Alaska History

The state of Alaska joined the union in 1867 when the United State’s purchased the peninsular from Russia for a fee of $7,200,000 (less than $11 per square mile). Alaska was only brought through the determined efforts of the then secretary of state William H Seward and for a long period afterwards was often known as Seward’s icebox as the whole area was considered to be useless due to its landscape and inaccessibility.

As it then appeared Alaska would offer very little financial return (how wrong they were Alaska is second only to Texas in oil production) Alaska was largely neglected and until 1876 was governed mainly by the United States army until the navy took charge of the land. At this point the vast majority of the wilderness was still undiscovered and it’s many riches unexplored. It was not until 1880 when gold was discovered in the Juneau region that a state governor was installed and any kind of administration established.

During the late 1800’s gold was discovers in other regions as well (Fairbanks and Nome to name two) and Alaskan gold rush started. This brought unknown wealth and growth to the region and ensured Alaska would from then on be appreciated and respected as a state in its own right. Juneau was installed as capital in 1900 and full government ensured it became United States territory in 1912. The gold rush began to die out and was taken over by fishing as being Alaska’s main industry.

The next stage of economic growth occurred during world war two when the Alaskan highway was built and for the first time the state had a direct link to America, the war also enabled the United States government to establish military bases there to fend off further attacks from the Japanese, these bases further fuelled the states growth. 1958 saw Alaskans vote on whether to accept Alaska as state of the union and the residents voted overwhelmingly in favour at 5 votes to 1, thus on January the 3rd 1959 Alaska was admitted into the union as a state (the first since Arizona in 1912).