UNBOXING ALASKA: What It's Like Living in ALASKA

does everyone in alaska live in a cabin does everyone in alaska carry bear spray and is everybody in alaska kind of like you and me we're going to talk about that stuff and a whole lot more everyone so grab a smoked salmon bloody mary and unplug your cars we gotta skedaddle we're gonna unbox the state of alaska look at that fishing boat he's going to get a big ol haul here boy cod halibut crab and of course all the different types of salmon you can think of there's six species of salmon cotton alaskan waters and fishing is a 12.8 billion dollar industry in the state 5 billion pounds of fish are caught in alaska every year and alaska accounts for 60 percent of all commercial tree production in the usa so of course fishing is a big deal here i mean the state has more shoreline than all other 49 states combined and fish have been a big part of the alaskan culture since well alaska wasn't even alaska like when it was just all indigenous people living off the land has always been a fabric of life here in our 49th state but more on the importance of fish later to get a real understanding of the state we should kind of check out all the different areas and places to live here to see what it's really like in the last frontier this is alaska now at first glance you're going to see that just about everyone and everything of note is down in the lower part of the state that's because it's much warmer down there for one and it's closer to the water there are large parts of the state though where a human hasn't even stepped foot let's start up here in the far north now way up here is no man's land pal everything this far north is basically inside the arctic circle there's only one road up here connect in the rest of the state it's called the dalton highway or alaska route 11. sometimes you can drive on it sometimes you cannot it'll dump you out here at prudhoe bay on the north slope alaska's northern coast way up here it's just a few things that cater to the tourists that drive all the way up here and it's home to the nation's biggest oil field there's only a couple thousand people here and many are oil workers you can make a lot of money working in alaska's oil sector some people make three hundred ninety eight thousand and fifty dollars however these oil jobs are threatened because the planet's heating up and the change in climate and the rising sea water here is making it challenging to drill for oil so in a roundabout way oil is making it harder to get more oil this is barrow or now it's called oatkeovic they change the name there's four thousand people here sixty percent of them are alaskan natives and another big part of the population here are again energy workers pulling out natural gas most of the natives here survive eating fish walrus and whales from the arctic ocean it's dark here all year long now they get some sun in winter it's dark up here for 67 straight days but then in the summer it's light for 82 consecutive days some people light their fourth of july fireworks off in december now way over here is the little alaskan island of little diomede and right next to it is big diomede the big one's in russia so technically you can see russia from alaska but only from this one teeny little island where there's only about a hundred people on it and a school people they have a school on this little island now you get into trouble in class a little diameter school you know mama's gonna hear about it everything else up here in the far north of alaska is basically just teeny villages with a mostly native american population and no real roads into them you likely wouldn't move here unless you worked in the military or were a scientist or an energy worker or some sort of kooky adventurer lots of people up here native alaskans one such place with a lot of native alaskans is known there's about 4 000 people and an actual road coming to it now that brings up a good point about the type of people who live in alaska they aren't just a bunch of eskimos nor are they all rednecks and lumberjacks they're actually just like you and me sorta about 14 of the total population is native alaskan and this state has the highest percentage of native people than any other state there are a bunch of different indigenous communities in alaska but there's five main groups the elutes the northern eskimos the southern eskimos the interior indians and the southeast coastal indians however many of these communities are shrinking and in some only a few hundred people speak their community's native language anymore also worth noting is that there are far more men than women in alaska and many of the women here are either hockey moms or lumberjacks now we're going to move down over here to the interior part of alaska this too is very much uninhabited minus a handful of villages and fairbanks fairbanks has 30 000 people making it the second biggest city in this whole state outside of fairbanks anchorage and the capital juno no other place in alaska has more than 10 000 people fairbanks is home to the university of alaska at fairbanks which has 17 000 people so more than half the population here are college kids they have a really good basketball team jk their basketball team sucks fairbanks also has a lot of military people and seasonal workers and touristy type stuff some call it square banks because it's so boring but it's alaska what do you expect it's known for being a relatively poor place and one with high crime it's super cold