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![On-line Book](on-line_book02%281%29.gif)
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National Park Service
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ADDITIONAL NATIONAL HISTORIC LANDMARK
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Old Sitka
Old Sitka National Historic Landmark commemorates the
first European settlement in the Alexander Archipelago and an incident
in Russian-Native relations. In July of 1779, in order to check
international trade competition, Alexander Baranov, Chief Manager of the
Russian American Company, met with local Tlingit Chiefs to obtain
cession of the site for a new post. Only a barabara was on the
Starriagavin River site when the Russians constructed Redoubt St.
Archangel Michael. It consisted of several log buildings surrounded by a
fort wall when, in June of 1802, a Tlingit attack destroyed the Redoubt.
The Russians reestablished at Sitka and the site became known as Old
Sitka. In 1934-1935 archeologists excavated a portion of the site,
determined the locations of some Russian buildings and recovered many
artifacts. Erosion and extensive construction activity has destroyed
much of the area excavated. In 1966, the State built a wayside on the
site. It is now operated as a unit of the Alaska State Park System open
for year-round use.
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American Flag Raising Site
American Flag Raising Site National Historic
Landmark sits on a sixty-foot rock outcropping near the edge of Sitka
harbor. On October 18, 1867, amid cheers, tears, and cannon salute,
officials met to lower the Russian flag and raise the American at the
flagstaff in front of Governor's House on Castle Hill. Since 1804
Russians had occupied the former Tlingit "knootlian" site where four
principal houses were located. From its construction in 1837 until it
burned in 1894, Governor's House remained the scene of government
operations under both flags. In 1900 the U.S. Department of Agriculture
constructed a building on site. After its demolition in 1955 the grassy
site with Russian cannons displayed was maintained as a Territorial
Park. On July 4, 1959, under the Constitutional proviso that design
change to the American flag goes into effect on the 4th of July
following ratification of the admission of a new state, the first
official raising of the new flag occasioned by Alaska statehood took
place at the American Flag Raising site. Today the site is maintained as
a State Historic Site.
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Fort Durham
Fort Durham was one of three locations (the others
were Fort Stikine at Wrangell and Fort Yukon at the confluence of the
Yukon and Porcupine rivers) established in Russian America by the
Hudson's Bay Company. As such, it represents the British role in the
great struggle between England, the United States, and the Russian
Empire for control of the North Pacific fur trade. Fort Durham was built
under provisions of a lease negotiated between the Russian American
Company and the Hudson's Bay Company. The lease gave the British firm
control of a ten-mile wide strip of Russian Alaska from 54 degrees 40
minutes North to Cape Spencer on Cross Sound. Fort Durham was erected
during June to August 1840 about 25 miles south of the present day town
of Juneau. The stockaded post served as a trading point for the Hudson's
Bay Company until the spring of 1843. After that, the company abandoned
the fort in favor of yearly visits to the area by its trading ship,
Beaver. There are no surface remains at the Fort Durham site.
Archaeological evidences of the trading post were discovered in
1975.
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Artist's sketch of original Beaver.
New Russia
New Russia, outside Yakutat, represents a pivotal
incident in Russian-Tlingit relations. Russian fur traders established
the site in 1796 as a link between the fur trading center of Kodiak to
the north and the rapidly southward moving sea otter which they were
pursuing to near extinction. The stockaded settlement developed into a
fur-trading post, a small ship yard, and a port of call for vessels
traveling from northern areas to the Russian post that was established
at Sitka in 1799. Despite its value, New Russia created much
misunderstanding between Tlingits and Russians. In 1805 the Natives,
believing that the Russians had violated the terms under which they had
been allowed to build their outpost, attacked and burned the Russian
stockade. As late as 1822, the Russian American Company was not able to
conduct a census at Yakutat. Aside from intermittent geographers'
visits, permanent foreign intrusions did not occur in the area until the
late nineteenth century. There are no surface remains at the New Russia
site, although artifacts have been recovered there over the years.
Extensive archaeological testing was carried out there in 1978.
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Bering Expedition Landing Site
The Bering Expedition Landing Site, located on Kayak
Island about 200 miles southeast of Anchorage, commemorates the scene of
the first scientific investigation in northwestern North America. The
expedition, under Captain-Commander Vitus Bering, culminated a series of
Russian attempts to determine if the Asian and North American continents
were joined. St. Peter, Bering's ship, reached Kayak Island on
July 20, 1741 (Julian calendar) after a 47-day voyage from from Avacha
Bay on Siberia's Kamchataka Peninsula. Landings were made on Kayak
Island and nearby Wingham Island. Georg Wilhelm Stellar, the ship's
surgeon and naturalist, landed on Kayak Island. He spent ten hours
exploring, making collections, and recording his observations. These
observations were preserved in his journal and later published. The
approximate location of the landing site has been reconstructed from
ship's logs and Stellar's observations. No physical remains of the 1741
visit have been found on Kayak Island.
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Three Saints Site
Three Saints Site, located about 75 miles southwest
of the City of Kodiak on Kodiak Island, was the location of one of the
first permanent Russian settlements in North America. Fur trader
Gregorii Shelikhov and his wife Natal'ia arrived there in August of 1784
with three ships. After fighting a sharp battle with Kodiak Natives, the
Russians built a trading post that included several small houses and
commercial buildings. By the time Shelikhov returned to Siberia in May
1786, Three Saints had become the principal Russian settlement in North
America. It remained so until about 1793 when the focus of Shelikhov's
Alaskan operations moved to the site of the present day City of Kodiak.
Three Saints was not abandoned, however. Later records refer to church
construction in 1796, "warehouses full of furs" in 1800, and an extant
settlement in 1803. It was listed as a populated point as late as 1867
when Russia transferred its Alaskan interests to United States
jurisdiction. But Three Saints was deserted as Russian fur-trading
company employees left after the 1867 transfer. It was not resettled by
the Americans who came to Alaska, although a Native village remains in
the vicinity. Archaeological investigations in 1962 found two cultural
components at Three Saints. The first component was a rich prehistoric
one that defined a significant phase of Eskimo prehistory. The second
consists of remains of the trading post founded by the Russians in
1784.
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Sitka Spruce Plantation
The Sitka Spruce Plantation on the naturally treeless
Aleutian Island of Amaknak is the oldest recorded afforestation project
on the North American continent. The project reflects the Russian
interest in developing the Aleutian Islands and making them, as well as
all Russian America, more self-sufficient. In 1805 Nikolai Rezanov
ordered the shipment of seedlings from Sitka to Unalaska. By the time of
Bishop Veniaminov's visit in 1834, a grove of 24 trees survived on the
island of Amaknek in Unalaska Bay. The plantation failed to supply the
timber needed for the area, but six trees still stand as testimony to
the experiment. The trees of up to 36 feet in height remain in a small
city park maintained in the community of Dutch Harbor. Around the older
trees are seedlings and young trees, a playground and a pond.
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