Sentinel of a Divided Town

Blockhouses symbolized Russia's role in Alaska's history and marked the limits of its control at Novo-Archangelsk, present-day Sitka. These watchtowers, each housing cannons, sheltered Russian sentries from wind and rain as they guarded the settlement. A capital D-shaped five-sided blockhouse on this site faced up Sitka Channel and overlooked the gate between the Russian outpost and the adjacent Tlingit village. An octagonal blockhouse stood within sight of the crest of the hill, and a small square blockhouse stood at the far eastern end of the wall by the stream flowing out of Swan Lake. Maps indicate that the small square blockhouse was removed soon after the 1867 transfer of Alaska from Russia to America. The D-shaped blockhouse, badly rotted, was dismantled in 1899, and the octagonal one was dismantled in 1921. In 1926 civic-minded citizens, including the Alaska Native Brotherhood, raised funds and built an octagonal reproduction blockhouse at Sitka National Monument. After that structure decayed, a second octagonal reproduction was built at this site in 1962.

Sitka, Alaska · United States