The Story of Sitka / The Historic Outpost of the Northwest Coast; The Chief Factory of the Russian American Company

by Clarence Leroy Andrews

From the rustic bridge on the Indian River there are enticing paths leading along the stream and toward Mt. Verstovia, which towers above the bay to the height of 3,216 feet. Along the river, known as the Kolosh Ryeka, by the Russians, the winding paths are bordered with huge Sitka spruces and giant cedars, with the space thickly filled with a dense growth of shrubbery, among which is prominent the Devil’s Club (panax horridus), with its beautifully palmated leaves and its cruel spines concealed underneath. This shrub was formerly used by the natives as an instrument of torture in their witchcraft. In the depths of the forest the earth is covered with a carpet of ferns and mosses, and the trunks of fallen trees of former years may be seen with other trees of from two to three feet in diameter growing on their prostrate bodies.

Returning toward the town, at the Mission the Davis Road turns toward the north. It was built by the Army during their occupation, in the process of their securing wood from the forest, and named for General Jeff C. Davis, the Commander of the post. Following it the Military Cemetery is reached at the distance of about three-eighths of a mile. Here are some interesting monuments, among them being that of Gouverneur Morris, a descendent of the famous financier of the Revolution. A stone marks the resting place of a lieutenant of the U. S. Army, around whose memory lingers stories of a duel with a brother officer in a solitary spot along Indian River, over a Russian beauty of Sitka.

Turning aside from Lincoln Street at the Mission, or at the street next westward, a walk of a quarter of a mile leads to the experiment farm of the Agricultural Department of the United States. There may be seen many products, including apples and strawberries of an excellent quality. Of the latter is a variety originated by Prof. Georgeson through hybridizing the cultivated berries with the wild native berry which grows luxuriantly at many places in Alaska.

On reaching the Cathedral a street turns northward along which one finds, at the right, on the little knoll in the town, among the scattered spruce trees, the spot where formerly stood the tea houses of the Russians. They were in the center of the public gardens which covered the knoll and were approached by beautifully bordered walks. Farther along, on the left of the walk, is the remaining Russian blockhouse, the last of three which formerly stood on the line of the stockade that protected the town from the Kolosh. A little back of the blockhouse is the grave of the Princess Maksoutoff, marked with a marble slab lying on the raised mound above her resting place. At the end of the walk is the modern Russian cemetery, with its forest of Greek crosses, and in the center, at the highest point, is a platform from which is had an excellent view of the harbor, islands, Mt. Edgecumbe, and of the lake and town.

Returning as far as the site of the tea gardens, then going westward toward the water, at the right is an enclosure in which there is a small building marking the site of the Koloshian Church, or the Church of the Resurrection, as it is called in the church records. This was the building occupied by the natives in 1855 when they made an attack upon the town. It was on the line of the stockade which formerly ran from the water front at the end of the “Ranche,” east to the lake, then back to the water at the sawmill. On the line of the stockade were three blockhouses, the church being between the first and second of these. Surrounding the site of the church are a number of graves, and among them are some interesting monuments dating back to the Russian days, for this is the older of the two cemeteries.

Russian Blockhouse.

Going down to the entrance to the native town, or “Ranche,” there is a choice of two streets, one in front of the houses along the water front, the other at the rear. The one at the front is preferable. The houses are built of lumber and in general are constructed by the native workmen, who have been instructed at the mission school, at which there is an excellent manual training department. The great tribal houses of former days have long since disappeared. The older houses were named by the natives much as were the inns of old England; the Gooch-haet, or wolf house; the Tahn-haet, or sea-lion house; the Kahse-haet, or cow house, and others, named for different animals. The Kahse-haet was named from the head of a cow being brought there from a wreck off the coast in which the animal was drowned. Formerly there were many canoes along the water front–as many as 150 at a time being often seen, but now their place is occupied by gas boats–generally built by the owners and the engines installed by them. The loss in the picturesque is partly compensated by the gain in utility, but the native canoe was a wonder of marine architecture, cut from a single log and shaped with fire and adzed into elegant lines. An occasional specimen is sometimes yet to be seen on the beach or carefully covered from the weather in some sheltered and secluded cove.

There were no great house totem poles in front of the houses as there are at Wrangell, Kasaan and elsewhere. There were some mortuary columns near the grave houses which formerly stood on the ridge back of the village, but these have long been covered by the dense undergrowth which sprang up in recent years.