US buys Alaska

America bought Alaska from Russia on March 30, 1867. President Andrew Johnson's Secretary of State, William H. Seward, was responsible for negotiating the purchase of Alaska from Russia. The USA paid Russia $7.2 million for Alaska. This came to 12.5 cents per acre for a plot of land twice the size of Texas.

When the agreement to purchase the Alaska territory from Russia was struck in 1867 by Secretary of State William H. Seward, there were many in the lower 48 states who were critical of the secrecy that had surrounded it and of the high price tag. Critics of Seward's agreement to purchase the Alaska territory from Russia referred to the plan as "Seward's Folly." They mocked his willingness to spend so much on "Seward's icebox" and Andrew Johnson's "polar bear garden."

Gold was discovered in 1896 at Bonanza Creek, setting off the great Klondike Gold Rush.

See http://www.atozkidsstuff.com/alaska.html & http://edhelper.com/ReadingComprehension_35_131.html