It was on March 29th, 1867,  that the stirrings began that would change this great northern land into the territory then state of Alaska.

It was on this day that the Russian minister to the U.S., Eduard Andreevich Stoeckl,  rushed to Secretary of State William H. Seward to bring him important news from his homeland.

When Stoeckl arrived at Seward’s home, he informed him that he had received a wire from Czar Alexander II informing him that he had approval for a treaty to be signed between the two nations for the purchase of Alaska.

The two friends would work through the night drawing up the treaty that would bring the Great Land into the ppossession of the United States.

For his part in the treaty Stoeckl would be paid $25,000 and an annual pension of $6,000.

  Alaska, czar, purchase, Russia, seward, stoeckl, treaty