View source for Department of Alaska

{{Short description|Department of the United States (1867–1884)}}
{{One source|date=June 2008}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=April 2013}}
{{Use American English|date=February 2023}}
{{Infobox former subdivision
| native_name            = 
| conventional_long_name = Department of Alaska
| common_name            = Alaska
| nation                 = the United States
| subdivision            = {{plainlist|
* Administered by [[United States Army|U.S. Army]] (1867–77)
* Administered by [[United States Department of the Treasury|U.S. Treasury]] (1877–79)
* Administered by [[United States Navy|U.S. Navy]] (1879–84)
}}
| image_map              = AlaskaMap1867.jpg
| image_map_caption      = Map of the Department of Alaska
| image_flag             = Flag of the United States (1877-1890).svg
| image_coat             = 
| symbol                 = Seal of Alaska
| symbol_type            = Seal
| event_start            = Department of Alaska
| date_start             = October 18,
| year_start             = 1867
| event_end              = [[District of Alaska]]
| year_end               = 1884
| date_end               = May 17,
| event1                 = 
| date_event1            = 
| event2                 = 
| date_event2            = 
| event_pre              = 
| date_pre               = |
| p1                     = Russian America
| flag_p1                = Flag of the Russian Empire (black-yellow-white).svg
| s1                     = District of Alaska
| flag_s1                = Flag of the United States (1877-1890).svg|
| capital                = [[Sitka, Alaska|Sitka]]
| government_type        = [[Territories of the United States#Former territories and administered areas|Incorporated and unorganized territory]]
| title_leader           = [[List of governors of Alaska#Commanders of the Department of Alaska|Governor]]
| leader1                = [[Brevet (military)|Brevet]] Maj. Gen. [[Jefferson C. Davis]]
| year_leader1           = 1868–1870
| leader2                = Brevet Major [[George B. Rodney Jr.|George B. Rodney]]
| year_leader2           = 1874
| leader3                = Lt. Cmdr. [[Henry E. Nichols]]
| year_leader3           = 1884
| title_deputy           = 
| deputy1                = 
| year_deputy1           = 
}}

{{Historical populations
|type= USA
|1880|33426
|footnote=Source: 1880;<ref>{{cite report|editor-last=Forstall|editor-first=Richard L.|title=Population of the States and Counties of the United States: 1790–1990|page=3|publisher=[[United States Census Bureau]]|url=https://www.census.gov/population/www/censusdata/PopulationofStatesandCountiesoftheUnitedStates1790-1990.pdf|access-date=May 18, 2020}}</ref>
}}
{{Alaska History}}

The '''Department of Alaska''' was the designation for the government of Alaska from its purchase by the United States of America in 1867 until its organization as the [[District of Alaska]] in 1884. During the [[Department (United States Army)|department]] era, Alaska was variously under the jurisdiction of the [[United States Army|U.S. Army]] (until 1877), the [[United States Department of the Treasury|U.S. Dept. of the Treasury]] (from 1877 until 1879), and the [[United States Navy|U.S. Navy]] (from 1879 until 1884). The area later became the [[District of Alaska]], then the [[Territory of Alaska]], then the State of [[Alaska]].

==History==
At the instigation of U.S. Secretary of State [[William H. Seward|William Seward]], the [[United States Senate]] approved the [[Alaska Purchase|purchase of Alaska]] from the [[Russian Empire]] for $7,200,000 on April 9, 1867, and the United States flag was raised on October 18 of that same year (now called [[Alaska Day]]). Coincident with the ownership change, the de facto [[International Date Line#Historic alterations|International Date Line]] was moved westward, and Alaska changed from the [[Julian calendar]] to the [[Gregorian calendar]]. Therefore, for residents, the day after Friday, October 6, 1867, was Friday, October 18, 1867.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Dershowitz |first1=Nachum |last2=Reingold |first2=Edward M. |date=2008 |title=Calendrical Calculations |title-link= Calendrical Calculations |location=[[Cambridge]] |publisher=Cambridge University Press |page=47 |isbn=9780521885409 }}</ref>

