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| The wealth of natural resources was an initial attraction for outside interests seeking riches of gold, copper, salmon, and oil in the Far North. And with a growing population came a growing need for a communications network, an agricultural market, and health care for its people.
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Proof of optimism for Alaska's agricultural potential is evident in the history of experimental farming in the late 1800s and, in 1922, the establishment of the Alaska Agricultural College and School of Mines.
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"White man's disease" began sweeping through Alaska's Native villages as early as the 1760s, and in two centuries, many thousands died from smallpox, diphtheria, cholera, influenza, and tuberculosis.
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With each new boomtown, a newspaper was born, and as mining activity increased, so did the government's interest in its faraway possession.
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Few could resist the "get rich quick" stories that were pouring out of the Northland during the late 1800s.
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Among Alaska's vast resources, gold and oil were the rich twins that put the territory on the map near the turn of the last century.
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While miners were grubbing in the mud for gold, well-dressed tourists were heading north to see the Last Frontier for themselves.
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