Alaska Purchase Approved by U.S. Senate – This Day in History

On October 18, 1867, the United States formally took possession of Alaska, concluding a dramatic and often-debated chapter in American territorial expansion. This moment, long derided as “Seward’s Folly,” in retrospect emerged as one of the most farsighted acquisitions in American history.

The sale had been negotiated months earlier: in March 1867, U.S. Secretary of State William H. Seward struck a deal with Russia to purchase Alaska for $7.2 million—a price that worked out to less than two cents per acre. The U.S. Senate ratified the treaty in May, and the transfer became legally effective on October 18.

On that October day, in Sitka, then the capital of Russian America, a formal ceremony took place. Russian and American troops marched, the Russian flag was lowered, and the U.S. flag raised amidst cannon salutes. General Lovell Rousseau, acting as the American commissioner, formally accepted control of the territory from Russian Commissioner Captain Aleksei Peshchurov. The symbolic yet sobering transition marked the beginning of American sovereignty over roughly 586,412 square miles—a territory nearly twice the size of Texas.

At the time, many Americans scoffed at the purchase—deriding it as a wasteland of ice and snow, a remote expanse with little strategic or economic value. The press dubbed it “Seward’s Folly” or “Andrew Johnson’s Polar Bear Garden.” But over the decades that followed, Alaska’s rich natural resources—fisheries, timber, gold, oil, and strategic location—would more than justify the investment.

Administratively, Alaska entered U.S. hands as an unorganized territory. From 1867 to 1884, it was known as the Department of Alaska and was governed alternately by the U.S. Army, Treasury, and Navy. In 1884, it was reconstituted as the District of Alaska, and later became an organized territory before achieving statehood in 1959.

Today, Alaskans commemorate the annual anniversary on October 18 as Alaska Day—a legal holiday marked by parades, reenactments (especially in Sitka), and reflection on the complex legacy of that day. While Alaska Day honors the moment of transfer, it also invites deeper conversation about the Indigenous peoples whose lands predated all colonial claims. Some Native voices critique the narrative of “transfer” as glossing over the dispossession and cultural impact on Alaska Native communities.

In the sweep of American history, October 18, 1867, stands as more than a footnote: it was an investment in vision, a gamble on frontier possibilities, and the opening of a chapter in which the American map—and ambitions—would continue to evolve.