Day 8: Northern California

For much of this day, it was windy. Often, when I stopped to take photos, I could only be out in the wind for short periods of time. Sometimes it gusted so hard I nearly fell over, but the wind didn't detract from the coastal beauty.

I stumbled upon Fort Ross, which was established by the Russian - American Company, a commercial hunting and trading company chartered by the tsarist government. Trade was vital to Russian outposts in Alaska, where long winters exhausted supplies and the settlements could not grow enough food to support themselves. Baranov directed his chief deputy, Ivan Alexandrovich Kuskov, to establish a colony in California as a food source for Alaska and to hunt profitable sea otters. After several reconnaissance missions, Kuskov arrived at Ross in March of 1812 with a party of 25 Russians, many of them craftsmen, and 80 native Alaskans from Kodiak and the Aleutian Islands. After negotiating with the Kashaya Pomo people who inhabited the area, Kuskov began construction of the fort. The carpenters who accompanied Kuskov to Settlement Ross, along with their native Alaskan helpers, had worked on forts in Alaska, and the construction here followed models of the traditional stockade, blockhouses and log buildings found in Siberia and Alaska. I loved Fort Ross for it has the ability to make you feel like you've been placed back in time to see life as it was so long ago. (Note the cemetery at Fort Ross--click on photos to enlarge)

http://www.northcoastca.com/