Alaska State Motto: North to the Future

Alaska's state motto is North to the Future. It was coined by Richard Peter, a journalist from Juneau, and adopted in 1967 during the Alaska Purchase Centennial.

The phrase ties Alaska's geographic identity to its potential. For a state that became the 49th state only in 1959, it was a statement about what Alaska was still becoming.

On March 30, 1867, the United States purchased Alaska from Russia for $7.2 million, roughly two cents per acre. The deal, arranged by Secretary of State William H. Seward, was widely mocked at the time as "Seward's Folly." One hundred years later, Alaska celebrated the centennial of that purchase with a year of events.

Richard Peter, a journalist from Juneau, coined the phrase "North to the Future" for the Alaska Purchase Centennial in 1967. The Alaska Legislature adopted it as the official state motto that same year.

Alaska had become the 49th state on January 3, 1959, just eight years before the motto was adopted. The phrase captured the mood of a young state still building its identity.