A statue honoring former U.S. Secretary of State William Henry Seward, who signed a treaty with Russia that brought Alaska to the United States, will be installed in the city of Juneau on July 3.

Mary Becker, co-chair of the Seward Statue Committee, on June 24 said the statue will commemorate the 150th anniversary of the 1867 Treaty of Cession that made Alaska a U.S. territory.

The $250,000 statue will be put in place at the Dimond Courthouse Plaza in front of the Alaska State Capitol.

"You can kind of see how important he is to us who now call ourselves Alaskans," said Wayne Jensen, co-chair of the committee.

"It probably wouldn't have even been called Alaska. Hopefully, it wouldn't have still been Russian America, but it might have been something else."

The United States purchased Alaska from Russia for $7.2 million. It was admitted as a U.S. state in 1959.

Based on reporting by AP and The Juneau Empire