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In 1799, the Russian explorer Alexander Baranof founded New Archangel next to the Tlingit village of Sitka. This was the beginning of permanent Russian settlement in North America. But New Archangel was destroyed three years later by the Tlingit Indians in an attempt to reclaim their ancestral home.
Their brief victory ended in 1804, when Baranof returned with warships and retook Sitka in the Battle of Alaska. Sitka was now the capital of Russian America. In 1867, the Imperial Russian flag was replaced by the Stars and Stripes when the United States purchased Alaska.
With the discovery of gold, and the rapid population growth that followed, Alaska’s capital moved north to Juneau in 1906. Today, picturesque Sitka, sitting opposite snow-capped Mount Edgecumbe, is known for its fishing, its annual summer classical music festival and, of course, its many historic visitor attractions.
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