In 1867, Secretary of State William Seward arranged to buy Alaska from Russia for $7.2 million. That works out to about two cents per acre. Many Americans thought the purchase was ridiculous. Newspapers called it "Seward's Folly" and "Seward's Icebox." They thought the land was nothing but frozen wilderness. On April 9, 1867, the U.S. Senate voted to approve the deal. Alaska covers 663,000 square miles, making it more than twice the size of Texas. It shares no border with the rest of the United States. Canada sits between Alaska and the lower forty-eight states. Its geography is extreme: the highest peak in North America, Denali, rises 20,310 feet. Glaciers cover about five percent of the state. Temperatures in winter can drop below minus fifty degrees. Despite the early mockery, the purchase turned out to be one of the smartest deals in American history. Gold was discovered in Alaska in the 1890s, triggering a massive gold rush. Later, enormous oil reserves were found at Prudhoe Bay. Alaska also has rich fisheries, vast forests, and mineral deposits like copper and zinc. It became the 49th state in 1959.