Department of Alaska

Department of Alaska was after the purchase of Alaska from Russia from 1867 to 1884 the official name for Alaska, the current state of the United States. During this time, Alaska had no own government and was under the jurisdiction of the U.S. Army ( until 1877 ), the U.S. Treasury ( 1877-1879 ) and the U.S. Navy ( 1879-1884 ). In 1884 the District of Alaska, 1912, the Alaska Territory and in 1959 finally the 49th state of the USA from the Department.

On April 9, 1867, the purchase agreement of the Senate of the United States was ratified and on 6 Oktoberjul. / October 18 1867greg. the celebration of the official handover took place. In the presence of representatives of the Russian and U.S. governments, Alexis Pestchouroff and Lowell H. Rousseau, as well as Dmitri Petrovich Maksutov of the Russian - American Company, the Russian flag was in Sitka obtained and the American hoisted. October 18th is a public holiday in Alaska today as Alaska Day.

With the purchase of Alaska, the International Date Line was moved westward to integrate the Aleutian Islands in Alaska belonging to the same time zone. In addition, Alaska changed from Julian to the Gregorian calendar.

Large areas of Alaska at the time of purchase still unexplored. The Western Union began in 1865 with the construction of a telegraph line across Alaska to the Bering Strait, where it should be connected to a Russian line. The following year, the first transatlantic cable was laid and the project was canceled. During construction, the team had created the first complete map of the Yukon under Robert Kennicott and after his death in 1866 under William H. Dall.

The Alaska Commercial Company was involved in the last decades of the 19th century by their trading post much to the development of the inland area of Alaska. Although the federal government ready made ​​little financial means of exploring Alaska, contributed military personnel as Frederick Schwatka who sailed the Yukon from Lake Lindeman in Canada to Saint Michael near its mouth into the Bering Sea, or Henry Tureman Allen, and among other things, the Copperhead, the Tanana the Koyukuk River sailed in to explore Alaska.

On May 17, 1884 Alaska became the District and got after it had stood under the jurisdiction of the Department of changing U.S. institutions, own, appointed by U.S. President Chester A. Arthur, Government.

  • History of Alaska
  • History of the United States (1865-1918)
  • Administrative divisions of the United States
  • Historical territory of the United States
  • Historical territory ( America)
Alaska Purchase Territory of Alaska Sitka, Alaska Alaska Interior Tanana River
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