When United States Secretary of State William H. Seward concluded the deal that bought the U.S. 580,000 sq. mi of icy terrain from Russia, many in the government scoffed at “Seward’s Folly” and “Seward’s Lockbox”, but both Seward and President Andrew Johnson thought the land could one day be organized as a state. Early on, a viable trade developed in furs and oil, and the First Organic Act established a formal government in the land, but neither Johnson nor his successors seemed in much of a hurry to organize it. Until they had to.

On this day, August 24, in 1912, with the passage of the Second Organic Act, Alaska became a U.S. territory. A criminal code was passed, along with a tax on liquor, which heightened calls for Alaskan congressional representation. Combined with several scandals involving business interests and the Gold Rush-fueled increase in population served to sway the minds in Congress.

Alaska before the act resembled a “colonial economy” in the words of an Atlantic magazine story from around that time. Private and international interests were exploiting the region’s resources, and the U.S. was just standing by. A scandal developed over illegal distribution of federal mines to outside interests, and convinced President McKinley that to bring order to the place the U.S. needed to make it a territory.