Somehow we picked the right weekend to come here. As I had said before the weather was great and on top of that the park is only half full if that much. They had said that the weekends on either side of this one were already fully booked.
This morning was fantastic clear blue skies with little or no wind. Again we enjoyed the morning taking care of a few thing we wanted to get done and then the girls made their lunch and we made a run back to Spud Point Crab Co. for some more chowder.
Today was Fort Ross State Historic Park which is about 11 miles north of Jenner, CA. We had been there years ago and it consisted of the old Russian church with the rest being ruins or just foundations. Not much to see. Highway 1 that used to run through the middle of what once was the fort has been rerouted and much of the fort has been restored. The entrance is through a very nice visitors center that has a small museum and a room showing a video of the history of the fort.
We arrived in time for the 2 pm tour which consisted of a lecture and then a tour of the warehouse building. Fort Ross was established by the Russians to support their fur trading and to supply colonies in Alaska with supplies. Agriculture didn't work out as planned and the number of fur animals declined with intense hunting so the colony was failing to make a profit. At the same time the Russians made a deal with the Hudson Bay Company to supply the Alaska colonies which ended the need for the Fort Ross Colony.
The history continues with the subsequent inhabitants which was also very interesting and learning many thing we weren't aware of.
The first building was offices and the armory, the far on is the Russian Orthodox church.
In the warehouse with supplies that it would have contained at the time. Note the Russian printing on the barrels. There were some Russians in the tour group that read the labels. One that our guide didn't know they said was rock sugar. They also described making concentrated tea and then diluting it with hot water when ready to drink it.
This one was translated to rock sugar.
This was the fur storage room in the warehouse. In addition to sea mammals such sea otter and seals, there were pelts from fox, coyote, bear, sheep and other animals in the area.
To the right is the fur press which compressed the furs to be bound in sealskin bundles for shipment. The sealskin bundle was waterproof and contained a variety of furs. By mixing the type of furs in each bundle the insured against losing all of one type of fur if a bundle was lost in shipment.
The building in this picture was for the single soldiers and officers.
View back to the offices/armory and the church.
This is the cove where the ships would come into a wharf. There was also a slide/chute to load timbers onto the ships.
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