The purchase of Alaska to the United States in 1867 was as controversial in America as it was in Russia. "What would we do with this 'Icebergia'?" many Americans asked. Others made haste to discover what Alaska had to offer. Most Americans who moved to Alaska settled in New Archangel, which was renamed Sitka. The army built outposts, civil government was established in 1884 with a governor appointed by the president, and initially settlers concentrated on the fur trade. But Americans soon diversified the economy of Alaska and developed the fish-processing industry. Then prospectors discovered gold on the Klondike in neighboring Canada in 1896 and then in Alaska, and by 1897 the Klondike gold rush was underway.

Thousands of people streamed to and through Alaska to strike it rich and quickly transformed the economy and society. The population exploded and some gold-mining camps grew into major towns, such as Nome and Fairbanks. Although Alaska was not the icebox many Americans believed it to be, the exoticism of this far northern land lured travelers of various sorts. Scientists and artists came to explore and record the landscape, animals, and plants. Tourists arrived on luxury steamships and took in the rain forests, glaciers, and port towns, boosting the local economy in the process. And back home in "lower" America, people read and watched Yukon adventure films, which helped solidify the image of Alaska as America's "last frontier."

Alaska was proclaimed the 49th state of the Union on January 3, 1959.

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