The United States bought Alaska from Russia on March 30, 1867, for $7.2 million which is about two cents per acre. Starting in the 1890s and some places into the early 1910s, gold rushes in Alaska and Yukon Territory attracted thousands of miners and settlers to Alaska. Alaska was officially incorporated as a territory in 1912.  Immigrants from Norway and Sweden came to southeast Alaska, origianlly for gold but then took up the fishing and loggng industries. The Klondike Gold Rush, also called the Yukon Gold Rush, the Alaska Gold Rush and many more names help migrate 100,000 prospectors to Canada in 1896. Gold was discovered in the Klondike region on August 16, 1896. When this information reached cities on the west coast of the country it drew many gold seekers north. The journey was extremey dangerous and very little of those who started the trip actually finished it. Some gold seekers became rich, only around 4,000 reached actual gold. When gold was discovered in Nome the gold rush ended in Alaska. This gold rush helped Alaska become the 49th state by helping to grow the population and make the purchase seem worth while to doubters.