FORT ROSS – RUSSIANS IN CALIFORNIA

Fort Ross (an Americanization of Rosiya, the Russia of Tsarist days) is situated north of San Francisco on a flat tableland projecting out on the Pacific coast. It marks the furthest south that Russians ever settled in America. Russia founded Fort Ross in 1812 as an agricultural base to supply food to their trading posts in Alaska. In 1836, 260 people lived on the grounds of the fort – including Russians, Aleuts, Indians, etc. The Spanish and later the Mexican settlers in California were too few and too weak to evict the Russians. However, the Russians were not successful in their effort to provision their Alaskan workers from California, so they abandoned Fort Ross. Instead, in 1839, they contracted with England's Hudson Bay Company to send the needed supplies from the fields of Washington and Oregon to their trading posts in Alaska.

In 1841, John Sutter, the American of 1848 Gold Rush fame, bought the abandoned fort along with its extensive lands and contents. He transferred to Sacramento anything of value that could be moved.

Then, after victory in the Mexican War, the U.S. won all of California. America solidified its dominance with settlers and more settlers who became attached to the land. The war only codified what had already taken place—gone were the Russians, gone were the Spanish and Mexicans, and finally, in 1848, gone also were the English from Oregon and Washington --- all falling to the commitment of individual Americans – shopkeepers, farmers, and ordinary citizens who settled the land and made it theirs.

Last photo shows junior high students from Berkeley who come annually for an overnight - reenacting the experience at the Russian fort.