Alaska Purchase Centennial: 1867-1967

• Main Author: Herbert H. Rasche
• Other Authors: The Pennsylvania State University CiteSeerX Archives
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Subjects: Canada; Fairbanks; Arctic; Alaska
• Online Access: http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/summary?doi=10.1.1.550.8052; http://pubs.aina.ucalgary.ca/arctic/Arctic20-2-63.pdf

During I 967, while Canada celebrates her first hundred years of Confedera-tion and the world congregates in Montreal for Expo 67, another significant centennial is being celebrated in northern North America: that of Alaska’s purchase from Russia by the United States of America. For more than 200 years before 1867, Alaska had been a colony of the Russian Empire, of which it was the easternmost segment. On 30 March 1867, by Treaty of Cession, the Emperor of Russia conveyed to the United States all the vast Russian holdings in America which today constitute the state of Alaska. The total price was $7,200,000, or approximately two cents an acre, which was a small amount even in those days; the total of federal and state expenditures on the 1967 Centennial greatly exceeds this figure! Among the many celebrations being held this year throughout the state is the Alaska 67 Centennial Exposition at Fairbanks. Historical exhibits depicting earlier days are combined with modern exhibits showing Alaska’s economic, scientific, and cultural progress. Other cities as well are building