What was the 1867 purchase price paid by the United States for Alaska?

The United States paid $7.2 million for Alaska in the 1867 Alaska Purchase.

The agreement transferred Alaska from the Russian Empire to the United States. Secretary of State William H. Seward negotiated the treaty with Russia’s minister to the United States, Eduard de Stoeckl. The price worked out to roughly two cents per acre.

The treaty was signed on March 30, 1867, and the formal transfer took place on October 18 of that year. Critics mocked the deal as “Seward’s Folly” or “Seward’s Icebox,” believing the remote territory had little value.

Later discoveries of gold, oil, and other resources transformed public attitudes. Alaska became a U.S. territory in 1912 and entered the Union as the forty-ninth state in 1959.