Alaska is simply huge. If a map of Alaska is overlain, in the same scale, onto the continental USA, it stretches from New York state to northern Florida, and from just off the coast of the Carolinas to Los Angeles, California, at the tip of the Allutian Islands!
Alaska calls its counties "boroughs." In addition, there are independent cities and some 200 incorporated native areas (Native Corporations). These latter entities may overlap the boroughs, just as indian reservations may overlap county lines and even state lines in the lower 48 states.
The vast size of Alaska accounts for the widely diversified geological terrains encountered from arctic tundra to volcanic arc islands and magnificent mountain ranges. Large areas of lode and placer gold, base metal deposits, petroleum, and igneous occurrences are all encountered in Alaska.
Due to the extensive expanses of shear wilderness, many localities can best be located by identifying the USGS 1:250,000 quadrangle in which each lies, and by latitude-longitude coordinates.
