Photo of the Week: Fort Ross State Historic Park in Jenner, California

Located on the rugged Sonoma Coast of California, Fort Ross State Historic Park is full of surprises. The park preserves the Fort Ross Settlement, where Russians and native Alaskans created a surprising place in California history. In 1812, the Russian American Company, a commercial hunting and trading venture chartered by the tsarist government, established Settlement Ross. For 30 years, the fort was a successful agricultural base, sending supplies to Russian settlements in Alaska.

The inhabitants of Settlement Ross initiated a surprising number of important “firsts,” including: first to establish a widely-used commercial trade port in California and first shipbuilders on the West Coast of North America; recorders of some of the first weather statistics in Northern California; among the first to record California’s cultural and natural history; and builders of California’s first windmills. The Russians also had the first vineyard north of San Francisco, and they established the first marine mammal conservation laws in the Pacific.

Finally, there are a surprising number of historical and environmental activities available to park visitors. The Fort Ross Visitors Center Museum is one of the most complete Russian, Alaskan and Kashaya cultural museums north of San Francisco. The structure of most historical interest is the Rotchev House, renovated about 1836 for Alexander Rotchev, the last manager of the fort. Several reconstructed buildings include the first Russian Orthodox chapel south of Alaska, the stockade, the Kuskov House, the officials’ barracks and two corner blockhouses. There are free interpretive presentations, history events and educational programs available, as well as many opportunities for hiking, picnicking, camping, wildlife viewing and relaxing on Sandy Cove beach.

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Photo: Russian Orthodox Chapel Fort Ross State Historic Park, courtesy of California State Parks.