On the morning of October 18, 1867, {{USS|Ossipee|1861|6}} arrived at [[Sitka, Alaska|Sitka]] with Russian Commissioner Captain [[Alexis Pestchouroff]] and American Commissioner General [[Lovell Rousseau]] on board. That afternoon, 250 American soldiers, 80 Russian soldiers, Russian-American Company Chief Manager [[Dmitry Petrovich Maksutov|Prince Maksutov]] and his wife, and a group of locals assembled at the flagstaff in front of the governor's residence (on what has come to be known as "[[Castle Hill (Sitka, Alaska)|Baranof (Baronov) Castle Hill]]" to witness the lowering of the [[flag of Russia]] and the raising of the [[Flag of the United States|U.S. flag]] in its place.

A dual cannon salute was fired for each flag, and each commissioner gave a short speech. Perhaps misunderstanding the directions, the Russian soldier bringing his country's flag down tore it loose, then dropped it. The banner drifted down and was caught on a portion of the upraised bayonets of the Russian [[garrison]]. Princess Maksutov is said to have fainted at the sight.{{citation needed|date=September 2022}}

Legend has it that the first American administrator of Alaska was [[Polish people|Polish]] immigrant [[Włodzimierz Krzyżanowski]]. However, the ''[[Anchorage Daily News]]'' was unable to find any conclusive information to support or disprove this claim.<ref>{{cite news |last=Ruskin |first=Liz |date=December 17, 2002 |title=Poland honors second 'ski' to lead Alaska |work=[[Anchorage Daily News]] }}</ref> Public opinion in the United States was generally positive, though some criticized the purchase as "Seward's Folly" or "Seward's Icebox". However, the resources of Alaska would soon show that this was a wise transaction. Alaska celebrates the purchase each year on the last Monday of March, which is known as [[Seward's Day]].

When the United States first bought Alaska, vast regions of the area still remained unexplored by Europeans and Lower 48 Americans. In 1865, [[Western Union]] decided to lay a [[telegraphy|telegraph]] line across Alaska to the Bering Strait, where it would connect with an Asian line. [[Robert Kennicott]], part of a Western Union surveying effort, led his crew to Nulato on the banks of the Yukon. He died the following year, and [[William Healey Dall]] took charge of scientific affairs. The [[Russian–American Telegraph|Western Union expedition]] conducted the first scientific studies of the region and produced the first map of the entire [[Yukon River]]. That same year, 1866, workers finally succeeded in laying an Atlantic undersea telegraph cable, and the Alaskan overland project was abandoned. Dall returned to Alaska many times, recording and naming geological features.

The [[Alaska Commercial Company]] also contributed to the growing exploration of Alaska in the last decades of the 1800s, building trading posts along the interior's many rivers. Small parties of trappers and traders entered the interior, and, though the federal government provided little money to the region, army officers would occasionally explore on their own. In a four-month journey, Lt. [[Frederick Schwatka]] and his party rafted the Yukon from Lake Lindeman in Canada to [[St. Michael, Alaska|Saint Michael]] near the river's mouth on the [[Bering Sea]]. In 1885, Lt. [[Henry Tureman Allen|Henry T. Allen]] and four others left the [[Gulf of Alaska]], followed the [[Copper River (Alaska)|Copper River]], crossed a mountain range, traveled down the [[Tanana River]] to the Yukon, and portaged to the Kanuti and Koyukuk rivers. Allen went up the Koyukuk, then back down the Yukon, crossed over to Unalakeet on the coast, and then made his way to Saint Michael, exploring about {{convert|1500|mi}} of Interior Alaska.

==See also==
*[[List of governors of Alaska]]
*[[List of governors of dependent territories in the 19th century]]

==References==
{{Reflist|2}}

{{Territories of the United States}}
{{Alaska history footer}}
{{Authority control}}
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Alaska, Department of}}
[[Category:1867 establishments in the United States]]
[[Category:1884 disestablishments in the United States]]
[[Category:History of the American West]]
[[Category:Departments|Alaska]]
[[Category:Former regions and territories of the United States]]
[[Category:Pre-statehood history of Alaska| 3]]