The US bought Alaska for two cents an acre, and got mocked for it

In 1867, Secretary of State William Seward paid Russia $7.2 million for Alaska, roughly two cents per acre. Critics dubbed it 'Seward's Folly' and 'Seward's Icebox,' certain the US had bought worthless ice. Thirty years later, gold turned up in the Klondike next door and sparked one of history's biggest gold rushes.

— Lee A. Farrow, Seward's Folly: A New Look at the Alaska Purchase — University of Alaska Press, 2016
Go deeper: get the book →