here like the coldest city in the country cold where it's usually minus 17 every single day at winter's peak but that doesn't matter the kids look at this that's nothing one time here it was minus 80. for much of the year in alaska it's below freezing just about everywhere except the southern end of the state it's common for snow to fall anywhere between october and april in alaska but there's still five months here when it isn't snowing in some places in southern alaska it can even get up to 70 degrees everyone they're pretty good at layering up though you would be good at it too if you moved here and they plug in their cars so they stay warm at night actually they plug in a heater they didn't do that their engines would freeze the rest of the interior of alaska is really just wilderness or the bush as they call it it's really hard to understand how big alaska really is but this picture adds some frame of reference alaskans are pretty proud of how big their state is and they're quick to remind texans that their state is much smaller here's a map on display in alaska this just about sums up how much pride alaskans have in their state size there's only one person per square mile here did you know we actually bought alaska for seven million dollars from russia back in 1867. can you imagine all this land for seven million dollars i'm sure russia would like to have alaska back but you can't have it russia too bad so sad there's also a bunch of mountains in this part of the state alaska has 17 of this country's highest peaks and the mountain ranges are what kind of separate alaska's interior from the main population centers along the southern end of the state one such mountain is denali it used to be called mount mckinley but they changed it i don't know why they're changing all the names and stuff up here denali is 20 000 feet high making it the biggest mountain in north america and the third highest mountain in the world you wouldn't want to live there i don't know if you even could small town alaska life means a real sense of community and super authentic people except for the people that are stealing from one another and then you have the end of the rotors those are the people who came to escape and they just stayed because well they're at the end of the road they're pretty weird you probably don't want to hang out with them this is a traffic jam up here in alaska now you definitely need medevac insurance if you live way out in these parts and it seems like everybody up here has been featured on some sort of reality show about surviving in alaska but in reality their day-to-day life is sort of like yours just with longer commutes and way slower internet and you probably don't have bears in your front yard either but when you do go to the store you fill up your car the point that you can barely shut the door and due to the isolation and limited roads there's teeny little airstrips all over the place in fact it's a fact that one of every 100 alaskans is an active pilot can you imagine one out of 100 people flies a plane here for fun in alaska if you're not in a major city we're going to talk about soon it's going to be all outdoorsy stuff you know hiking hunting fishing mountain climbing skiing mountain biking boating windsurfing target shooting camping off-roading snow machining and northern light watching but you better come prepare to deal with the dangerous animal life up here polar bears regular bears wolves and moose they'll kill you and not even feel bad about it the mosquitoes can just about pick you up and carry you away but it's not just the animals that'll kill you the people will too alaska is the second most dangerous place of all states per capita with a violent crime rate that means you can't let your guard down this state has four times the number of rapes of any other state and has the fifth highest homicide rate of any other state that's just the ones they know about over here is the southwest part of alaska much of the far western side of the state is very similar to the interior lots of wide open spaces but here the bering sea plays a big part in the day-to-day life again it's a lot more native villages where they live off the land places like dillingham and bethel where you likely wouldn't fit in alcoholism drug abuse spousal abuse and suicide are sadly common in these remote western villages these communities continue to face huge challenges trying to adjust to the modern world the aleutian islands go way over here into the middle of the bering sea kind of making a barrier between the bering sea and the pacific ocean this is where they filmed deadliest catch it's a tv show it's really super pretty here but there's only about a half dozen places where people actually live there's about 6 000 people total in this whole area some villages have 50 people some have 500 people onalaska is the biggest place where there's about 4 500 people yes there's a place called onalaska if you're a teacher or a nurse you'd be welcomed here because they need those if you have a philosophy degree and you're looking for a job you'd be out of luck there's a pretty good chance for steady work you'd be canning or catching fish all day long and isolated for weeks and the cell phone reception spotty at best but there's plenty of work here in dutch harbor chopping up fish if that's your thing kodiak is also here it's also only accessible by planer boat are we seeing a pattern already there's a coast guard base here in kodiak it rains a lot there's 6 