Move On Over Texas....

Greatest state: Alaska or Texas?


I saw this booth at the last downtown market that I went to and of course I had my Texas Woman's university sweater on, so this guy got a kick out of talking to me. Several of my patients have made comments throughout my time here when they find out that I'm living in TX.

Since AK is 2.5 times bigger than TX and has rainforests, tundra, beaches, mountains, volcanoes, glaciers, etc. etc., they think that this is God's country and not TX.

Well, I have several family members who are born and raised Texans as well as many TX friends and they are all very sensitive (and prideful) about their state being the best and are loyal to the saying, "Don't mess with Texas".

So, I'll let you be the judge...

Texas becase a state of the U.S. in 1845. Alaska became a state in 1959.

Texas has bluebonnets on hillsides and in fields, Alaska has lupines on hillsides and mountains.

Texas has 168 lakes. There are more than

three million lakes in Alaska.
Texas has 36 rivers. Alaska has over 3,000 rivers (Kenai River in photo).

Texas produces more oil than any other state and accounts for 19.7% of total US output. Texas also produces more than 30% of US natural gas supply. Alaska produces 18.1% of United States oil and 13.1% of the natural gas.

Texas has 13 National Park sites, Alaska has 15 National Park sites.

Alaska also has the most northern point (Point Barrow) and the most western point (Cape Wrangell, Alaska -- further west than Hawaii) in the U.S.

Alaska’s high point, Mt. McKinley/Denali (20,320 feet), rises 2.2 miles above Texas’s high point, Guadalupe Peak (8,749 feet).
Not only is Mt. McKinley the highest mountain in North America, but Alaska has 15 other peaks higher than any in the continental U.S.

AK has the largest known concentration of bald eagles, nearly 4,000.
Alaska has 12 species of big game including: moose, caribou, black bear, Dall sheep, musk ox, wolverine, brown bear, wolf, mountain goat, black-tailed deer, elk, and bison.

Texas has seventy-five species of exotic big game.

Alaska has over 2,000 species of saltwater fish. Texas has over 400.

Alaska has 44,000 miles of coastline. Texas has 624 miles of coastline.

Farmers in the Matanuska Valley produce giant cabbages weighing close to 100 pounds, the largest in the country. Because the sun is out all summer, it provides great growing weather for vegetable and flower gardens.

Alaska has an estimated 100,000 glaciers which cover almost five percent of the state. There are more active glaciers in Alaska than in the rest of the inhabited world (Matanuska glacier right). And no, I didn't take that picture!

The nations two largest national forests are located in Alaska. The Tongass in Southeast includes 16.8 million acres, and Chugach in Southcentral has 4.8 million acres.

Alaska has 80 percent of all the active volcanoes in the U.S.

Now it's time to cast your votes!

Here's to one more week in AK,

Rachel