” says Marie Texter, executive director of the cooperative. Speaking from co-op headquarters in [...]

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by Tim Lydon It’s been over twenty years, but Lauren Padawer still remembers the moment she fell in love with Copper River mud. While visiting Alaska for a rafting trip, her group stopped for lunch and a midday dip in the river’s cold-water eddies. She was mesmerized when her bare feet sank into the river’s soothing mud, which consists of fine silt that glaciers grind from the surrounding mountains.  “I left that trip wanting to know where that mud came [...]

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North America’s biggest cat is a rare sight here, but that might change  Austin Prine knows he saw a cougar run across the Elliott Highway about thirty miles north of Fairbanks last December. Prine, a long-haul trucker who was returning south from Prudhoe Bay, says the cat bounded across the snow-packed road and vanished over a guardrail. [...]

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Annie Alexander and Allen Hasselborg In 1907, Annie Montague Alexander, a naturalist, paleontologist and world traveler, was camped with a team of scientists on Admiralty Island in southeast Alaska. She was trying to make good on her dream of collecting specimens to create a museum of natural history on the west coast of America. Having [...]

The post The Scientist and the Bear Man appeared first on Alaska Magazine.

Looking for a new April adventure? Consider heading up toward Tahneta Pass on the Glenn Highway to join this year’s annual Gunsight Mountain hawk watch. The main event is April 19-20 and features talks by pro birders, hawk counts, and a potluck barbecue. Last year, says Mr. Whitekeys of Anchorage Audubon, observers counted over 250 [...]

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Keeping Alaska’s Busiest Port Open Visit Anchorage’s Port of Alaska in summer and you might notice a barge-like boat slowly plying the waters of upper Cook Inlet. Colored red and white, reminiscent of a candy cane, it has a boxy cabin on one end and a tugboat lashed alongside it. Beefy red arms angle out [...]

The post The War on Mud appeared first on Alaska Magazine.

Sometimes you get lucky, and that winning photo practically takes itself. Other times you have to work for it, angling for the best composition or waiting for perfect lighting. Either way, photographers create art that captures the viewer’s eye. What we always look for when selecting finalists and then winning images from this contest is, [...]

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Outdoor Adventure & Academic Excellence in the PNW Sponsored by Annie Wright Schools For many, the Pacific Northwest is synonymous with adventure. Its rugged coastlines, snow-capped peaks, and dense forests have long called to those with a spirit of exploration. For students at Annie Wright Schools in Tacoma, Washington, this landscape isn’t just a backdrop [...]

The post Adrenaline & Personal Growth: The School You Always Wanted appeared first on Alaska Magazine.

Federal funding has long been crucial to Alaska’s economy, even before statehood. From the Alcan to the pipeline to our airports and beyond, it props up Alaska’s transportation and energy sectors, providing the infrastructure necessary to move people, fish, oil, and minerals. Federal programs have also long supported education, health care, research, and much more. In each case, a steady—and often overlooked—flow of federal dollars helps Alaskans afford the cost of life in the North.

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