When did the 49th state join?

The 49th state was Alaska, admitted on January 3, 1959, becoming the first state to join the Union since Arizona's admission on February 14, 1912 nearly 47 years earlier. The United States had purchased Alaska from Russia for 7.2 million dollars on March 30, 1867 in a deal negotiated by Secretary of State William H. Seward. The deal was widely ridiculed at the time as Seward's Folly because of Alaska's remote location and assumed lack of value, but the discovery of gold in the Klondike in 1896 and along the Yukon in 1897, the discovery of oil and gas, and Alaska's strategic importance during World War II and the Cold War vindicated the purchase.

Alaska remained a federal department, then a customs district from 1884, an organized territory from 1912, and finally a state. Statehood for Alaska was discussed throughout the twentieth century but was blocked by various political and economic concerns. Senator Bob Bartlett and Governor Ernest Gruening of the Alaska Territory led the statehood campaign for decades. President Dwight D. Eisenhower signed the Alaska Statehood Act on July 7, 1958. Alaskan voters approved statehood by 83 percent on August 26, 1958. Eisenhower issued the formal proclamation on January 3, 1959.

Alaska is the largest state in the Union by area at about 663,300 square miles, more than twice the size of Texas (the second largest at 268,600). The state's population in 2020 was about 733,000, ranking 48th, but the immense land area gives it the lowest population density in the country at about 1.3 people per square mile. The capital is Juneau in the southeastern panhandle, accessible only by sea or air. Major cities include Anchorage (about 290,000, the largest), Fairbanks, and Ketchikan.

Alaska contains 17 of the 20 highest mountain peaks in the United States, including Denali at 20,310 feet, the highest peak in North America. The state has more coastline than all other U.S. states combined. Alaska Native peoples include Iñupiat, Yupik, Aleut, Athabascan, Tlingit, Haida, and Tsimshian groups.

The state's economy is dominated by oil and gas extraction (the 1968 discovery of oil at Prudhoe Bay led to the Trans-Alaska Pipeline System completed in 1977 and a state Permanent Fund that pays annual dividends to all Alaskan residents from oil revenues), fishing, mining, tourism (especially in Denali National Park, Glacier Bay, and the Kenai Peninsula), forestry, and federal employment including military bases. Alaska is the only state with parts in both the Eastern and Western Hemispheres because the Aleutian chain crosses the 180th meridian.