Alaska Day: Alaska
Celebrating Alaska’s birthday
by Liz Olson
Originally a Russian territory, Alaska was sold to the United States
in 1867. The United States bought the
Alaskan territory for $7,200,000—about two cents per acre. On March
29, 1867, U.S. Secretary of State, William Henry Seward, and Baron Eduard
de Stoeckl, the Russian Minister to the U.S., completed the treaty that
ceded Alaska to the U.S. The official transfer of land occurred on October
18, 1867, in Sitka, with a ceremony that
included 250 U.S. troops, 100 Russian troops, and the raising of the
American flag for the first time over the Alaskan territory.
The first
official U.S. census (1880) reported a total of 33,426 Alaskans, all but 430
being of aboriginal stock. The Gold Rush of 1898 resulted in a mass influx
of more than 30,000 people to the new state. Since then, Alaska has
contributed billions of dollars' worth of products to the U.S.
economy.
Alaska Day, also known as Alaska’s birthday, is
celebrated annually on 18 October in Sitka, Alaska, commemorating the date Alaska joined the United States. Alaska Day was first
celebrated in 1949 with the unveiling of a bronze statue named “The
Prospector,” which still stands as a tribute to Alaska’s
pioneers. Today, festivities span several days with dance performances,
costume balls, races, memorial services, among other events.
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