Alaska in the past

Captain Vitus Bering, the great Danish navigator, discovered Alaska more than two hundred years ago (in 1741). He was sailing for Russia, not for his native Denmark, and Russia claimed the territory and in 1784 established furtrading posts there. For many years, Alaska was called "Russian America." In those days, there were hundreds of thousands of sea otters on the Alaskan coasts, and the fur of sea otter is by many considered the finest in the world, even finer than sable and mink.

The Russians were cruel to the natives and very unwise in their business. They killed so many of the sea otters that they almost wiped them out, and this valuable fur has been lost to the world ever since, except in very small quantities. In 1867 the United States bought Alaska from Russia for $7,200,000. The purchase was made by William H. Seward, who was Secretary of State then, and Alaska was so far away and so undeveloped that the American people thought he'had spent the Government's money foolishly. They called Alaska "Seward's Folly." But when gold was discovered in the Yukon in 1897, thousands of Americans passed through Alaska to get there; and they discovered more gold in Alaska than in the Yukon. Ever since, it has been known that Alaska is a rich and important territory, and Seward's "folly" turned out to be one of the best buys any country ever made.

The people who went to Alaska to seek gold found it a good place to live in. They built cities and brought American civilization to the Territory. After that, it was only a matter of time until Alaska would be admitted as a State of the United States.