000 people here kind of spread out among different areas they actually have a walmart in kodiak so you'd never starve or be cold there's some entertainment in kodiak kind of like the same stuff you'd find in any small town in america but you'd very quickly find yourself doing the same things over and over again i mean how much bowling can you handle you can also assume you're going to run into the same people everywhere you go especially at the local bars but that's going to be the case for just about anywhere else in this state nobody will alaskans eat besides subsisting on chewing tobacco alaskans eat caribou whale moose halibut musk ox and salmon many people save hundreds a year on their food bills because of all the salmon they catch the blueberries are also a big deal here and due to the really long summers alaska gardens can yield huge vegetables like we're talking 35 pound broccoli and 138 pound cabbages but not everybody here eats fruits and vegetables and fish and moose a lot of people just eat a mcdonald's like anywhere else in america now right here is where all the people are in alaska people this is the south central part of the state anchorage proper has 300 000 people and that's like half the state's population but there's lots of other little areas down here too homer is here it's a quaint drinking village with a fishing problem valdez is here along the coast this is where all the oil flows and is shipped out of the state and where a lot of the groceries and toys are shipped into the state talkeetna is a little place with less than a thousand people they once had a cat from here the city of whittier here has 200 people and just about everybody lives in the same building okay so are we putting into perspective how small town alaska is and what it would be like living here i mean this guy was a celebrity in alaska for a long time because well there's just not a lot of people here get more sleep without counting sheep and have another night of bliss across from the bus barn in wasilla now is where we is save more bucks at the mattress ranch over here is called the matsu valley it's made up of places like palmer and wasilla and other smallish communities there's a lot of rednecky people up here who can get into anchorage in about an hour if they so choose many do not choose that of course sarah palin lived in this part of the state for a long time remember her she was governor of this fine state for about three years until she resigned in 2009 at the beginning everybody loved her now she's not very well remembered in this state most alaskans are some shade of libertarian-ish conservative the state always picks the republican running for president but for the most part most alaskans are just more about live and let live than they are hardcore bible thumpers you'd find the south if you're a liberal and you aren't all in their faces about it nobody's really going to care just leave people alone anchorage is clearly the biggest population center in this state it's a very mixed crowd it's estimated there's over 100 languages spoken at anchorage area schools 100 people can you imagine there's a lot of different people here from all over the world if you lead an alternative lifestyle this is where you'd feel most comfortable there's a lot of homeless people here many of them are mentally unstable and drug addicted natives who can't assimilate into the modern world the anchorage neighborhood of eagle river is over here this is where all the rich people live there's also an area on the south east ish side of town where there's a lot of wealthy folks the rundown parts of town are along muldoon road on the east side of town as well as an area along mountain view drive up here you likely wouldn't want to live in these parts of town because they're rough and dangerous but you might if you can't afford anywhere else jobs wise it's just like any other small city they need in particular vocational type people up here you know like loggers fishermen electricians welders construction people nurses teachers that sort of stuff economic opportunities are limited and alaska's probably going to have long-term economic uncertainties but if you have a skill set that's in demand here you'll be fine the cost of living is much higher in alaska especially the everyday stuff like gas and food the reason things are so expensive is because getting things to alaska is a big effort like something that's 10 bucks on amazon might cost 15 bucks to ship there's no amazon prime next day shipping here pal home cost wise alaska ranks 15th highest for the cost of a home which averaged somewhere around 300 000 here in anchorage it's closer to 350k but on the bright side once you become an alaska native you're going to get a check every october just for living here it's called the permanent fund dividend or the pfd alaska shares its oil riches with every single resident in the form of a yearly check even one month olds get one the checks used to be bigger but they're getting smaller now that oil isn't as big a thing as it once was today it's in about the thousand dollar range so it's not life-changing but you can bet every october alaskans plan out exactly what they're going to spend their pfd money on and often it's gone the day they get it teenagers often argue with their parents about getting their chunk they want to spend it on video games and nachos not college tuition mom i want my freaking pfd i hate you overall anchorage is just like any other small american city