It's 150 Years Since Russia "Sold" Alaska To The United States For Pennies On The Acre
Russia was eager to sell Alaska to the United States even before the beginning of the Civil War. The Russians were having a hard time making inroads from the coast to the trackless interior. And they had pretty much decimated the sea mammals along the shore.
Lincoln was interested. But the Civil War got in the way. After the war was over, on March 30th, 1867, William H. Seward, who was Secretary of State, continued on with the plan and bought Alaska. The purchase was for 586,412 square miles. It cost $7.2 million to buy Alaska, or about $123 million nowadays.
The formal name for a 150 year anniversary is a "sesquicentennial." On mainland Alaska, most of places you can learn about Alaska are in the Kenai, including at Ninilchik, the town of Kenai, and near Homer. There are also Russian items in various small museums. Eklutna, just north of Anchorage, has a Russian era graveyard.
