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Lynda Feller, age 15, of Millersville, Pennsylvania, for her question:


Who discovered Alaska?


Many thousands of years ago, Alaska was a highway for adventurous travelers. They came from various parts of Asia and most of them continued on farther south. Taking their time, they spread throughout the length and breadth of the Americas. Several groups stayed in the far north. All these early travelers were, of course, the native Americans found by Leif  Ericson and later by Columbus and his men.

No one knows exactly when Alaska was discovered first. But it must have been at least 20,000 and maybe more than 30,000 years ago. We know this because the original Americans came from northern Asia by a land bridge that existed across what is now the Bering Strait. It is thought that they wandered into the New World in small separate groups perhaps through several thousand years.

In this case, Alaska was discovered many times by persons unknown. As other groups wandered on to populate the rest of the New World, at least three distinct groups stayed in the far north. The charming Eskimos made themselves at home near the northern and western shoreline. The Aleuts were clever sea hunters who settled the Alaskan Peninsula and the Aleutian Islands. The interior and the southeast were occupied by groups of American Indians.

This is how things were in the 1720s when Peter the Great of Russia wanted to know whether the northeast corner of his territory had a land bridge to North America. The curious minded Czar decided that the man to solve the mystery was a Danish explorer named Captain Vitus Bering. However, Bering had to travel thousands of miles and make two hazardous journeys before he finally sighted the mainland of Alaska.

The first mission of discovery began in 1725 with a 6,000 mile trudge through frigid northern regions of Asian Russia. In 1728, Bering's party reached Kamchatka Peninsula, a finger of land dipping down from northern Siberia. There Bering built a ship, the Saint Gabriel, and sailed forth to discover Saint Lawrence Island, which is now part of Alaska. En route, he sailed through the famous Bering Strait that separates the Old World and the New.

However, the weather was foggy and Bering did not sight the mainland of North America on this voyage. But Czar Peter the Great was not one to be discouraged. In 1741, he sent Bering forth on a second attempt, this time with a Russian explorer named Alexei Chirikif aboard. Bering's party sighted Mount St. Elias on the Alaskan mainland and landed on Kayak Island. These men were the first European explorers to discover the mainland of Alaska.

Later in the century, the famous Captain James Cook sailed to the Bering Strait along the Alaskan coast and many explorers were sent to the region by Spain and France. But the rich fur trapping region was claimed by the Russians, who found it first. The first Russian settlement was established in 1784 on Kodiak Island. And Alaska remained Russian territory until 1867 when the whole vast area was sold to the United States for $7,200,000.

 

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