Just to throw my two cents in…
I’ve been up here nearly thirty years, and I’ve lived in both the “big city” of Anchorage and smaller towns like Kenai and Homer.
The male/female ratio was pretty lopsided in the early days, but it’s getting closer to a normal range. The problem is that there seems to me a higher number of… shall we say, eccentric people, than you might see in the States.
Muktuk is terrible… it’s pure fat and the skin has the texture and flavor of vulcanized rubber. But it’s an aquired taste- elder natives live off of it for it’s huge calorie content. Up in the villages, it can get very, very cold for a very long time, and the muktuk’s horsepower provides the energy to survive a long sled ride or seal hunt.
Yes, we get “free money” from the State. What it is, is the Oil is, technically, “public” property. The producers pay a set amount per-barrel into a semi-private account called the Permanent Fund. Some of this money is used to invest in the markets, the rest sits and gathers interest. Once a year, a portion of the interest- JUST the interest- is divided up between each and every living, eligible Alaskan. This year it’s $1850, last year it was over $1900.
However, you have to be living in Alaska for two years before you become eligible, and you’d better believe they check your bona-fides. Fraud- yes, it happens- is punished by the loss of ALL future “dividends”, AND having to repay the previous five years’ worth.
Yes, we have the World’s longest Dog-Sled race. It’s called the Iditarod, named for a small mining-era town about halfway down the 1,150 mile trail between Anchorage and Nome. Dog teams usually take between ten and twenty days to make the trip, and before any animal-lovers chime in, there are strict rules on rest stops and such. And believe me, few dogs on Earth get as good care as these teams.
After the dogsleds run, some snowmachiners make the trip in a race called the Iron Dog. Think of over a thousand miles, by yourself, in literally the middle of nowhere, on an unenclosed snowmachine, at speeds exceeding 100mph.
Yes, in some places, the Sun never sets for weeks on end. Down here on the Peninsula, in the height of summer, it’ll get kinda twilightish around 2am, and that’s about it. Unless it’s nasty, overcast and rainy, you can go three months without having to use your headlights.
On the flipside, in the winter, it’ll be pitch black dark until 9:30 in the morning, then get dark again at about five in the afternoon. Cheechako’s- newbies to the state- often have a tough time dealing with it. It messes with a person’s circadian rythyms or something; you get tired but can’t sleep, have no energy, get depressed, etc. It’s tolerable if you have a hobby- anything you find interesting that can occupy your mind and hands- but if you just sit around and watch TV, yes, depression can really lay a person low.
I know- knew- quite a few people who have, over the years, gotten fed up and left the State.
Moose is very good eating. Like any animal, it depends on the particular cut of meat, but it’s very tasty. However, speaking personally, we turn much of ours into both sausage and hamburger since it’s easier to freeze and store, and a little more versitile to use.
Caribou is actually a little better, it’s more tender and not so coarse. Caribou sausage over a good homemade spaghetti sauce and pasta… 
I’ve also had deer, elk, bison, bear (brown and black) dall sheep, rabbit and duck.
Northern Exposure had as much to do with the real Alaska as the show “JAG” has to do with authentic Carrier operations in the Med. Meaning they got the uniform colors right, and that’s about it.
The Steven Segal movie “On Deadly Ground” was so rife with errors it’d take an hour to list what he screwed up in just the first ten minutes.
The Northern Lights- Aurora Borealis- (There’s also a Southern Hemisphere version called Aurora Austrailis, if I recall correctly) are pretty common in the winter. You really need to get outside of the light-polluted cities to appreciate them. Picture moving curtains of light in the sky. They move pretty fast too, deceptively so, since they can take up a huge portion of the sky. If it’s quiet- I live outside of a small town- you can almost hear them, as kind of a very, very faint static… but that may also be a figment of the imagination.
They’re predominantly a faint green, and can range from faint lines, to almost neon-sign-bright curtains.
Yes, I’ve heard wolves howling. In fact, just two nights ago or so, I heard a coyote yipping about a half mile from here. I’ve seen 'er in the distance as I’ve tied the horses out to graze, but no closer than that. No movie can prepare you to feel what it’s like to be a day’s ride up in the mountains, and hear a wolf bark up on the ridgeline… or to hear a branch snap and a snuffle-snort fifty feet up the trail. “Survivor”, my ass.
There’s also a nesting pair of Bald Eagles less than 200 feet from where I’m typing this. The nest is several years old and probably eight feet in diameter. I find feathers all the time- wing feathers can be 18" long- but I can’t legally keep 'em.
Here’s a webcam of downtown Anchorage: http://www.alaskacam.com/
It’s a live ‘updated photo’ cam, rather than a streaming video.
Mosquitoes aren’t anywhere near the size of a B-52… they’re no larger than a Super Cub at best.
Seriously, as the others have said, it’s not the size, it’s the sheer weight of numbers. If you live near a wetlands or swamp, they can get downright evil.
What keeps me here? Can you tell me what keeps you where you are?
