The answer to the pub quiz question on the Alaska Purchase is $7.2million. That’s how much the US paid to Russia to take 576,412 square miles of land off their hand.
Back in 1867, there was significant opposition – why would you pay all that money for so much snow and ice? The Klondike Gold Rush some 30 years later, and subsequent mineral exploitation, have justified the economic investment, though at notable environmental cost.
The Wikipedia entry is silent on whether there was anyone in Alaska prior to the Russians and what price they might have been paid…
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alaska_Purchase
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