Settlement of Alaska

For the first dozen years of the U.S. administration of Alaska, few Americans came to stay. An initial brief boom in Sitka soon fizzled out after the Russian-American Company's property and stores were sold. 

 In 1880, the U.S. Census Office appointed Ivan Petroff to take the first U.S. census of Alaska. It was impossible for him to visit every part of Alaska, but he visited Cook Inlet, Kodiak Island, the Alaska Peninsula, some Aleutian Islands, part of the Bering Sea coast, and the lower portions of the Yukon and Kuskowkim rivers. He counted 33,426 people, 430 non-Native, 1,756 Creole, and almost 33,000 Native. His report provided a great deal of information about Alaska's geography and resources. 

Starting in the 1880s, gold discoveries led to the arrival of more Americans. These discoveries and increased interest in Alaska led to the first civilian government and exploration of the territory. By 1896, on the eve of the Klondike Gold Rush, several thousand Americans were spread around the state, most in newly formed mining towns.