NONCONTIGUOUS TERRITORY OF THE UNITED STATES: DATES OF ACQUISITION AND
ORGANIZATION, AND POPULATION AND AREA
Territory
Date of Acquisition or Organization
Area (Sq. Miles)
Population
Year
Number
Alaska (District)
Acquired
Organized
June
20,
1867
July
27,
1868
Apr.
11,
1899
July
7,
1898
June
14,
1900
Feb.
26,
1904
Apr.
11,
1899
Apr.
11,
1899
Mar.
8,
1900
Mar.
31,
1917
590,884
1919
65,062
Guam
Acquired
210
1919
14,969
Hawaii
Acquired
Organized
6,449
1919
226,938
Panama Canal Zone
Acquired
527
1918
21,707
Philippine Islands
Acquired
115,026
1919
9,101,427
Porto Rico
Acquired
3,435
1919
1,262,158
Tutuila Group
Acquired
77
1916
7,550
Virgin Islands
Acquired
132
1917
26,051
been the shore of an ancient sea. The
most fertile part of this slope is between
Long Island and the Potomac. The coast
to the Mississippi is sandy throughout;
from Long Island to North Carolina it
is marshy only close to the sea, but
farther S. the seaward half of the plain
is covered with swamps. The Appalachians
form the watershed between the
rivers draining into the Atlantic and the
tributaries to the Mississippi, though
some of the former may be said to rise
on the inland side of the mountains, and
to force a passage through them to the
sea. The principal rivers falling into
the Atlantic are the Penobscot, Kennebec,
Merrimac, Connecticut, Hudson,
Delaware, Susquehanna, Potomac,
Rappahannock, James, Roanoke, Pedee,
Santee, Savannah, and Altamaha. The
Chattahoochee and the Flint river joining
form the Appalachicola; the Alabama
and Tombigbee, the Mobile; these drain
into the Gulf of Mexico E. of the
Mississippi.
The great central plains and prairies
between the Appalachians and the Rocky
Mountains are drained almost entirely
by the Mississippi and its affluents, chief
of which are the Ohio, Tennessee,
Missouri, Arkansas, and Red river. The
only other river of great importance
flowing into the Gulf of Mexico is the
great boundary river, the Rio Grande
del Norte. The streams flowing N. are
trifling, the principal being the Red
river of the North, which flows into Lake
Winnipeg. Almost the whole of the
Mississippi basin consists of open, rolling
prairies, while, on the other hand,
almost all the country between the
Appalachians and the Atlantic was originally
more or less thickly wooded. Between
the Rocky Mountains and the Pacific
Alps, called Sierra Nevada, in California
and Cascade Range farther N., lies a
rainless region, mostly S. of lat. 45° N.,
with an average elevation of 5,000 feet
above the ocean, great part of it
communicating, not with the sea, but draining
into salt lakes and marshes. Except
where irrigated, this plateau is utterly
unproductive. To the N. it is drained
by the Columbia, with its tributary the
Snake river, which forces its way
through the Sierras to the Pacific; while
in the S. portion the Colorado and its
affluents, after flowing through frightful
cañons 3,000 to 5,000 feet below the
surface of the plateau for some 600 miles,
forms a delta at the head of the Gulf
of California. The Great Cañon of the
Colorado is more than 300 miles long.
Between the Sierras and the ocean
stretches the comparatively narrow but
rich and beautiful sea-coast known as
the Pacific Slope, drained by the
Columbia, the Klamath, the Sacramento,
and the San Joaquin, along with
numerous smaller streams. The “Great
Divide,” or watershed, is in Montana and
Wyoming, whence flow the Missouri,
Columbia, and Colorado. In this wild region
Congress set apart in February, 1872,
the Yellowstone National Park, a tract
62 by 54 miles in extent (3,312 sq.
miles) in the N. W. of Wyoming. The
region, while mostly unfit for agriculture
and mining, contains more natural
marvels than can be found elsewhere. There
