Jefferson "Soapy" Smith stands at the bar of his saloon in Skagway, Alaska, shortly before being killed on July 8, 1898. Soapy was a notorious con artist who traveled the American West who died in a shootout over control of Skagway, which had become a major stopover for thousands on their way to the Alaskan gold fields during the Klondike gold rush. #

Stampeders and their outfits in Dyea, Alaska. So many hopeful men (and a few women) were making the difficult journey into the Canadian and Alaskan wilderness in search of gold, the Canadian government started requiring every stampeder bring a year's supply of goods before crossing the border, leading to hundreds of scenes like this. #

Miners and prospectors climb the Chilkoot Trail during the Klondike Gold Rush, in September of 1898. Only about 1 out of 3 would actually make the entire trip successfully, but by the time most of them arrived, nearly every bit of land had already been claimed. #

Mrs. G. I. Lowe's Laundry in Dawson City, located at the confluence of the Klondike and the Yukon River in Canada's Yukon Territory. Dawson boomed during the gold rush years, growing from a village of a few hundred to a population of more than 30,000. #

A group of people standing on Seward Street in Juneau, Alaska, during the Klondike Gold Rush. View the same street today in Google Maps. #

On March 18, 1925, the arrival of the first dog team, driven by the famous Alaskan Musher, Gunnar Kaasen, carrying the antitoxin used in Nome's heroic fight against the epidemic of diphtheria which raged for weeks. Dog teams relayed the serum from outside sources, mushing it across the frozen trails in record time. Kaasen and his dog team were hailed as heroes on the arrival in Nome. #

Johan Johnson, left, on the seeder, and Arthur Hack on the tractor, both Matanuska settlers from Minnesota, are shown seeding their new farm with oats in this Alaska valley, June 16, 1935. In the background are the snow-covered mountains of the Chugach range. Part of a New Deal program responding to the Great Depression, the Matanuska Valley Colony was established in Alaska, and settled by 200 families transported there from Minnesota, Wisconsin and Michigan. #

This photo shows road workers clearcutting the forest near Fort St. John in British Columbia, Canada, on October 9, 1942. The 1,523 mile-long Alaska-Canada highway was built during World War II, connecting Alaska with Canada and the lower 48 states. #

Japanese forces attack Dutch Harbor, Alaska, during World War II, on June 3, 1942. A group of Marines stands on alert between attacks. Smoke from burning fuel tanks in background had been set afire by a dive bomber the previous day. The attack lasted only two days, inflicting a moderate amount of damage, and killing 78. #

Alaska's first governor William Egan and U.S. Senator Bob Bartlett hold the edition of the Daily News-Miner of Fairbanks, with a headline announcing Alaska's statehood, and a picture of the new United States flag in January of 1959. #

After the quake. The tremendous earthquake that rocked Anchorage and much of south central Alaska on March 27, 1964, dropped Fourth Avenue and a row of cars some 20 feet below normal level. This street, like others, was left cracked and torn like peanut brittle. The Good Friday earthquake lasted four and half minutes and was a magnitude 9.2, destroying neighborhoods and villages, spawning tsunamis, and left 139 dead. #

A photographer looks over wreckage as smoke rises in the background from burning oil storage tanks in Valdez, Alaska, March 29, 1964. The city was hit hard by the earthquake that demolished some of Alaska's most picturesque and largest cities. #

An unidentified Inuit poses on October 29, 1970, Alaska. Alaskan natives were looking ahead to what they hoped would be a better deal as a result of their claims on territory and the oil which may be drawn from it. The Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act was signed into law by President Richard Nixon on December 18, 1971, giving control of 44 million acres to Alaska Native regional and village corporations. #

Sections of pipe form a geometric dazzlement stacked in a Fairbanks, Alaska storage yard on May 30, 1974. They'll form a line 789 miles long across Alaska from the Arctic Ocean oil fields to the ice-free harbor at Valdez. #

Tugboats pull the crippled tanker Exxon Valdez toward Naked Island in Alaska's Prince William Sound, in this April 5, 1989, photo after the ship was pulled from Bligh Reef, where it grounded on March 24, and spilled nearly 11 million gallons of oil into the water. Although a jury originally found Exxon Mobil Corp. liable, and awarded plaintiffs more than $5 billion, Exxon appealed several times, successfully arguing the damages down to $500 million. #

An oil skimming operation works in a heavy oil slick near Latouche Island in the southwest end of Prince William Sound on April 1, 1989 in Valdez, Alaska, one week after the beginning of an oil disaster which occurred when the tanker Exxon Valdez ran aground. #

An oil cleanup worker walks through the oily surf at Naked Island on Prince Williams Sound on April 2, 1989 as beach cleanup goes on in background, a week after the Exxon Valdez spill. #

A man wears goggles as he helps in the cleanup effort on Green Island, Alaska, after the Exxon Valdez oil spill, in 1989. As of 2014, federal scientists estimated that as many as 20,000 barrels of oil remain on the beaches of Prince William Sound. #

Setnet fishermen from left, Naomi Regev, Brigitte Buck, and Richard Buck, sit on a bluff during a red salmon opening for drift nets only and watch as boats jockey for position in the Naknek River near Naknek, Alaska, on July 14, 1999, to catch the red salmon swimming up the river. Over 21 million fish were caught that season officials said. #

A pair of brown bears play in a pond at the Alaska Wildlife Conservation Center near Portage Glacier, Alaska, on August 30, 2009. The center rehabilitates injured and orphaned animals found in the area, with the goal of releasing them back into the wild. #

The Celebrity cruise ship "Summit", sailing across the face of Hubbard Glacier. Note that the ship shown here is about as tall as a thirteen-story building; it's dwarfed by its surroundings. #

Yupik children play during summer vacation on June 30, 2015 in Newtok, Alaska. Newtok, which has a population of approximately of 375 ethnically Yupik people, was established along the shores of the Ninglick River, near where the river empties into the Bering Sea, by the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) in 1959. The Yupik people have lived on the coastal lands along the Bering Sea for thousands of years. However, as global temperatures rise the village is being threatened by the melting of permafrost; greater ice and snow melt - which is causing the Ninglick river to widen and erode the river bank; and larger storms that come in from the Bering Sea, which further erodes the land. According to the U.S. Army Corp of Engineers, the high point in Newtok - the school - could be underwater by 2017. A new village, approximately nine miles away titled Mertarvik, has been established, though so far families have been slow to relocate to the new village. #

A group of surfers catch the bore tide near a small town called Girdwood on Turnagain Arm near Anchorage, Alaska, on July 15, 2014. Alaska's most famous bore tide occurs in a spot on the outside of Anchorage in the lower arm of Cook Inlet, Turnagain Arm, where wave heights can reach 6-10 feet tall, moving at 10-15 mph. #

An Air Force F-22 Raptor stealth fighter takes off from Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson in Anchorage, Alaska on September 21, 2011. A total of eight F-22's were flying training missions. #