What is your opinion about William Seward's purchase of Alaska?

Today: Oil, Natural Gas, Gold (mostly mined 100 years ago), Copper, Zinc, Forests, Strategic Airspace, Satellite/radar tracking location, Gorgeous scenery, lots of critters.

Then (most people): Cold, "Seward's icebox", a few natives and strange animals, untamed wilderness when that wasn't a good thing, Just finished the Civil War and unready for more obligations, no shortage of land between the current states and the Pacific Ocean.

Then (a few visionaries): Fire-sale prices (Russia had gotten all the furs they could and no one knew of the oil or gold) and someone would buy it. Do we want Britian with larger holdings in North America (they backed the Conferency). France? Spain? Or Japan? It could serve as a buffer to foriegn activites rather than a jumping-off spot (Russian based in Alaska went well into California at Fort Ross).

Editted to add: Someone else said Alaska has few mineral resources on the coast. I disagree. Nome, Juneau and Hope were all gold fields right on the salt water. Nome and Juneau being VERY significant deposits. I'll grant that the Russians couldn't technologically get to the huge oil reserves on the North Slope of Alaska or even within Cook Inlet (where they travelled). Nor understand the future value of the very high grade uranium deposit on the south end of Prince of Wales Island. And everyone who passed through Alaska noticed the coastal desposits of low-grade coal - bits of it wash up on my beach all the time. But everyone had better coal closer to home. The Russians even had a agent stomping around the Kenai Peninsula in 1850 and he found lots of traces of gold in lots of the streams. He just never tracked down one of the source deposits. It took hundreds of prospectors, crica 1900, to stumble on those few rich finds. But the resources were there, the Russians simply didn't put in the effort. Once the furs were played out, they left.

I live in Alaska.

Thanks to 7 tours of duty here, and 10 years as a volunteer EMT doing bush rescues there isn't a square mile I have not flown over, seen, worked, hunted, fished, or been stuck, stranded or crashed a plane on.

I lived on St Paul Island for a year - back when the Russians owned the island they took Aleut people as slaves and left them to hunt fur seals. The first batch of people died. They left more supplies with the second batch and those people living there now are descendants of the slaves. You can still find the old settlement in the sand on the north part of the island. Point is - some Russians knew the place had many resources.

Aside from the abundance of sea life - the Russians had a terrible time getting into the interior of Alaska to see what was there. They could only judge from their boats and what could be found during the short summers. Alaska is not known for it's mineral deposits on the coastline (except for garnets on Birka Island in Sitka) - so to them it was just one big unknown waste land with several mountain ranges to get over to see the whole thing. Who wants to do that?? It took an Italian, Felex Pedro until 1902 to discover gold in the Fairbanks area.

Although the discovery of gold brought allot of people here - it took a war to get a road. And to this day Alaska does not have a railroad link to the main USA!

You can email me other Alaskan questions.

Greatest real estate deal ever made.