Alaska Storyteller Photography

© Robert M. Braley Jr., Photographer

 

Home

United States

Alabama

Alaska

Anchor Point

Anchorage

Alaska Flag

Alaska Natives

Big Lake

Chicken

Chickaloon

Chugiak

Copper Center

Cold Bay

Cooper Landing

Cordova

Cottonwood Creek

Civil War Alaska

Delta Junction

Denali Park

Elmendorf AFB

Eureka

Fairbanks

Girdwood

Glennallen

Hatchers Pass

Healy

Houston

Homer

Hope

Hyder

Kenai

King Cove

Kodiak

Lake Louise

Nenana

Ninilchik

North Pole

Palmer

Palmer Hay Flats

Potter Marsh

Reflections Lake

Rabbit Slough

Richardson Highway

Russian America

Sand Point

Seward

Sitka

Soldotna

Sterling

Talkeetna

Tok

Tok Cut-Off

Trapper Creek

Captian Cook

Southeast

Swan Lake

Valdez

Wasilla

Willow

Yakutat

Alaska Highway

Alaska Highway 1

Alaska Highway 2

Alaska Highway 3

Alaska Highway 4

Alaska Highway 5

Alaska Highway 6

Alaska Highway 7

Alaska Highway 8

Alaska Highway 9

Alaska Highway 10

Alaska Highway 11

Alaska Highway 12

Alaska Highway 13

Historic Mileposts

Historic Mile 0

Historic Mile 2

Historic Mile 21

Historic Mile 35

Historic Mile 47

Historic Mile 49

Historic Mile 52

Historic Mile 73

Historic Mile 90

Historic Mile 101

Historic Mile 143

Historic Mile 148

Historic Mile 175

Historic Mile 191

Historic Mile 234

Historic Mile 300

Historic Mile 375

Historic Mile 392

Historic Mile 422

Historic Mile 456

Historic Mile 496

Historic Mile 514

Historic Mile 588

Historic Mile 627

Historic Mile 635

Historic Mile 649

Historic Mile 650

Historic Mile 710

Historic Mile 721

Historic Mile 733

Historic Mile 797

Historic Mile 836

Historic Mile 804

Historic Mile 905

Historic Mile 906

Historic Mile 890

Historic Mile 915

Historic Mile 941

Historic Mile 1010

Historic Mile 1016

Historic Mile 1067

Historic Mile 1072

Historic Mile 1083

Historic Mile 1093

Historic Mile 1152

Historic Mile 1164

Historic Mile 1188

Historic Mile 1202

Historic Mile 1229

Historic Mile 1221

Historic Mile 1225

Historic Mile 1249

Historic Mile 1254

Historic Mile 1257

Historic Mile 1264

Historic Mile 1306

Historic Mile 1309

Historic Mile 1314

Historic Mile 1332

Historic Mile 1422

Arkansas

Arizona

California

Bakersfield

Fort Crook Museum

George AFB

Klamath AFS

Klamath WWII Radar

Redwood NP

San Francisco

Samohi

Santa Monica

Venice

Whiskeytown

Colorado

Connecticut

Delaware

Florida

Georgia

Hawaii

Pearl Harbor

Kansas

Kentucky

Idaho

Idaho City

Illinois

Indiana

Louisiana

Iowa

Ohio

Oregon

Ashland

Lithia Park

Oregon Coast

Maine

Maryland

Massachusetts

Michigan

Minnesota

Mississippi

Missouri

Montana

Nebraska

Nevada

New Hampshire

New Jersey

New York

New Mexico

Ruidoso

North Carolina

North Dakota

Oklahoma

Pennsylvania

Rhode Island

South Carolina

South Dakota

Tennessee

Texas

Utah

Vermont

Virginia

Washington

Anacorties

Anacortes WA

Centralia WA

Chehalis WA

Elbe WA

Lewis County WA

Mt Rainer

Olympia WA

Steilacoom WA

Tacoma

Washington D.C.

Wisconsin

West Virginia

Wyoming

Canada

British Columbia

100 Mile House

108 Mile House

Chetwynd

Dawson Creek

Dawson Creek VC

Dawson Creek DT

Hope BC

Hudsons Hope

Pouce Coupe BC

Stewart BC

Yukon

Crete

Equator

Israel

Products

Nature

Animals

Flowers

Landscapes

Sunset

Wildflowers

Wildlife

Fish

Birds

Albatrosses

Canada Goose

Comorants

CaracarasFalcons

DucksGeeseSwans

Frigatebirds

Grebes

Loons

Osprey

PartridgesGrouse

Pelicans

redwingedblackbird1

HawksKitesEagles

ShearwatersPetrels

StormPetrels

Bats

Vultures

Mammals

Black Bear

bison

BitternsHeronsEgr

Caribou

Carnivorans

Cetaceans

Dall Sheep

Deer

Moose

Mountain Goat

Seals Sea Lions Walrus

Orca

Pikas Hares Rabbits

Polar Bear

Primates

Raccoons

Rodents

Great blue heron

Shrews

Bears

Beaver

Ungulates

Weasels

Military

C-17

T-6G

T-33

P-51 Mustang

KC-135

HH-60

F-86

F-80

C-47

HC-130N

C-130H

C-130E

C-123J

Alaska National Guard

Alaska Air National Guard

Camp Murray

Alaskanized

Ladd AFB

AKNG Museum

U-Tapao

Pixels

links

About

Policy/Copyright

Contact

Photo Sizes

The Alaska Highway
Dawson Creek, British Columbia to Delta Junction, Alaska
(historical routes, heritage sites, sightseeing, driving tour)
Pioneer Road - Contract Road - Public Road

