History of Alaska

Some historical information on the state of Alaska. Click on any link for more information.

Name: "Alaska" came from an Aleut word for "great land," though some believe the Aleut word meant "mainland," referred to it by those residing on the Alaska Peninsula. Scientist and surveyor William Healey Dall wrote in 1870: "This name, now applied to the whole of our new territory, is a corruption, very far removed from the original word . . . called by the natives Al-ak-shak or Al-ay-ek-sa. From Alayeksa the name became Alaksa, Alashka, Aliaska, and finally Alaska. We have, then Alaska for the territory, Aliaska for the peninsula."

Alaska today refers to the entire state as well as the Peninsula. "Alyeska" is still around, though, as the name of a ski resort in Girdwood, as well as the name of the Anchorage consortium overseeing the trans-Alaska pipeline company.

Other names for Alaska:

	Territory of Baranov, for Alexander Baranov, the early Russian leader on this continent.
	Russian America, before it was purchased by the United States in 1867.
	Seward's Folly, or Seward's Icebox, for Secretary of State William Seward, who proposed the often-ridiculed purchase and the official acceptance of the name "Alaska."