The area was originally settled by the native Tlingit (Kolosh) Indians. Old Sitka was founded in 1799 by Alexandra Baranov, the governor of Russian America. Baranov arrived under the auspices of the Russian-American Company, a “semi-official” colonial trading company chartered by Tsar Paul I. In 1802 a group of Tlingit destroyed the original establishment (an area today called the “Old Harbor”) and massacred most of the Russian inhabitants.

Baranov was forced to levy 10,000 rubles in ransom for the safe return of the surviving settlers. Baranov returned to Sitka in 1804 with a large contingent of Russians and Aleuts aboard the Russian warship Neva. The ship bombarded the natives’ village, forcing the Tlingit’s to retreat into the surrounding forest. Following their victory at the Battle of Sitka the Russians established a permanent settlement in the form of a fort, named “Novo-Arkhangelsk” (or “New Archangel,” a reference to the largest city in the region where Baranov was born). In 1808, with Baranov still governor, Sitka was designated the capital of Russian America.

In 1799, Alexander Baranof built Fort Redoubt St. Archangel Michael six miles north of the present day Sitka (near the ferry terminal). This settlement was destroyed two years later by Tlingit warriors, and in 1804, Baranof returned from Kodiak to re-stake a settlement in the Sitka area. Following the battle at Indian River with the Tlingit, the Russians were able to settle in the former Indian site which is now Sitka, and the Indians evacuated the area until about 1822.

Flying the flags of many nations, explorers and traders followed on the heels of the discoverers, seeking the fur wealth of the sea-otter. The first major development effort, however, was that of Gregor Shelikof, the Russian Merchant Prince. Shelikof organized the Russian American Company and founded the headquarters on Kodiak Island in 1784. Alaska was officially transferred to the United States at Sitka on October 18, 1867. Sitka remained the capital until 1912, when the territorial government was moved to Juneau.

Bishop Innokentii of the Russian Orthodox Church lived in Sitka after 1840. The Russian Bishop’s House has since been restored by the National Park Service. The steady influx of American settlers eventually caused the predominant religious influence to sway from Russian to Western European. The Sitka Lutheran Church, built in 1840, was the first Protestant church on the Pacific Coast. The Russian Orthodox Cathedral of St. Michael was founded in 1848, and St. Peter’s by-the-Sea Episcopal Church was consecrated as “The Cathedral of Alaska” in 1900. A list of all twenty of the buildings and sites in Sitka that appear in the National Register of Historic Places can be found here or here.

Sitka was the site of the ceremony in which the Russian flag was lowered and the United States flag raised after Alaska was purchased by the United States in 1867 after the sea otter pelt trade died out. The flag lowering and raising event is re-enacted in Sitka every October 18 (Alaska Day). After the original ceremony, the entire U.S. government presence in Alaska until the Klondike Gold Rush consisted of a single customs inspector on the island. Sitka would serve as the capital of the Alaska Territory until 1906, when the seat of government was relocated north to Juneau. The state’s first newspaper, The Sitka Times, was published by Barney O. Ragan on September 19, 1868.

While gold mining and fish canning paved the way for the towns initial growth, it wasn’t until World War II, when the Navy constructed an air base on Japonski Island, (with its 30,000 service personnel) that Sitka finally came into its own. Today Sitka encompasses portions of Baranof Island and the smaller Japonski Island (across the Sitka Channel from the town), which is connected to Baranof Island by the O’Connell Bridge.

Japonski Island is home to Sitka Rocky Gutierrez Airport (IATA: SIT, ICAO: PASI), the Sitka branch campus of the University of Alaska Southeast, the Mt. Edgecumbe High School ” a state-run boarding school for rural Alaskans, the Indian Health Service regional hospital SEARHC (Southeast Alaska Regional Healthcare Center), a U.S. Coast Guard air station, and the port and facilities for the USCGC Maple. The Home Rule Charter of the City and Borough of Sitka was adopted on the 2nd of December, 1971 for the region of the Greater Sitka Borough, which was incorporated on the 24th of September, 1963.