Russia maintained an outpost called Fort Ross in northern California, about 91 miles north of San Francisco, from 1812 to 1842. According to Wikipedia, on March 15, 1812, “Ivan Kuskov with 25 Russians and 80 Native Alaskans arrive[d] at Port Rumiantsev and proceed[ed] north to establish Fortress Ross.”

Spain still held most of California at the time, and they weren’t too thrilled to have Russians that close by. They built the Mission San Francisco de Solano near Sonoma in 1823 to keep an eye on them. Later on, after Mexican independence, Mexico built El Presidio de Sonoma in the area in 1836 for the same reason.

The fort provided agricultural products for Russia’s Alaskan colony, including crops and furs, but it ceased to be viable in the 1840’s when the Alaskan colony started obtaining goods elsewhere. The Russians sold it to a guy for $30,000, although Russian historians claim he never paid for it, and that the land is still titled to Russia. I’m sure they’ll be claiming on that any day now.

This is one of those things we never learned about in school, so I just thought you should know.

Russia also established a fort on the island of Kauai, Hawaii in 1817. They turned it over to the Hawaiians later the same year, though.

Photo credit: ‘The chapel in Fort Ross (reconstructed), California, USA’ by Introvert [CC BY-SA 2.5], via Wikimedia Commons.