That was one of the derogatory terms for Alaska in the 19th Century, when the U.S. purchased the Alaskan Territory from the Russian Empire in 1867 for $7.2 million in gold.
Well, it seems that the detractors were right. Russia got rid of a territory that was, at the time, too distant from St. Petersburg to be administered with any degree of efficiency. The United States was, as a result, saddled with a territory that, over the following 140 years, has proven itself to be a money sink.
If you page down to the appendix of the study, you will see that the Gadsten Purchase (portions of New Mexico and Arizona) in 1854 and the purchase of the U.S. Virgin Islands in 1917 have also proven to be money sinks. Only the "purchase" of Hawaii in 1898 was a monetary benefit to the nation.
Who can we sell Alaska to?
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The Gadsden Purchase had another reason for being, though -- the Southern route of an intercontinental railroad, one that would stay open all winter without being occasionally covered by snow avalanches. The former Southern Pacific Railroad goes through Tucson connecting the ports of San Diego and Los Angeles to the Southeast, and if you consider the costs of diverting all that traffic further north you end up making the Gadsden Purchase well worth it.
- Badtux the Transportation Penguin
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