Up here in the Great Land, we are keenly aware of the Russian occupation of Alaska, long before any American presence in the region. We are keenly aware of who Secretary of State William H. Seward negotiated a purchase price with Imperial Russia- how that deal was consummated, and how Alaska became American. We are reminded of this by all of the Russian names, like New Arkhangelsk (now Sitka).
Russia did not, however, stop in Alaska. Russian explorers, in fact, traveled the Pacific coast as far as northern California, where, in their southernmost settlement, they set up an outpost that became known as Fort Ross.
Fort Ross, Russian settlement established on the northern California coast by the Russian-American Company in 1812. The Fort Ross outpost was built about 90 miles (145 km) north of present-day San Francisco and lies about 11 miles (18 km) north of the town of Jenner in Sonoma County. It was one of several Russian forts on the West Coast that allowed the trading company to control the Russian fur trade and Russian colonies—mainly in Alaska and California—in North America.
There's a key difference: The California colony was a commercial, not a government, exercise.
In 1808 the company sent Ivan Kuskov to look for settlement sites in California. In 1811 he found an ideal location on a scenic rocky cliff above some rugged, sandy beaches in northern California. The following March Kuskov returned with 25 Russians and 80 Unangan (Aleut) to start building the settlement. They eventually constructed nine buildings, including watchtowers, barracks, and a Russian Orthodox chapel (in 1825), inside the stockade. Although the fort was protected with between 12 and 40 cannons and had armed sentries in each blockhouse, the settlement served as a commercial, rather than a military, outpost. Kuskov named the settlement Ross, and from 1812 to 1821 he served as the colony’s first manager.
So, what happened to Fort Ross? Why is there no Russian presence in California now, as there are echoes of it here in Alaska? Well, it all comes down to one thing: Fur. There were only about 60 Russians at the fort, along with about 100-150 Natives who sometimes worked as laborers at the fort and came to trade furs. But in the 1830s, the most sought-after furbearers, the sea otters, were growing scarce due to overhunting. The fort had other crops, including fruit trees that still grow in California today, but the Russian American Company's primary purpose was fur, and the fur was running out. In 1841, the Russian American Company sold Fort Ross to the new Mexican government, from whom it would, in time, sell it to a new nation, the United States of America.
That was the end of Russia's brief presence in what is now California. They would maintain their control over Alaska until 1867, but there would be no more Russian colonies along the West Coast.
This is what's fun about history: The "what about" contemplations. What if Russia had expanded down the coast? What if, in addition to Alaska, the tsars had laid claim to parts of the Yukon, British Columbia, and what are now Washington, Oregon, and northern California? What if they had built shipyards and established a military presence? Would they have resisted Mexico, which at that time was a serious military power? Or would they have allied with Mexico to deny the United States the chance to expand from sea to shining sea?
In our timeline, though, what happened, happened, and now Fort Ross is the last vestige of Russian exploration and expansion into North America. And if that doesn't frost Vladimir Putin's vodka bottle, I don't know what else might.