150 years ago today

PowerPoint Show by Andrew

♫ Turn on Speakers

On March 30, 1867, the United States gave the government of Russia a check for $7.2 million and took possession of 586,412 square miles (1,518,800 square kilometers) of new land which became the Alaska Territory, and later, in 1959, would become America’s 49th state.

In the last 150 years, Alaska has seen several gold rushes, an oil boom, a groundbreaking distribution of lands to Native groups, a disastrous oil spill, a tremendous growth in tourism, and much more.

A U.S. steamship the "Patterson" explores Alaska's Portland Canal at the base of the Halleck Mountain Range. circa 1888.

Two men in coats and hats stand next to Muir Inlet at the end of Muir Glacier. Alaska, circa 1892.

The highly decorated items and interior of Chief Klart-Reech's Whale House in Chilkat, Alaska.

Jefferson "Soapy" Smith stands at the bar of his saloon in Skagway, Alaska, shortly before being killed on July 8, 1898.

Stampeders and their outfits in Dyea, Alaska. So many hopeful men were making the difficult journey into the Alaskan wilderness in search of gold.

Miners and prospectors climb the Chilkoot Trail during the Klondike Gold Rush, in September of 1898.

Mrs. G. I. Lowe's Laundry in Dawson City, located at the confluence of the Klondike and the Yukon River in Canada's Yukon Territory.

A group of people standing on Seward Street in Juneau, Alaska, during the Klondike Gold Rush.

Young natives in Alaska's Copper River region, between 1906 and 1915.

On March 18, 1925, the arrival of the first dog team, driven by the famous Alaskan Musher, Gunnar Kaasen, carrying the antitoxin used in Nome's heroic fight against the epidemic of diphtheria which raged for weeks.

A photograph of a Yupik seal hunter published in Volume XX of The North American Indian (1930) by Edward S. Curtis. Location: Nunivak, Alaska.

Johan Johnson, left, on the seeder, and Arthur Hack on the tractor, both Matanuska settlers from Minnesota, are shown seeding their new farm with oats in this Alaska valley, June 16, 1935.

A tourist relaxes on the deck of a cruise ship while reading the July 1941 issue of Woman's Day magazine.

Japanese forces attack Dutch Harbor, Alaska, during World War II, on June 3, 1942.

A Naval Air Transport Service plane is seen en route to the Aleutian front, over Alaska, in October 1943 during World War II.

Denali, viewed from near Stony Dome, inside Denali National Park and Preserve, Alaska.

Alaska's first governor William Egan and U.S. Senator Bob Bartlett hold the edition of the Daily News-Miner of Fairbanks, with a headline announcing Alaska's statehood, and a picture of the new U.S. flag in January of 1959.

A huge sign hangs over the street as President Eisenhower rides through the heart of Anchorage, Alaska, on June 12, 1960.

The tremendous earthquake that rocked Anchorage and much of south central Alaska on March 27, 1964, dropped Fourth Avenue and a row of cars some 20 feet below normal level.

A photographer looks over wreckage as smoke rises in the background from burning oil storage tanks in Valdez, Alaska, March 29, 1964.

A humpback whale breaches in Frederick Sound, Alaska.

An unidentified Inuit poses on October 29, 1970, Alaska.

Sections of pipe form a geometric dazzlement stacked in a Fairbanks, Alaska storage yard on May 30, 1974. They'll form a line 789 miles long across Alaska from the Arctic Ocean oil fields to the ice-free harbor at Valdez.

A fuel truck drives south along the Trans-Alaska Pipeline late on July 21, 2002 between the Yukon River and The Arctic Circle on Dalton Hwy.

Tugboats pull the crippled tanker Exxon Valdez toward Naked Island in Alaska's Prince William Sound, in this April 5, 1989, photo after the ship was pulled from Bligh Reef, where it grounded on March 24, and spilled nearly 11 million gallons of oil into the water.

An oil skimming operation works in a heavy oil slick near Latouche Island in the southwest end of Prince William Sound on April 1, 1989 in Valdez, Alaska, one week after the beginning of an oil disaster which occurred when the tanker Exxon Valdez ran aground.

An oil cleanup worker walks through the oily surf at Naked Island on Prince Williams Sound on April 2, 1989 as beach cleanup goes on in background, a week after the Exxon Valdez spill.

An oil-covered bald eagle sits in a carrier, Alaska, 1989.

A man wears goggles as he helps in the cleanup effort on Green Island, Alaska, after the Exxon Valdez oil spill, in 1989.

The Aurora Borealis appears in the sky on January 8, 2017 near Ester Dome mountain about 10 miles west of Fairbanks, Alaska.

A full moon rises over the Chugach Mountains on February 3, 2015, behind the skyline of Anchorage, Alaska.

A pair of brown bears play in a pond at the Alaska Wildlife Conservation Center near Portage Glacier, Alaska, on August 30, 2009.

The Celebrity cruise ship "Summit", sailing across the face of Hubbard Glacier.

A young Snowshoe Hare in Denali National Park and Preserve.

Yupik children play during summer vacation on June 30, 2015 in Newtok, Alaska.

A group of surfers catch the bore tide near a small town called Girdwood on Turnagain Arm near Anchorage, Alaska, on July 15, 2014.

A trumpeter swan rises above marsh grass after taking off from a pond at Potter Marsh in Anchorage, Alaska, on October 10, 2011.

Thousands of pink salmon swim upstream to spawn in Valdez, Alaska on August 8, 2008.

A sled dog named tatum in, Denali National Park & Preserve.

Augustine volcano, viewed from the M/V Maritime Maid, during an eruption on March 27, 2006.

A man with a camera approaches a bull moose as it crosses Kincaid Park road on October 22, 2013, in Anchorage, Alaska.

An Air Force F-22 Raptor stealth fighter takes off from Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson in Anchorage, Alaska on September 21, 2011.

A polar bear and cubs sit together north of the Arctic Circle on the Alaskan tundra on May 1, 2007 in Kaktovik, Alaska.

Kelly Maixner's team charges out of the chute at the 2015 ceremonial start of the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog race in downtown Anchorage, on March 7, 2015.

Three couples enjoy the spring equinox sunset over Turnagain Arm from Beluga Point on March 21, 2015, in Anchorage, Alaska.