TWHP


Fort Ross, The Settlement   

Founded in 1812 by Ivan Kuskov, 25 Russians and 80 Alaskan Eskimos, Fort Ross was created to reap the sea otter's fur for the Russian American Company. Situated on the Sonoma coastline, Fort Ross's Eskimos paddled the ocean in kayaks hunting the sea-going mammals while their Russian colleagues planted crops and set up workshops to supply the little colony's needs. Several small ships were built in a nearby cove, serving as sea-going fur depots for the wide-ranging ocean hunters.

General Vallejo was sent from San Francisco to Sonoma to establish a town in order to discourage the Russians from further incursions south, but they needn't have worried. By 1841 the Russians had sold the settlement to John Sutter; they'd almost exterminated the otter, and withdrew. Sutter never did much with his holdings--the Sacramento Valley kept him busy--and after the Gold Rush he was fighting for survival.

The old fort fell into disuse and decay until it was saved from ultimate destruction in the early 1900s and turned into one of California's first state parks.


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