Where in the world is Alaska?

For years Alaskans looking at maps of the United States have had to live with the impression that the state is an island in the Pacific Ocean somewhere west of California. It's understandable to a certain extent given that it's probably difficult for cartographers to put The Lower 49 and  Alaska in the same frame, given their distance apart and the relative size of each land mass.

Still, over the years now and then Alaskans have chafed at the idea of being relegated to a smaller size and out of  place on the Earth's surface. Pollsters and graduate students at times have also discovered that a fairly sizable portion of the population thinks that's the true positioning and when asked where Alaska is, respondents often place it west of California in the Pacific.

The other part of misplacing Alaska is that it is seldom drawn on the same scale as the rest of the country. At one-fifth the size of the contiguous 48 states with a longer shoreline, Alaska would dominate any map of the U.S.

As a result mapmakers continually make it smaller and not even attached to the continent.

Well, recently one cartographer fixed that. The first map shows Alaska attached where it should be – that's Canada in gray to the right – and puts the rest of the states and Hawaii out in the ocean south of us.

Although it's doubtful this particular map design will catch on, Alaskans can smirk a little at this reversal of positions and size emphasis.

Fine with us if they want to put the rest of the United States out on an island somewhere and leave Alaska firmly attached to the North American continent as it should be.