Alaska Highway Sign
Purchase Stock Image: Click on photo

"Ghosts Of The Trail Of 1942"


Russian America
Russian America (Russian: Русская Америка, Russkaya Amerika) was the name of the Russian colonial possessions in North America from 1733 to 1867. Settlements spanned parts of what are now the US states of California, Alaska, and two ports in Hawaii. Formal incorporation of the possessions by Russia did not take place until the Ukase of 1799 which established a monopoly for the Russian–American Company and also granted the Russian Orthodox Church certain rights in the new possessions. Many of its possessions were abandoned in the 19th century. In 1867 Russia sold its last remaining possessions to the United States for $7.2 million ($1.76 billion in 2015 dollars).

Russian sighting of Alaska


The earliest written accounts indicate that the first Europeans to reach Alaska came from Russia. In 1648 Semyon Dezhnev sailed from the mouth of the Kolyma River through the Arctic Ocean and around the eastern tip of Asia to the Anadyr River. One legend holds that some of his boats were carried off course and reached Alaska. However, no evidence of settlement survives. Dezhnev's discovery was never forwarded to the central government, leaving open the question of whether or not Siberia was connected to North America. In 1725, Tsar Peter the Great called for another expedition.

Russian settlement


1740s to 1800


From 1743 small associations of fur traders began to sail from the shores of the Russian Pacific coast to the Aleutian islands. As the runs from Asiatic Russia to America became longer expeditions (lasting two to four years or more), the crews established hunting and trading posts. By the late 1790s some of these had become permanent settlements. Approximately half of the fur traders were Russians from various European parts of the Russian Empire or from Siberia. The others were indigenous people from Siberia or Siberians with mixed indigenous, European and Asian origins.

1800 to 1867


By 1804, Baranov, now manager of the Russian–American Company, had consolidated the company's hold on fur trade activities in the Americas following his suppression of the local Tlingit clan at the Battle of Sitka. The Russians never fully colonized Alaska. For the most part they clung to the coast and shunned the interior.

Russian settlements in North America


  • Unalaska, Alaska - 1774
  • Three Saints Bay, Alaska - 1784
  • Fort St. George in Kasilof, Alaska - 1786
  • St. Paul, Alaska - 1788
  • Fort St. Nicholas in Kenai, Alaska - 1791
  • Pavlovskaya, Alaska - 1791
  • Fort Saints Constantine and Helen on Nuchek Island, Alaska - 1793
  • Fort on Hinchinbrook Island, Alaska - 1793
  • New Russia near present-day Yakutat, Alaska - 1796
  • Redoubt St. Archangel Michael, Alaska near Sitka - 1799
  • New Archangel, Alaska (now Sitka) - 1804
  • Fort Ross, California - 1812
  • Fort Alexander near Hanalei, Hawaii - 1817
  • Fort Barclay-de-Tolly near Hanalei, Hawaii - 1817
  • Fort (New) Alexandrovsk at Bristol Bay, Alaska - 1819
  • Redoubt St. Michael, Alaska - 1833
  • Nulato, Alaska - 1834
  • Redoubt St. Dionysius in present-day Wrangell, Alaska (now Fort Stikine) - 1834
  • Pokrovskaya Mission, Alaska - 1837
  • Kolmakov Redoubt, Alaska - 1844

Missionary activity


At Three Saints Bay, Shelekov built a school to teach the natives to read and write Russian, and introduced the first resident missionaries and clergymen who spread the Russian Orthodox faith. This faith (with its liturgies and texts, translated into Aleut at a very early stage) had been informally introduced, in the 1740s-1780s. Some fur traders founded local families or symbolically adopted Aleut trade partners as godchildren to gain their loyalty through this special personal bond. The missionaries soon opposed the exploitation of the indigenous populations, and their reports provide evidence of the violence exercised to establish colonial rule in this period.

Sale of Alaska to the United States


By the 1860s, the Russian government was ready to abandon its Russian America colony. Zealous overhunting had severely reduced the fur-bearing animal population, and competition from the British and Americans exacerbated the situation. This, combined with the difficulties of supplying and protecting such a distant colony, reduced interest in the territory. After Russian America was sold to the U.S. in 1867, for $7.2 million (2 cents per acre) (total $123 million in today's terms), all the holdings of the Russian–American Company were liquidated.

Following the transfer, many elders of the local Tlingit tribe maintained that "Castle Hill" comprised the only land that Russia was entitled to sell. Other indigenous groups also argued that they had never given up their land; the Americans encroached on it and took it over. Native land claims were not fully addressed until the latter half of the 20th century, with the signing by Congress and leaders of the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act.

At the height of Russian America, the Russian population had reached 700, compared to 40,000 Aleuts. They and the Creoles, who had been guaranteed the privileges of citizens in the United States, were given the opportunity of becoming citizens within a three-year period, but few decided to exercise that option. General Jefferson C. Davis ordered the Russians out of their homes in Sitka, maintaining that the dwellings were needed for the Americans. The Russians complained of rowdiness of the American troops and assaults. Many Russians returned to Russia, while others migrated to the Pacific Northwest and California.

Wikipedia

Back

The Alaska Highway
Dawson Creek, British Columbia to Delta Junction, Alaska
(historical routes, heritage sites, sightseeing, driving tour)
Pioneer Road - Contract Road - Public Road

NEXT

Website powered by Network Solutions®