Three Saints Bay

Three Saints Bay, sometimes referred to as Three Saints Harbor, is a long, thin inlet on the southeast side of Kodiak Island in Alaska. In the late 1700s, it was the site of the first substantial Russian settlement in North America. The area was not particularly suitable for settlement due to its terrain and available resources. After it was destroyed by the effects of an earthquake and resulting tsunami, the settlement was rebuilt closer to present-day Kodiak. The Russians later lost interest in maintaining a presence in the area and sold all of Alaska to the United States, including the Three Saints Bay area. However, the site maintains historical significance as the first Russian settlement in the Americas.

Background

Russia first began seriously exploring northwestern portions of North America in the early 1700s. The area was rich in natural resources but had a relatively small population of Indigenous people, and other European nations had little interest in the area. All of this made it very attractive to the Russian czar Peter the Great. He sent Danish-born Russian naval officer and cartographer Vitus Bering to explore the area in 1725. It was Bering who first sighted the Alaskan mainland in 1741.

Russian hunters began making regular trips to the area. This had a harmful effect on the Indigenous people, who had no immunity to the diseases carried by the Russians. Hunting parties continued to visit the area for more than forty years without establishing any permanent settlements there.

This changed in August 1787. Russian merchant and trader Grigory Ivanovich Shelikhov arrived in the area with a small fleet of ships. They named the bay where they dropped anchor after the fleet’s flagship, the Three Saints. The ship itself was named after the Three Holy Hierarchs, or three influential bishops, of Eastern Orthodox Christianity. The Three Holy Hierarchs are Saint Basil the Great, Saint Gregory the Theologian, and Saint John Chrysostom. The native population called Three Saints Bay Liakik, which is thought to be a variation of their word for the black-footed goose.

The area had been for centuries the home of native Alutiit people who lived in a settlement about a mile inland from where the Russians planned their settlement. Their primary food sources were marine mammals they hunted from skin-covered boats, fish, and other foods they gathered. (They referred to themselves as the Sugpiaq, which means “real person.” “Alutiit” is their pronunciation of the Siberian Russian word Aluet, which means “coastal dweller.” The Russians used that name for the native people when they first encountered them. “Alutiiq” is a noun used to refer to one Alutiit person or their language.)

Shelikhov ordered the construction of a fort in the area. He also initiated strong efforts to force the native population to yield to the Russians. Some Russians, who had far superior weaponry, attacked and massacred large numbers of Alutiit people living nearby and took hundreds of others hostage to discourage any attempts to resist.

Shelikhov, his wife, and about two hundred men lived in the new settlement, using it as a base to explore farther inland. They established fur-trading posts as well. Shelikhov left Three Saints Bay in 1786, leaving it under the authority of some of his men. Two years later, an earthquake triggered a tsunami that destroyed the settlement. Those who remained rebuilt it.

The settlement included five house structures that housed fifty Russian men and their wives, barracks for the hostages, several craftsman’s buildings such as a cooperage and carpenter’s shop, and a school. The settlers had several animals for food and milk, and were growing potatoes and cabbage. The members of the settlement coerced Indigenous people to work for them harvesting otter pelts and performing other tasks.

In 1790, Shelikhov hired fellow trader and merchant Alexander Baranov to manage the Three Saints Bay settlement. When he arrived, Baranov identified several problems, including earthquake-related subsidence concerns, a lack of space to expand, and a lack of timber suitable for construction. He decided almost immediately to move the settlement about sixty miles (about 96.5 kilometers) away to what became the city of Kodiak. By 1793, Three Saints Bay was mostly used as a trading post.

Overview

Three Saints Bay is a nearly 9-mile (14.5-kilometer) inlet on the southeast side of Kodiak Island in southern Alaska. At the closest point to shore, the inlet ends in a deep harbor of about 66 feet (22 meters), creating a safe harbor for ships setting anchor. It is one of numerous deep bays along the coastline of Kodiak Island, and is flanked by Kaiugnak Bay and Sitkalidak Strait on either side.

While the area was suitable for the way of life of the Alutiiq, it was less suitable for the type of ambitious settlement the Russians had in mind. Kodiak Island includes some steep mountains, some of which reached down to the edge of the settlement land. While parts of the island have plentiful forest land, the area near the settlement was sparsely wooded. There was neither sufficient space nor easy access to wood for building. The area had also suffered significant subsidence during the earthquake, all of which made it a poor site for a larger settlement.

The Bay remained mostly abandoned by the Russians after the 1790s. It became known as Staruvigan, or Old Harbor, and Indigenous people continued to live there. However, Three Saints Bay is still recognized as significant because it was the first European settlement in the area. It led to additional Russian exploration and expansion, which in turn made the land of interest to the United States when the Russians wanted to sell it in 1867. After America acquired the land, the discovery of gold in 1898 led to a population boom in Alaska and a realization of the many natural resources available there.

The archaeological site at Three Saints Bay was named a National Historic Landmark in 1978 in recognition of the settlement’s contribution to American history.

Bibliography

“About Us.” Three Saints Bay LLC, threesaintsbay.com/about-us/. Accessed 23 Jan. 2025.

Clark, Donald W. “Archaeological Test at the Russian Three Saints Bay Colony, Alaska.” Historical Archaeology, 1985, www.jstor.org/stable/25615550. Accessed 23 Jan. 2025.

“Purchase of Alaska.” Office of the Historian, US Department of State, history.state.gov/milestones/1866-1898/alaska-purchase. Accessed 23 Jan. 2025.

“Russian Colonization.” Library of Congress, www.loc.gov/collections/meeting-of-frontiers/articles-and-essays/alaska/russian-colonization/. Accessed 23 Jan. 2025.

Russians Settle Alaska.” History, www.history.com/this-day-in-history/russians-settle-alaska. Accessed 23 Jan. 2025.

“Three Saints Bay—Sun’alleq.” Alutiiq Museum and Archeological Repository, alutiiqmuseum.org/collection/index.php/Detail/word/505. Accessed 23 Jan. 2025.

“Three Saints Bay Site National Historic Landmark.” National Park Service, www.nps.gov/places/three-saints-bay-site.htm. Accessed 23 Jan. 2025.

“Three Saints Harbor, Kodiak Island.” Coast View, 21 Sept. 2024, coastview.org/2024/09/21/three-saints-bay-kodiak-island/. Accessed 23 Jan. 2025.