State offices close Monday for Alaska Day, marking the 1867 transfer from Russia

Alaska state offices are closed Monday, Oct. 19, for Alaska Day, marking the 1867 transfer of Alaska from Russia to the United States. The anniversary fell on a Sunday this year, so the state holiday calendar moves the closure to Monday.

Gov. Mike Dunleavy's proclamation marks Sunday as the 159th anniversary of the transfer. It says the United States bought Alaska for $7.2 million in March 1867 and recounts about 250 Army troops marching to the governor's house at Castle Hill in Sitka, where the U.S. flag was raised. Statehood followed 92 years later, in 1959.

Indigenous Peoples Day, which fell on Oct. 12 this year, is not a paid state holiday. State law sets it on the second Monday of October and says it may be observed by civic groups and the public. Then-Gov. Bill Walker first declared the day in 2015, and it became permanent in 2017, according to the National Park Service.