Weekly Travel Feature

The Search For Russian America

Prepared by Harold Stephens
Travel Correspondent for Thai Airways International

When motorists make the drive from Los Angeles up U.S. Highway 101 through California to the Oregon border, and north of San Francisco, they might wonder if they are in Russia. The highway crosses a bridge over the Russian River and in some of the towns the architecture is definitely Russian. There’s even a Russian fort, beautifully restored, that was once a Russian stronghold.
What’s the connection?
Sometimes we forget, but Alaska was once Russian territory and Russia had designs on the west coasts of Canada and America all the way to San Francisco. The maps of America might be much different had the tsars of Russia not dropped their claims.
The fort mentioned is Fort Ross and it is well worth a visit. Located on California State Highway 1, about 101 miles (162 km) north of San Francisco Bay, it is a state park today. It’s one of those genuine forts you see in old prints of the American west. The stout wooden buildings, constructed in 1812, sit on a headland high above the Pacific Ocean. It was originally an outpost for the Russian fur traders of the 19th century.
The park contains four buildings within its towering stockade walls. The old commandant's house is now a museum, filled with artifacts and documents related to the area's successive occupation by the native Kasha Pomo Indians. Pelts, weapons and house wares make up the majority of museum exhibits. Among other oddments, there is a Panama hat carved from wood by an industrious Indian.
Across the highway, which cuts through the park, the Russian Orthodox chapel is preserved as a church. Its appointments are true to the period in which its founders used the chapel. Each year on the 4th of July, Russian Orthodox Church members from the San Francisco Bay Area make a pilgrimage to the fort to celebrate a divine liturgy in commemoration of Russian-Americans who have died in defense of the United States. The liturgy was first celebrated in 1925 and has been held annually since. In keeping with Orthodox tradition, celebrants stand throughout the two-hour service. Only a few can crowd into the tiny building. As many as a thousand stand outside to watch the clerical procession enter and leave the chapel.
Below the headland, along Fort Ross Creek, the state maintains picnic facilities, a great place to relax and have lunch, providing you bring your lunch with you.
Along the Russian River is a 12-mile cluster of resorts from Mirabel Park to Monte Rio. For those who are driving, a leisurely approach is from U.S. 101 farther north at Guerneville Road from Santa Rosa a major town on the highway. I mention this because it’s a pleasant drive and one hard to find these days. It’s a rural road, and if you linger at one of the stops you can hear cowbells and the trill of meadowlarks. The countryside is a concentration of apple orchards, vineyards and dairy farms.
West and north of the river's great semicircle, the mountains rise up wild and nearly inaccessible. Farther north along U.S. 101, you may explore them on a drive up a narrow spur road that starts 1-1/2 miles (2.4 km) from Healdsburg. This road is marked "Venado" and "Mill Creek."
All roads to the Russian River eventually lead to Guerneville. It is the center of the river resort area which extends east as far as Mirabel Park and west to Jenner, on California State Highway 1, at the river's mouth.
You will find restaurants and places to stay overnight in this section. During the summer season, this is the scene of bustling activity with thousands of vacationers participating in almost every sort of summer resort activity.
So what’s the Russian connection?
In 1741 the first Westerners arrived in Alaska when Vitus Bering, a Dane sailing for Peter the Great of Russia sighted the mainland coast from his ship cruising in the Gulf of Alaska. He anchored off Kavak Island while crewmembers went ashore to explore, thus setting foot on the new world. Bering Strait, the water passage between American and Asia, bears his name.
Other countries, seeking a water route from the Atlantic to the Pacific across North America, sent explorers to study a northwest passage, including King Louis XVI of France in 1785. Then came the Spanish followed by the English. But it would be the Russians who laid claim to the land and expanded their holdings from Kodiak to Sitka. In 1795 Alexander Baranof decided that Sitka was a good site for a trading post and fort. By 1808, long before San Francisco blossomed from the prosperity of the gold rush, New Archangel (Sitka) was made capital of Russian America and headquarters for its commerce.
The Russians were the first whites to establish permanent communities down the coast of America. A Russian trader and diplomat, Nikolai Rezanov, was the founder of the Russian-American Company which played a major part in the history of Alaska and the American northwest.  He attempted to annex the western coast of North America to Russia and to encourage large-scale emigration of Russians into the area.
   Rezenov bought an American ship and filled it with goods to take to California to trade for wheat and vegetables. He boldly sailed right into San Francisco Bay.
The man in charge of San Francisco was Luis Arguello.  Arguello was friendly and invited Rezenov to stay in his house. But he would not trade with the Russians as it was against the law to trade with other countries. Only the governor of California could give permission to trade.
   The governor lived at Monterey, the capital city of California in those days. Luis Arguello sent a letter to Monterey and explained to the governor what Rezenov wanted. The governor was so upset that he went to San Francisco himself and meant to order the Russians away.
   It happened that Luis Arguello had a young sister named Concepcion. She was very beautiful and fell in love with Nikolai Rezenov. She begged the governor to let the Russians trade for the food they needed.
   Finally the governor agreed but told Rezenov that he would not do this again. That was the law, and the only person who could change the law was the king of Spain. Rezenov decided to go to Spain and see the king. Perhaps he would change the law. He told Concepcion that after he had seen the king, he would come back to San Francisco. Then he and Concepcion would be married. Rezenov did not return. Concepcion waited many years and then became a nun. Years later she learned that Rezenov had started on horseback across northern Asia to Europe. He grew sick with fever but refusing to stop he grew weak and fell from his horse and died.
Since the Spanish were weak, the Russians decided to take as much land as they needed for growing food.  In 1812, one hundred Russian soldiers and eighty Aleut Indians landed north of San Francisco Bay and built Fort Ross that I’ve mentioned. The Spanish were not able to do anything about it.
Eventually the decline of the fur trade due to over zealous harvesting of sea mammals, difficulties of supplying and protecting such a distant colony, and affairs of state closer to home eventually brought about a waning of Russia's interest in its territory in America. Nearly six decades had passed since Russia had raised the Double Eagle high atop the hill overlooking beautiful Sitka harbor. The Russians thought that perhaps this was a good time to sell their North American interests to a growing United States.  In 1867, the U.S. Congress, at the urging of Secretary of State William Henry Seward, passed legislation calling for the purchase of Russian America for $7.2 million, just under 2 cents an acre—which became known as “Seward’s Folly.”
In 1839 the Russians, having hunted the sea otter to near-extinction, sold Fort Ross to a Central Valley land grant baron named John Sutter. It was Sutter who two years later discovered gold in California.
Early Russian influence is still to be seen in the onion-domed churches, and heard in the Russian names of places and people. Searching for Russian America makes for an interesting drive up the West Coast of California.
Next week I will be testing readers’ travel knowledge with a little quiz. It may help those foreigners who want to travel in this part of the world.

QUESTIONS & ANSWERS

Q. Dear Mr. Stephens, I applaud your stand on sticking to the bright side regarding travel destinations and let those that can't see much of anything good cover the remainder.  Most writers seem to enjoy looking for only the downsides in wherever they go and can't wait to gleefully express their opinions of other societies' shortcomings.  It probably doesn't hurt much in some areas that are dangerous, and don't really have all that much to offer anyway, to warn prospective travelers as long as it's kept in perspective. Keep the stories coming. Ed Boden, N.C. USA
A. Dear Ed, I thank you for your nice comment. And I shall keep the stories coming. —HS

Harold Stephens
Bangkok
E-mail: ROH Weekly Travel (booking@inet.co.th)

Note: The article is the personal view of the writer and does not necessarily reflect the view of Thai Airways International Public Company Limited.