Showing 1-18 of 18 results
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Alaska Pioneers Home
Across Katlian St from the square is the prominent, yellow Alaska Pioneers Home. Built in 1934 on the old Russian Parade Ground, the home is for elderly Alaskans. The 13ft-tall bronze prospector statue in front of the state home is modeled on longtime Alaska resident William 'Skagway Bill' Fonda.
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Alaska Raptor Center
For an eye-to-eye encounter with an eagle, head to the Alaska Raptor Center, reached by turning right on the first gravel road after crossing Indian River. In 2003 the 17-acre center unveiled its 20,000-sq-ft flight-training center designed to help injured birds regain their ability to fly. Eagles literary fly past you only 2ft or 3ft away at eye level, so close you can feel the wind from their beating wings. Call the center for weekend hours and tours when cruise ships are in.
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Blockhouse
The Blockhouse is a replica of what the Russians used to protect their stockade from the Indian village.
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Castle Hill
Kiksadi clan houses once covered the hilltop site, but in 1836 the Russians built 'Baranov's Castle' atop the hill to house the governor of Russian America. It was here, on October 18, 1867, that the official transfer of Alaska from Russia to the USA took place. The castle burned down in 1894.
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Chichagof Island's Western Shoreline
Chichagof Island's Western Shoreline is one of Southeast Alaska's best blue-water destinations for experienced kayakers.
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Isabel Miller Museum
Within the Centennial Building is the Isabel Miller Museum, which is one room with a good portion of it a gift shop. The rest is crammed with a collection of relics, a model of the town as it appeared in 1867 and displays on Russian Alaska. Outside between the museum and the library is an impressive handcarved Tlingit canoe, made from a single log.
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Katlian Bay
This 45-mile round-trip from Sitka Harbor to scenic Katlian Bay (on Kruzof Island's north end) and back is one of the area's most popular paddles. The route follows narrow straits and well-protected shorelines in marine traffic channels, making it an ideal trip for less experienced blue-water paddlers who will never be far from help.
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Princess Maksoutoff's Grave
Across Marine St, at the top of Princess St, is Princess Maksoutoff's Grave, marking the spot where the wife of Alaska's last Russian governor is buried. But for a strategically placed chain-link fence, the grave would be in the Russian Cemetery. But a bright and shiny sign proclaims this tiny three-grave site as the Lutheran Cemetery.
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Russian Bishop's House
East of downtown along Lincoln St, the Russian Bishop's House is the oldest intact Russian building in Sitka. Built in 1843 out of Sitka spruce, the two-story log house is one of the few surviving examples of Russian colonial architecture in North America. The National Park Service (NPS) has renovated the building to its condition in 1853, when it served as a school, Bishop's residence and chapel. Tours are on the hour and half-hour until .
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Russian Cemetery
Old headstones and Russian Orthodox crosses can be found in the overgrown and quintessentially creepy Russian Cemetery, located at the north end of Observatory St, or just squeak through the gap in the chain-link fence behind the princess' grave), where the drippy verdure seems poised to swallow up the decaying graves, like something out of a Stephen King novel.
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Sheldon Jackson Aquarium
Housed in the Sage Building is the Sheldon Jackson Aquarium, a classroom during the school year but Sitka's top attraction for children during the summer. The aquarium features an 800-gallon 'Wall of Water' filled with sea anemones, rockfish and starfish and three touch tanks where kids can feel the spiny skin of a huge starfish or the coarse shell of an abalone.
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Sheldon Jackson College
East along Lincoln St is the beautiful 17-acre campus of Sheldon Jackson College. James Michener stayed and worked here for much of the three summers he spent in Alaska and in 2003 Outside Magazine listed the college as one of the best for hitting the books and the backcountry.
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Sheldon Jackson Museum
The Sheldon Jackson Museum houses a small but excellent collection of indigenous artifacts gathered from 1888 to 1898 by Dr Sheldon Jackson, a minister and federal education agent in Alaska. Among the artifacts are Alaska Native masks, hunting tools and baskets, and a collection of boats and sleds used in Alaska - from reindeer sleds and dogsleds to kayaks and umiaks.
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Shelikof Bay
You can combine a 10-mile paddle to Kruzof Island with a 6-mile hike across the island from Mud Bay to Shelikof Bay along an old logging road and trail. Once on the Pacific Ocean side, you'll find a beautiful sandy beach for beachcombing and the USFS Shelikof Cabin.
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Sitka National Historical Park
To the east Lincoln St ends at the 107-acre Sitka National Historical Park at the mouth of Indian River. The park preserves the site where the Tlingits were finally defeated by the Russians in 1804 after defending their wooden fort for a week.
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St Michael's Cathedral
Two blocks west of the Centennial Building is the St Michael's Cathedral. Built between 1844 and 1848, the church stood for over 100 years as Alaska's finest Russian Orthodox cathedral. When fire destroyed it in 1966 along with much of downtown Sitka, the church was the oldest religious structure from the Russian era in Alaska. Luckily the priceless treasures and icons inside were saved by Sitka's residents, who immediately built a replica of their beloved church.
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Totem Square
Russian cannons and a totem pole can be seen in Totem Square.
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Whale Park
If you don't have funds for a wildlife cruise, try Whale Park, 4 miles south of town, which has a boardwalk and spotting scopes overlooking the ocean for whale watching. Fall is the best time to sight cetaceans; as many as 80 whales - mostly humpbacks - have been known to gather in the waters off Sitka from mid-September to the end of the year. If you don't mind cold, rainy weather, the Sitka's is the first week of November.
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Showing 1-18 of 18 results
