Sitka

Today I arrived in Sitka, a town located in SE Alaska, on the Alaskan panhandle.

For years I have wanted to visit Sitka, formerly Novo Arkhangel'sk (New Archangel), as the town appeared heavily in my dissertation.  By the 1840s this capital of Russian America had a population of 2,000 people: a combination of Russian subjects (Russians, Finns), Creoles, Tlingit, and Aleuts. 

Today Sitka is a vibrant community of 8,600 with a compact downtown area and quite walkable.  (Think of a cross between Mackinac Island and Seattle...mild climate, but very wet.)  The city is on an Baranof Island, completely isolated, with roads that only run about seven miles from downtown north and south before ending.  The houses and buildings are nestled between the Pacific Ocean to the west, and mountains and rainforest to the east.