Three Saints Bay, Alaska

Three Saints Bay on Kodiak Island contains Three Saints Harbor, where Grigory Shelikhov founded the first Russian settlement in Alaska in 1784 as a permanent colonial base. Named through Shelikhov’s ship Three Saints, the site was constrained by steep terrain, limited building space, and damage from subsidence and a probable tsunami after the 1788 earthquake. By 1791 the main Russian center was being moved to Pavlovskaya Gavan, now Kodiak, and the transfer was completed in 1792. The bay remained a smaller station afterward. Built over an older Native settlement dating to about 100 BCE, the site marks the beginning of Russian colonial settlement in Alaska.

Old Harbor, Alaska · United States