Today, it’s a state historic park co-managed by the Fort Ross Conservancy and California State Parks. photo credit: Fort Ross ConservancyThe chapel at Fort Ross. Along the Sonoma Coast sits a place layered with history. Russian settlers, Alaska Native hunters, and the Kashaya Pomo, whose ancestors lived there for thousands of years.
KRCB News recently visited Fort Ross, where history is being retold through many lenses.
Back drove to Fort Ross on a dreary day, but the executive director of the Fort Ross Conservancy, Ian Taylor, was more than happy to describe it on a sunny one.
“You come around a bend and you see just the steeple of the chapel,” Taylor said. “Then you come around the next corner and the fort kind of hits you for the first time, just grandeur reflecting in the sun. No photo you take is going to do it any kind of justice.”
The historic fort is about 12 miles northwest of the mouth of the Russian River. The name “Russian River” is no coincidence. This stretch of coastal Sonoma County is dotted with Russian names and memorabilia, echoes of a time when this part of California was part of a Russian colonial dream.
The fort was founded in 1812 by Russian fur traders. It became the southernmost outpost of the Russian Empire in North America and was a hub of activity until the 1840s…