Alaska gave us nothing in the beginning.
Oil? Not until the 20th century.
Gold? Not until around 1900.
Fir? We were not short of that to the point to buy the place.
And anything we did get out of there cost much more to ship back here then it was worth for the first 40 years. Most people wanted the government to instead rebuild the nation after the war.
No one called Stewards Icebox because they knew it was full of gold and oil.
The point is that you stake the territory, then you get what you can. Costs will fall as new methods are employed.
Or you can leave it all to other countries that will gladly sell the spoils to us at a greatly inflated cost.
One important thing that Alaska always had that the moon will never, AIR!