The town's founding story is older and harder than the postcard. Baranov planted Fort Saint Michael six miles north in 1799, in a homeland the Tlingit had held for ten thousand years; the Kiks.ádi destroyed it in 1802, and when the Russians returned in October 1804 with the warship Neva, the Kiks.ádi under K'alyaán defended their fort at the river mouth until their reserve gunpowder was lost — then withdrew in good order across the island. The Russians built New Archangel on the emptied ground. The park at the battle site tells that story today, with K'alyaán's totem standing in the rainforest where he fought — and it is worth saying plainly that when Russia later sold Alaska, Tlingit elders noted the land had never been Russia's to sell beyond its small settlements, a question the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act finally began to address in 1971.
No road reaches Sitka — the town of about 8,400 on Baranof Island is accessible only by air or by sea, beneath the 3,201-foot dormant volcano Mount Edgecumbe.
Why People Visit Sitka Alaska
- Visit St. Michael's Cathedral, the 1848 Russian Orthodox cathedral with its iconic green onion-dome and bell tower, the first Russian Orthodox cathedral in North America (the original burned in 1966 and was rebuilt to the original exterior appearance with rescued icons).
- Climb Baranof Castle Hill, the bluff where the formal Alaska Transfer Ceremony took place on October 18, 1867 — the day the Russian flag came down and the American flag went up. Alaska Day is celebrated here every October 18.
- Walk Sitka National Historical Park, the oldest federally designated park in Alaska (established 1910), with totem-pole trails through old-growth coastal rainforest along the Indian River — and the site of the 1804 battle, where a totem honors the Kiks.ádi leader K'alyaán.
- Tour the Russian Bishop's House, the 1842 home of Bishop Innocent — the oldest intact Russian-built building in Sitka and a National Historic Landmark.
- Visit the Sheldon Jackson Museum, the 1895 octagonal concrete building that is the oldest museum in Alaska, holding collections of Alaska Native art and material culture.
- Stop at the Alaska Native Brotherhood Hall on Katlian Street, built in 1914 — headquarters of the civil-rights organization founded in Sitka in 1912.
- See Mount Edgecumbe, the 3,201-foot dormant stratovolcano on Kruzof Island that frames every view of Sitka Sound.
- Visit the Alaska Raptor Center, the nonprofit rehabilitation facility for injured eagles, hawks, and owls along the Indian River.
- See Fortress of the Bear, the nonprofit rescue and rehabilitation center for orphaned brown and black bear cubs.
- Drive across the O'Connell Bridge, the 1972 span that was the first cable-stayed bridge built in the United States, connecting Sitka to Japonski Island and the airport.
- Attend Sitka WhaleFest the first week of November during the humpback whale migration through Sitka Sound — the festival has been running annually since 1995.
