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WESTPEX® 2012 |
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Stamp Show |
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Show Theme |
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WESTPEX 2012 Show Theme Introduction by George V. Shalimoff Commemorating the 200th Anniversary of Fort Ross, California The Southernmost Russian Settlement in North America Russian expansion late in the eighteenth century led to settlements in Alaska, primarily as bases for hunting expeditions and storing of seal and otter furs. In 1799 Tsar Paul I chartered the Russian American Company to promote trade, explore, and colonize unoccupied lands as a means of expanding the Russian empire. Although headquartered on the island of Sitka in southeast Alaska, (n conditions were too harsh there to sustain a colony and exploration southward for supplies and provisions led to a settlement on what was to be Fort Ross on California's coast 100 miles north of present day San Francisco. Russian American Company leader Gregory Ivanovich Shelikhov sent his assistant Alexander Andreyevich Baranov to administer affairs in Alaska and to promote the southward expansion. Imperial Chamberlain Nikolai Petrovich Rezanov sailed to meet the Spaniards in what is now San Francisco to trade furs and Russian-made utensils and tools for wheat for the Alaskan outpost. He urged Russian expansion into the "one unoccupied stretch" of California as an agricultural and hunting base. In 1812 a redwood stockade with several houses, blockhouses, armory, and bathhouse were completed on September 10, the name day of Tsar Alexander I. Named Fort Ross, it became a settlement for 25-100 Russians and 50-125 Alaskan Indians. Native Kashaya Pomo and Coast Miwok Indians provided added day labor for the settlement. A chapel was built in 1825 and is still a highlight of the area, which is now a California Historic State Park. The chapel was never consecrated as a church with a permanently assigned clergyman. However, Father Ioann Veniaminov spent five weeks there preaching and conducting weddings, confessions, communion services, and baptisms. Later Bishop of Alaska and Metropolitan of Moscow, he was canonized Saint Innokenty of Alaska in 1980. The growing influx of Americans and settlers, encouraged by the Mexican Government, along with a falloff in the sea otter fur trade led the Russians to abandon the settlement in 1842. The property and its assets were sold to Californian John Sutter, another famous name in California history. The Russian players in this bit of California-Russian history, Baranov, Shelikhov, Rezanov, and Veniaminov, are pictured on the two WESTPEX 2012 non-postal souvenir sheets. The English and Russian versions commemorate the 200th anniversary of this Russian settlement in our country. For more information about this history of Russians in California, including a sad ending romance, see the blog by Bill Dwyer, who suggested this theme and designed the souvenir sheets, at: http://aerophilatelist.com/?p=200. Latest chapter is always at http://aerophilatelist.com/
The Fort Ross California State Historic Park is strongly supported by the Fort Ross Interpretive Association and the Russian community. Extensive events and celebrations are planned for this 200th anniversary throughout the greater San Francisco Bay Area. Details of these plans, places, and events may be found on their excellent web site http://www.fortrossinterpretive.org/. WESTPEX proudly joins the many sponsors, partners, and volunteer supporters in this celebration of a California historic event. |
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