Sitka

Sitka stands in the homeland of the Sheet'ká Kwáan, the Tlingit people of Baranof Island's outer coast, who fished, traded and built clan houses here long before Europeans arrived. In 1799 Alexander Baranov of the Russian-American Company built a fort a few miles north of the present town; Tlingit warriors destroyed it in 1802. Baranov returned with warships in 1804, and after the Battle of Sitka the Tlingit withdrew from their fort near the Indian River. The Russians built New Archangel on and around Castle Hill, and from 1808 it was the capital of Russian America.

For decades New Archangel was a busy port on the Pacific coast of North America and a base for the fur trade, and from 1848 the seat of the Orthodox cathedral of St Michael. On 18 October 1867 the Russian flag was lowered on Castle Hill and Alaska passed to the United States. Sitka remained the seat of government until 1906, when the capital moved to Juneau. A Presbyterian mission school opened here in 1878 and later took the name of the missionary Sheldon Jackson, and in 1912 the Alaska Native Brotherhood, which campaigned for Native civil rights, was founded in Sitka.

In 1937 the Navy established the first seaplane base in Alaska on Japonski Island, which became a large military installation during the Second World War; in 1947 part of it became the Mount Edgecumbe boarding school for rural Alaska Native students. A pulp mill opened in 1959 and closed in 1993, and since then fishing, health care, education and tourism have carried the town's economy.

Sitka's identity is layered. Tlingit culture is the oldest and most visible, in the totem poles of the historical park, the Sheet'ká Kwáan Naa Kahídi community house, and dances, carving and the harvest of herring eggs on hemlock branches each spring. Russian heritage survives in the cathedral, the Bishop's House and the Orthodox congregation.

The American period added the Lutheran and Presbyterian churches, the Pioneer Home for elderly Alaskans on the site of old Russian-built barracks and a strong tradition of education. Every October the Alaska Day Festival re-enacts the 1867 transfer, with a parade through town, and each June the Sitka Summer Music Festival fills Harrigan Centennial Hall with chamber music.

The town also has an unusually strong scientific and artistic community for its size, with marine researchers, writers and craftspeople drawn by the setting. Residents are used to rain, small boats and visitors, and conversation often turns to the fishing season, the weather and the wildlife in the sound.

About 8,500 people live in the City and Borough of Sitka, a municipality that covers a huge area of mountains, forest and islands, though almost everyone lives along the few miles of road around the town. It is the fifth-most populous city in Alaska and, by total area, the largest city in the United States.

Commercial fishing is the backbone: Sitka is one of the most valuable fishing ports in Alaska, landing salmon, halibut, black cod and herring, and processing plants run hard in summer. The regional Native health consortium's hospital, schools, the Coast Guard air station and tourism are the other large employers. Many residents combine jobs, fishing in summer and working on land in winter.

Daily life follows the boats and the seasons: harbours busy before dawn in summer, long dark evenings in winter, and weekends spent hiking, hunting deer or fishing for the freezer. Current issues include the cost of housing, the number of cruise passengers the town wants to receive, and the pressures of climate change and ocean warming on the fisheries.

Sitka eats from the sea. King, coho and sockeye salmon, halibut and black cod, also called sablefish, are caught by the town's fleet and appear on menus as grilled fillets, chowder, fish tacos and fish and chips. Dungeness crab and spot prawns, large sweet shrimp caught in traps, are seasonal treats, and smoked salmon is a staple in many homes.

Tlingit food traditions remain strong. Herring eggs gathered on hemlock branches each spring are eaten fresh or dried, salmon is smoked and dried in strips, and seaweed, berries and Sitka black-tailed deer are harvested through the year. Wild blueberries, salmonberries and huckleberries are picked in late summer and turned into jams and pies.

Because most other food arrives by barge or plane, home cooking leans on the freezer and on what can be caught or picked, and community potlucks and church dinners are common. The cafés, bakeries and restaurants downtown serve coffee to fishermen early in the morning and seafood to visitors through the summer.