State of Alaska turning the big five-oh soon

ALASKANEWSPAPER STAFF

June 12, 2008 at 10:36AM AKST

Alaska’s 50th anniversary of statehood is coming up.

OK, it wasn’t officially admitted into the union until January 1959.

But it was approved by the U.S. House of Representatives in May 1958 and by the Senate the following month. Most communities are celebrating the weekend of June 28-30.

A bust of William H. Seward, the man who started it all, sits in Seward. On March 30, 1867, at 4 o’clock in the morning, Seward signed an agreement with Baron Eduard de Stoeckl to purchase Alaska for $7.2 million, or two cents per acre.

This was referred to as Seward’s Folly. People thought he was crazy. They couldn’t imagine what anyone would do with such a parcel of land.

Now their great-great-grandchildren are paying big bucks to stay in overpriced hotels and gawk at city moose in Anchorage.