except it's surrounded by mountains on two sides and it's really cold but cold's relative i mean anchorage is only the 22nd coldest city in the country when you measure annual yearly temperatures there's places in iowa minnesota wisconsin new hampshire and vermont that are actually colder now over here is the last region in alaska it's called the southeast region a lot of people call this the panhandle down here it sort of resembles the pacific northwest it's much more green and lush and rainy the biggest forest in the countries here is called the tangasse national forest it's three times bigger than the next biggest forest in the u.s which is also in alaska the timber industry is big here though not as big as it once was haynes is here you have to take a plane or a boat to get there just like everywhere else in this state there's 2500 people here and a teeny cute little village it's really pretty there's actually quite a few places down here with a couple thousand people just stunningly beautiful areas with small villages cruise ships come here a lot and you can see why and finally we have juno the state capital there's 30 000 people here but again there aren't any roads in and out of here i'm going to go ahead and assume this is the only u.s state capitol without a road into town juno's the warmest rainiest big city in alaska it's much more expensive here than in anchorage expect to pay an additional 75k for a home and five dollar footlongs are seven dollar foot longs a lot of people here drink to pass the time and there's a lot of homeless druggies wandering around downtown it's also called the bible belt of alaska so if you're into religion juno would be a good place it's just another small town like the rest of them though there's not a lot of jobs but there's some government type stuff while it's the capital of alaska it's still backwards in many ways they're gonna have to figure things out here though alaska's economy relies heavily on energy and tourism and the oil ain't gonna flow forever and who knows if people are gonna cruise again like they once did you could live in any of these places and figure out a way to make it happen but don't come here without a decent savings and a plan you gotta have a plan i mean you wouldn't just move here on a whim you can't just blindly show up in alaska but if you do come here with a plan it would be life-changing alaskans are proud to be different they'd rather be weird than normal they actually don't mind being so disassociated with the rest of america it's kind of hard for us to relate to what it's like to live there lots of people here call themselves alaskans not americans and they know you and i are likely not going to go there and ruin everything there's no pollution here there's no traffic there's no hustle and bustle and there's no frozen fish it's staggeringly beautiful but unimaginably isolated alaska's forward thinking but insular it's american but somehow it's not it's a complicated people living in an unforgiving environment alaskans are hardy problem solvers and stubbornly independent that's missing in america these days where lots of people want stuff handed to them we need more of the alaska type mentality around the lower 48 don't we okay so we did a pretty good job of looking at alaska didn't we yes we did i think there's a lot about this state that you probably thought you knew and i'm sure you learned a lot about alaska too i know i sure did we could have gone on and talked about a lot of other stuff too like we didn't have time to talk about really the i did a trot sled dog race how do we not talk about that or we didn't talk about the northern lights very much nor did we talk about alaska's crazy moose laws but i have to go i think i smell a salmon bake down the road and i have to hop on my snow machine and get over there before it's all gone mush snow ice big oil mooses indians fishing trees freeze skis bees maybe penguins koala bears santa igloos here's an eskimo named joe he likes to ride around on his horse [Music] every day he collects ice to build his igloo for his tiny eskimo family they love sleeping in ice houses and they don't beg for money like they do in seattle good for you joe what the heck joe's not the name of an eskimo it is for this one their names are usually way longer [Music] not this eskimo his name is joe hey guys if you learned something new about america or what it's like to live in america great you should think about subscribing and turning on your notifications you can also click one of these videos or playlists for more you can also now buy my songs on itunes and other formats click the link in the description thanks for watching and remember while we all might have different views we should all be nice to each other and try to make the us a better place in a positive way this is sage nyx manager this has been a corner house entertainment production

Channel: Nick Johnson

Views: 262,974

Keywords: living in alaska, alaska, what is alaska like, alaska research, i live in alaska, alaska travel, what is alaska, alaska trivia, why do people live in alaska, alaska map, alaska residents, alaska culture, alaska cost of living, moving to alaska, alaska realtor, alaska mortgage loan, dui attorney, anchorage, what is anchorage like, meridian, alaska mountains, moving anchorage, fairbanks, juneau, nome, denali, alaska cruises, alaska vacation, eskimo, aleutian islands, alaska big

Id: g-fhtANI8vc

Length: 21min 37sec (1297 seconds)

Published: Tue Apr 06 2021