Alaska Purchased

March 30, 1867

Secretary of State William Seward bought Alaska from Russia for $7.2 million - about two cents an acre. Newspapers called it "Seward's Folly" and "Seward's Icebox." Thirty years later, prospectors would find gold at Klondike Creek, and the deal would look, in retrospect, inspired. Russia had been very glad to be rid of it.