Mark Abadi
The author, during his three-month stint in Alaska.
- A lot of people have the wrong idea about Alaska, the largest state in the United States.
- After spending three months in small-town Alaska, I learned that a lot of what people say about the state simply isn't true.
- It's not always frozen and dog sleds aren't really a thing ... but people do carry bear spray.
Alaska is a state most people only know from movies, TV shows, and stories about their family's summer cruise.
So it's not surprising that most people's idea of Alaska is drastically different than reality in the state.
Back in 2011, I spent three months working for a small-town newspaper in Skagway, Alaska, and in my short time there, I learned that not everything people say about America's biggest state is true.
Here are the biggest misconceptions about Alaska and what people are getting wrong: