Alaska State Records, &c. Court Census Histories Land Law Vital Alaska Boroughs and Census Areas Aleutians East Borough Aleutians West Census Area Anchorage Borough Bethel Census Area Bristol Bay Borough Juneau Borough Denali Borough Dillingham Census Area Fairbanks North Star Borough Haines Borough Kenai Peninsula Borough Ketchikan Gateway Borough Kodiak Island Borough Lake and Peninsula Borough Matanuska-Susitna Borough Nome Census Area North Slope Borough Northwest Arctic Borough Prince of Wales-Outer Ketchikan Sitka Borough Skagway-Yakutat-Angoon Area Southeast Fairbanks Census Area Valdez-Cordova Census Area Wade Hampton Census Area Wrangell-Petersburg Census Area Yakutat Borough Yukon-Koyukuk Census Area Also see, Alaska’s Populated Places Alaska Quick History Russian Vitus Bering’s ill-fated voyage of discovery in 1741 lead to the 1743 voyage of Emelian Basov. Then came a period of intense activity by Russian fur traders (promyshlenniki). The Russians came from Siberia, traded their way eastward across the Aleutian Islands. In 1784, the first permanent North American Russian settlement, a trading post, was established on Kodiak Island. By 1804, Sitka (Novoarkhangelsk) was established. The Russians promoted the Russian Orthodox Church as they settled the coast. United States Secretary of State, William H. Seward, under President Andrew Johnson, negotiated the purchase of Russian Alaska. The price; $7,000,000.00. On 18 October 1867, that vast property changed hands and Alaska became an official U.S. Territory. For the next seventeen years, Alaska was without any formal government. The area was first presided over by the War Department, then the United States Treasury, and then the Navy Department. Finally, in 1884, Congress passed the first Organic Act, which defined Alaska as a civil and judicial district and allowed for a governor, a code of laws, and a federal court. On 3 Jan 1959, Alaska became our forty-ninth state. Juneau is the state capital.