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Alaskan Fur Trading Furs Alaska Animal Skins

Until major new sources of wealth were developed in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, the fur trade dominated the economy of Alaska for more than 150 years. Following Bering's Second Kamchatka Expedition of 1741-42, the Russians began to barter sea otter pelts from Alaskan waters. China ultimately became the key market, where the upper classes sought luxurious pelts for their clothing.

Alaska, with its official nickname "Last Frontier," is indeed our wildest state. The climate is extreme, the topography largely inhospitable to agriculture, and much of the interior accessible only to the most intrepid hikers and bush pilots. Still, Alaska is far from being an untouched wilderness today, and, in fact, was not pristine even a century ago. When the Harriman Expedition arrived in 1899, it found much evidence of industry, commerce, and resource development. The following time line tracks this development from the early days of the fur trade up to the arrival of the George W. Elder in 1899.