Alaska was previously owned by Russia then some real estate guy decided he could make it buck by convincing the Ruskis to sell it. USA offered $7,500,000 for the property and Canada didn't have that much money at the time. But the Americans cheated claiming a lott of coastal land that should have been part of Yukon Territories.
Britain wasn't interested in buying it. The US bought it for around 2 cents an acre. Russia figured they'd better sell it before Britain took it from them in a war.
EDIT: Also, when my Son lived there, he got around $1,200.00 off of mineral royalties or something like that. I think that everyone over 18 that lives there over a year gets it. He said he thinks it's been up to $2,000.00 or so but now the State is keeping about half of it to offset some deficit. Beautiful place to visit in the Summer, never been there in the Winter.
This post was edited by texasescimo at October 14, 2017 12:32 PM MDT
Zack 