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Up The Road: Fort Ross

Nina
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Flickr, Creative Commons
Fort Ross Church.

Today we head up the road to the weathered redwood fortress that once represented Imperial Russia on the California coast. Fourth graders know this story, of course, but older Californians are often surprised to learn that Russia colonized California before the U.S. arrived. That colony? Fort Ross.

Credit Keith Ewing / Flickr, Creative Commons
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Flickr, Creative Commons
Redwood interior of the Fort Ross chapel.

Now a fascinating state historic park on a sublime slice of the Sonoma County coast just north of Jenner, Fort Ross was established by the Russian-American Fur Company; Czar Alexander I and U.S. President James Madison were both company officers. The firm started its California fur trapping at Bodega Bay, then turned its attention northward in the spring of 1812 to what became Fort Ross. Here the Russians grew grains and vegetables to supply Alaskan colonists as well as Californios, or California descendants of Spanish and Mexican land grant families. They also trapped sea otters to satisfy the voracious demand for fine furs. With pelts priced at $700 each—in 17th century dollars—all trapping techniques were allowed. One of the most effective: grabbing a sea otter pup and using its distress calls to lure otherwise wary adults into range.

Perhaps due to the Russian Orthodox belief that only God is perfect, the fort was constructed with no right angles.

The weathered redwood fortress perched on these lonely headlands, surrounded by gloomy cypress groves, was originally a 14-foot-high stockade with corner lookouts and 40 cannons. Inside the compound were barracks, a jail, the commandant’s house (the only original building to survive, now restored), warehouses, and workshops. At the fort and just outside its walls, the industrious Russians and their work crews produced household goods plus saddles, bridles, even 200-ton ships and prefabricated houses.

Credit peace-on-earth.org / Flickr, Creative Commons
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Flickr, Creative Commons
2011 Fort Ross Russian Heritage Day.

Perhaps due to the Russian Orthodox belief that only God is perfect, the fort was constructed with no right angles. Its Greek Orthodox chapel was destroyed by the 1906 San Francisco earthquake, rebuilt, then lost again to arson in 1970, though it’s since been reconstructed from the original blueprints (fetched from Moscow). Outside the stockade was a bustling town of Alaskan hunters, redwood huts with a windmill and various outbuildings and shops. When the Russians at Fort Ross finally prepared to leave, the KashiaPomo who also lived here held a mourning ceremony—a testament to very amicable long-term relationships.

Visit the fort during the wonderful Fort Ross Festival if at all possible. It’s on July 30 this year, so get tickets now. Thanks to volunteers with the nonprofit Fort Ross Conservancy and Renova Fort Ross, you’ll get historically accurate costumes and brief dramas, dance performances, and amazing music—including Russian House Kedry, the a cappella Slavyanka Chorus, and the women singers of Kitka, a group you may have heard on A Prairie Home Companion. Not to mention militia cannon firings, horse and buggy rides, hands-on crafts demonstrations, an international food bazaar, and the famous Fort Ross Beer Garden. If you can’t make the summer party, there’s always the Harvest Festival in October.
 

Credit Charles Berg / Flickr, Creative Commons
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Flickr, Creative Commons
The view from Fort Ross.

Get oriented at the museum, with its spectacular Pomo basketry. Elsewhere don’t miss the windmill, contributed by a Russian benefactor. Stroll to the simple cemetery, and the 200-year-old orchard. Seasonal camping, picnicking, tide pools, and hiking trails make this a good place for an extended visit. The Call House Museum, an early California ranch house, is usually open for guided tours only on the first weekend of each month. Well worth it any time are guided tours by Fort Ross Conservancy volunteers, offered both in English and Russian.

Kim Weir is editor of Up the Road, a nonprofit public-interest journalism dedicated to sustaining the Northern California story. A long-time member of the Society of American Travel Writers, Weir is also a former NSPR reporter.