The Alaska Purchase

Good night Anchorage...

Our 49th State, Alaska, was admitted to the Union in 1959.

More importantly, it was bought from the Russian Empire in 1867 for $7.2M (in today’s dollars, approximately $150M+ or about 42 cents an acre). Although the treaty to acquire Alaska passed the US Senate easily, many began to refer to the acquisition of Alaska as “Seward’s Folly” or “Seward’s Ice Box” after William Seward, the then US Secretary of State, who negotiated the deal.

Why would the Russians sell it? They had just lost the Crimean War to Britain and France; the Czar needed money; and they did not want Britain so close to their Pacific territories. In essence, they wanted the US to be a “buffer” between it and British-controlled Canada at the time. The Americans, for their part, hoped to persuade the British to sell them or cede them what is now British Columbia so that Alaska would be connected by land to what became known as “the lower 48.” This was not to be as the British had previously agreed to the 49th parallel as the border between the US and British-controlled Canada…..and no one had the stomach for a third US/British War.

The Russians had several fur trading colonies in Alaska (and as far south as Fort Ross, California). After the sale, almost all the Russians in North America retreated back across the Pacific to Russia.

Sunset in Anchorage

Alaska remained almost uninhabited until the Klondike Gold Rush in 1896. Actually, the gold was discovered in one of the tributaries of the Klondike River near the town of Dawson City in north-west Canada (where this rally goes in a couple of days), but the route to get to the gold ran right through the ports and small villages along the Alaskan coast. At the beginning of the Klondike Gold Rush, Dawson City had 500 inhabitants. One year later, Dawson City had approximately 30,000 inhabitants. Over a three year period about $29M of gold was extracted from the Klondike and its tributaries. It all ended after about three years when gold was discovered around Nome, Alaska, and the fortune-seekers moved on.

Tomorrow, we will prepare to move on, as well. Our car will be inspected for safety equipment (called scrutineering); we’ll revive our route books and maps and, after a welcoming dinner, head toward Fairbanks, Alaska, early Monday morning. Fairbanks is about 150 miles south of the Arctic Circle so we’ll be pretty far north by Monday night.